This report describes research on the portfolio process that the Oceanside (California) Unified School District uses to identify and plan instruction for students in the Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) program. The report is based on interviews conducted with educators in two elementary schools that participated in the GATE curriculum,…

Use of portfolios as a tool for English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) teacher development and evaluation, using principles and practices borrowed from portfolio use to assess learner progress, is advocated. The origins of portfolios in art and other professions and their adaptation for teaching are outlined. The structure of such a portfolio is then…

Results from the component tests of the New Mexico Statewide Articulated Assessment System, an elementary-level assessment, are presented. The New Mexico Achievement Assessment, uses the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills to assess the achievement of students in grades 3, 5 and 8. Score increases were seen for students in grade 3 in mathematics, in grade…

To look at the issue of institutional constraints that could be affecting the implementation of portfolios in teacher education courses, a 10-item survey was distributed over e-mail to subscribers of four listservs. In addition, several surveys were sent to colleagues of the author who were using portfolios but who were not subscribers to…

The writing samples presented in this paper were selected from the portfolios of eighth-grade Vermont students as examples of the various points in Vermont's newly revised analytic writing assessment guide. The benchmark writing pieces in the paper, when used with the analytic assessment guide that begins the paper, are guideposts for assessing…

This paper introduces a theoretical treatment of the concept of intelligence that provides for intellectual diversity and contrasts this view with the more traditional notion of intelligence. Next, the paper draws from this theory several implications for education, paying particular attention to the question of assessment. It is shown why this…

This paper focuses on the use of portfolio assessment in the evaluation of limited-English-proficient (LEP) students. Specific sections address the following: recent developments in performance assessment; observations regarding LEP students and assessment; student portfolios (what they are and how they can be used); what a portfolio should…

A pilot project in portfolio assessment was carried out at Northwest Missouri State University by the English department for the general proficiency assessment which the administration had requested. The portfolio was designed around the central feature of the second semester composition course: the research essay. Besides the research essay, the…

Paulo Freire, bell hooks, and Ira Shor have been criticized as theorists not concerned with the institutional realities of American education (e.g., grades and standardized exams). This paper argues that these teacher-researchers speak to the issues encountered in developing electronic portfolios in high schools and colleges. The imposition of…

In 1998, the Kentucky legislature made adjustments to the assessment and accountability system established by the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990 to create a new system, the Commonwealth Accountability and Testing System (CATS). The Kentucky Core Content Tests (KCCT) are a component of CATS. KCCT assessments are given in grades 4, 5, 7, 8,…

This book offers an approach for using portfolios with elementary level students and shows how the portfolio process can serve as a powerful motivational tool by encouraging students to assess their own work, set goals, and take responsibility for future learning. Throughout the book, there are stories that illuminate the lessons learned by…

Summative evaluation of student achievement in reading emphasizes determining learner progress at the end of a unit of study, end of course, or end of the school year. Generally, state mandated tests stress an end of the school year percentile which is to indicate the present state of learner achievement. This paper discusses and analyzes…

Following a national trend, school board members, administrators, and teachers in Brandon, Vermont, have developed a model for a standards-based evaluation and compensation system for teachers that does not link test scores to teacher pay. The model was developed over a period of 4 years, a necessary amount of time to establish guiding principles,…

Sometimes an assessment program becomes well-established, nationally recognized, "proven" effective, and thus stuck in its routines and reasoning, becoming just another university bureaucracy for the teachers and students who work within it. The pedagogical question was how to keep an assessment program, or writing program for that…

This paper seeks to answer three basic questions related to the use of teaching portfolios in faculty evaluation and development: (1) "What is a teaching portfolio?"; (2) "How can the teaching portfolio be used to document and facilitate teaching?"; and (3) "How can teaching portfolios be assessed?" The teaching portfolio is seen as encouraging…