Discusses the design and impact of Kentucky's statewide writing portfolio assessment. Describes how it was designed to influence writing instruction in Kentucky in positive ways. Evaluates its impact, noting progress toward overall goals, struggles with understanding "authentic audience," and the amazing staying power of the…

Notes how one middle school implemented portfolio assessment to improve the quality of education. Discusses the cooperative planning that responded to issues of improving assessment, demonstrating a commitment to writing across the curriculum, linking disciplines, providing continuity from existing methods, and establishing standards. (JPB)

Six strategies for assessing young students' writing and tracking their progress include conducting a survey regarding students' thoughts on writing, focusing anecdotal notes on students' writing, meeting for quick conferences, fixing students' work to celebrate growth, sharing rubrics with students, and keeping notebooks and portfolios. (SM)

Pasadena (California) High School's Puente Pilot Project encourages Hispanic students to pursue college and return home as leaders and mentors. A bilingual counselor, community liaison, and English teacher engage students in an integrated curriculum relevant to their life experiences. Portfolio exhibitions involving oral presentation and…

Provides guidelines for implementing portfolios in the social studies classroom that focus on the Vietnam era and incorporate Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences. Outlines the portfolio project, lists eleven portfolio components, and addresses the intelligence of each. (CMK)

Examines the response of one high school to three of the explicit aims of the Kentucky writing portfolio assessment. Suggests limitations to the presumed validity of the assessment by revealing some of the intended and unintended consequences of the state's attempt to use the assessment to shape school writing programs, to encourage classroom…

This article presents authentic assessment and instruction strategies that can be interwoven to ensure that students receive learning opportunities that allow them to seek solutions in a manner most consistent with their specific background knowledge and learning styles. Two examples from a fifth-grade classroom are presented. (Contains…

A team of teacher educators, preservice teachers, and host teachers collaborated to develop and pilot a performance-based assessment model involving multimedia portfolios for evaluating student teachers' and P-12 students' learning. Analysis of this model's effectiveness indicated that the process approach helped document preservice program…

Presents conversations with parents, teachers, and children around portfolios that provide a better picture of a child's growth and understanding than standardized test scores ever can. Concludes that the involvement of students, teachers, and parents in conversation about children's literacy development brings the potential of a common vision and…

Discussion of student assessment focuses on issues related to distance education. Topics include purposes of assessment; performance-based assessment; constructivist approaches; examples of alternative assessments, including portfolios, projects, and problem-based learning activities; implementation; and distance education as a catalyst for…

Explains that a portfolio is a collection of student work that reflects the course content and is assembled by the student in a folder or binder over a specified period of time. Discusses how to use portfolios, the benefits of using portfolios as assessment tools, and potential concerns teachers need to address. (CMK)

The following is adapted from chapter 2 of "Assessing Expressive Learning: A Practical Guide for Teacher-Directed Authentic Assessment in K-12 Visual Art Education" by Charles Dorn, Stanley Madeja, and Robert Sabol. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ 2003. (Appendices referred to in the following article can be found in the book…

A novel Web-based Accountability Model (WAM) for assessment and learning in a Teacher Education Program was implemented. The objective is to explain the rationale for the WAM model, how it was implemented as the web-based Education Accountability System (EAS), and the impacts on the organization and the individual. Standards were followed in the…

The portfolio, a collection of a student's work over their course of study, has become a popular tool for college teaching. Portfolios have the distinct advantage of engaging the learner in reflection (Reis & Villaume, 2002; Willis & Davies, 2002) and self-assessment (Hill, 2002), while at the same time creating documentation useful for…

This article reports findings from an action research project investigating the impact creating writing portfolios has on preservice teachers' understanding of writing portfolio assessment. Participants included 92 preservice teachers enrolled across four different sections of an introductory literacy class. Data sources included: preservice…