This booklet is designed to help parents and community members answer questions about assessment in the context of the Vermont Framework of Standards, the Equal Education Opportunity Act of 1997, and other statewide initiatives. Assessment is changing in Vermont in response to new legislative mandates that call for standards-based assessment…

Describes the use of portfolio assessment in preservice teacher education, specifically elementary science methods courses. Presents both theoretical and practical considerations relative to ensuring the highest possible levels of validity. Includes a set of practical validation focus questions and comments from student portfolios. Contains 33…

Describes how a resource specialist and five third graders struggling to read made student self-evaluation a centerpiece of their work together. Describes the improvements achieved as students learned to evaluate their own reading and writing, set their own goals, and plan their own learning. Tells how students confidently presented their…

Discusses three of the authors' experiences as high school seniors serving as peer tutors and assessors for eighth graders' science portfolios in a science class that integrated a series of year-long writing activities using portfolios into an eighth-grade conceptual science class. (SR)

Discusses the validity, reliability, and utility of portfolio assessment. Examines the differences between the application of portfolio assessment in the visual arts and traditional subjects. Although generally supportive of portfolio assessment, maintains that widespread acceptance of educational innovation is often difficult and compromised.…

This article presents an interview with Professor Ralph W. Tyler (a pioneer in the field of education and assessment) that lends some historical perspective to the current alternative assessment movement. After highlighting Tyler's contributions, the article provides six caveats on assessment, then reflects on Tyler's work. (SM)

Describes a pilot project that had faculty from four universities develop portfolios of their professional service activities. Discusses issues and insights emerging from early project experience, including importance of collaboration, realistic estimation of time and effort required for documentation, tension between this innovation and…

Describes the contributions portfolios can make within a discourse community awareness framework through a "disciplinary portfolio" pedagogy. Outlines the case for such a pedagogy and describes a teaching situation in which the disciplinary portfolio has been employed within an English for academic purposes context. (34 references)…

Provides information to parents about tests and assessments used to evaluate their children in school. Performance assessments, such as portfolios, are increasingly used to measure students' ability to do actual tasks. However, standardized aptitude and achievement tests still have a major influence on what students are taught. (SM)

This study evaluated the validity and reliability of performance portfolios in a preservice elementary mathematics/science methods class, assessing students' domain-strategic and general-learning strategic knowledge. Results supported performance portfolios as a valid method of assessing desired abilities of preservice teachers that can be…

This article explains how teachers can use electronic portfolios of students' work to document learner progress. It considers different file formats for storing student work, describes steps to creating an electronic portfolio, and discusses an art and literature electronic magazine created by one school featuring work from student portfolios. (CR)

Connecticut's Beginning Educator Support and Training (BEST) program offers support and assessment for beginning teachers. This paper describes Connecticut's continuum of support, the portfolio assessment process, and the effect of high standards on preservice physical educator preparation, experienced teachers, and K-12 curriculum, instruction,…

Describes several ways to share information with parents about their children's progress in physical education class, noting both traditional and nontraditional reporting methods, discussing standard report cards, and examining newer report cards that are based on stated learning standards and driven by technology. Additional methods of sharing…

Researchers evaluated community social action education programs for at-risk youths using a portfolio and panel review evaluation process. Each program assembled portfolios that an expert panel analyzed for successful program components. Panelists then participated in focus groups. Results detailed 13 features necessary to make such community…

This guide to authentic assessment strategies for teachers of students with and without disabilities explains how to incorporate authentic assessments into everyday practice, including observation techniques, anecdotal records, error analysis, miscue analysis, "think-alouds," self-evaluation questionnaires and interviews, journals and learning…