Describes the use of portfolios to assess very young children and communicate with parents at the Maryland School for the Deaf. Describes portfolio components (observational records, checklists, samples of student work, and a video documenting the child's behavior and skills). Includes tips for incorporating portfolios into the classroom and…

Examines the use of teaching portfolios in preservice teacher education programs, analyzing the various ways in which portfolios have been conceptualized and implemented. The paper proposes a conceptual framework to enable researchers to describe the conditions of portfolio use and discusses key issues that have emerged in the use of teaching…

Developed and calibrated health-related fitness portfolios for elementary students using the Rasch model, examining advantages and disadvantages. Physical educators graded the portfolios. Rating scores were analyzed using the Rasch model. Results indicate that using Rasch calibration, measurement problems related to conventional practice can be…

Discusses several new assessment strategies that encourage meaningful learning and conceptual understanding in biological science. Introduces evaluation and measurement techniques that help students assimilate well-integrated, strongly cohesive frameworks of interrelated concepts as a way of facilitating 'real understanding' of natural phenomena.…

Discusses the use of portfolios to evaluate student work, evaluates a Web-based learning portfolio, analyzes its impact on students' learning processes, reports on the validity and reliability of the questionnaire used in the evaluation study, proposes suggestions for revisions, and recommends future research. (LRW)

This article addresses the choice of the most appropriate procedure for the assessment of portfolios used in teacher and lecturer assessment. A characteristic of modern assessment modes, including portfolios, is that the information they provide is often qualitative and derived from different contexts. Unambiguous, objective rating of portfolios…

Among the criticisms often made of high-stakes assessments in the United States is that they promote "teaching to the test." There is little question that, under pressure to produce higher test scores, schools tend to implement more standardized curriculums that are geared toward preparing students to perform well on year-end tests.…

In this article, a general elementary music teacher describes the steps involved in becoming a national board certified teacher. The author describes the steps there are to becoming certified including registering with the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). She mentions the scholarship or loan programs available to help…

Student portfolios are an alternative authentic assessment method that invites active student learning and provides an opportunity for instructors to tailor assessment strategies based on student-learning outcomes.

Sometimes a radical shift in assessment procedures may uncover a whole new set of objectives that neither the students nor the instructor expected. Such an experience is described in the context of freshman mathematics. (Contains 1 table.)

This study investigates the effect of method of assessment on student performance. Five research conditions go together with one of four assessment modes, namely: portfolio, case-based, peer assessment, and multiple choice evaluation. Data collection is done by means of a pre-test/post-test-design with the help of two standardised tests (N=816).…

Nebraska districts use different strategies for measuring student performance on the state's content standards. District assessments differ in type and technical quality. Six quality criteria were endorsed by the state. These criteria cover content and curricular validity, fairness, and appropriateness of score interpretations. District assessment…

This paper reviews the concept of high-stakes assessment against a background of postmodernism, and argues that the inaccessibility of cognitive processes is only one part of the problem of reading assessment: even greater challenges are posed by a postmodern analysis, in which an incredulity toward metanarratives leads to a series of six…

Two teacher institutions in Norway involved in a new ICT-supported portfolio project provide data for our study. In this paper we present a model of analysis for portfolio processes based on sociocultural perspectives of learning and assessment and describe and discuss differences and similarities of the portfolio models in these institutions in…

With the pre-service student portfolio process and product well in hand in a paper-based format, in the Bachelor of Education (Primary) (B.Ed. Primary) at University of Western Sydney (UWS), new horizons have presented themselves. These new possibilities are facilitated but not driven by developments in Information and Communication Technology…