“How To”: Portfolio Assessment as an Equitable Alternative for Standardized Tests Performances

Portfolio assessment is an alternative to the norm-referenced form of standardized tests that are not serving our student minorities. Consider the over representation of Black individuals in special education programs- 3.5% more than their white counterparts. A portfolio becomes an alternative, then, by being inherently differentiated and scaffolded to promote holistic student achievement, even for disenfranchised groups because of its individuality and collaborative nature. A portfolio is a collection of student work that can exhibit a student's efforts, progress, and achievements in various areas of the curriculum by collecting student-selected samples of work, experiences, and documents related to outcomes being assessed. It can address and support progress toward achieving academic goals, including student efficacy. There are three kinds of portfolios acknowledged by scholarship: Progress, showcase, and working. Progress portfolios show multiple examples of the same kind of work to show growth in a particular area. Showcase portfolios contain the highest quality examples of student performances while working portfolios show varias drafts that lead up to a final project.

One of the major advantages to doing portfolio assessment is that much of the grade is dedicated to each component of the portfolio, meaning the final assessment has less weight than it normally would, allowing students who are not strong writers, speakers, or presenters to still have a feasible chance at success even if the final assessment in question is not their strong suit. Portfolios also ensure students are able to make connections between the assessment and the objectives for a given unit by asking them to reflect on the purpose of the assignment(s) and make conclusions about their comfort with the unit's understanding goals.

Below is a “How to Guide” for implementing and completing portfolio assessments including what it should include, how it should be included, and how what’s included can be evaluated.

What should be included:

Evidence

A portfolio should content multiple components that lead up to a final, culminating performance of understanding. These evidence portions are physical representations of a scaffolded process and should reflect an increased command over the subject material through time. Each component should get gradually more complex and require slightly more critical thinking. The evidence could be pictures, drawings, journal entries, annotated articles, interviews, papers, drafts, etc. that students will receive feedback on in relation to the established criteria.

Reflection

After major assignments in the portfolio (which are considered evidence pieces) students should have an opportunity to reflect on their assignment, the process they used to complete said assignment, their ability to translate feedback into these assignments, and to create goals for the following assignments. This reflection portion is where students are given the opportunity to practice metacognition. This skill will allow students to draw connections between understanding goals, essential questions, and assignments, which could increase engagement and promote higher level critical thinking.

Assessment

Finally, the portfolio should have a major culminating assessment that allows students to utilize all of the SWBAT’s of a given unit. This assessment is only a portion of the overall evaluation but is a meaningful measurement of a student’s understanding of the unit’s specific content. The evidence assignments in the portfolio and the feedback offered by peers and teachers should clearly be building blocks towards the final assessment and reflection opportunities should also be offered for this final piece. Additionally, students should be aware of the final assessment portion at the beginning of the portfolio process and be given the method of evaluation (an equitable, inclusive rubric as discussed in part one) during this time.

***Disclaimer: The student choice is the primary determinant of entries in a portfolio. Teacher guides by giving a general structure to the portfolio. Student and teacher may be asked to explain why they selected each entry. Teacher may meet with student regularly to reflect on student growth. They provide input, student reflects on growth that was possible through feedback, and they talk about agreements, disagreements on evaluation

Cited: THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY © 2013

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How it should be included:

1. Determine the purpose of the portfolio. Decide how the results of a portfolio evaluation will be used to inform the program.

2. Identify the learning outcomes the portfolio will address.Tip: Identify at least 6 course assignments that are aligned with the outcomes the portfolio will address. Note: When planning to implement a portfolio requirement, the program may need to modify activities or outcomes in courses, the program, or the institution.

3. Decide what students will include in their portfolio. Portfolios can contain a range of items–plans, reports, essays, resume, checklists, self-assessments, references from employers or supervisors, audio and video clips. In a showcase portfolio, students include work completed near the end of their program. In a developmental portfolio, students include work completed early and late in the program so that development can be judged.Tip: Limit the portfolio to 3-4 pieces of student work and one reflective essay/memo.

4. Identify or develop the scoring criteria (e.g., a rubric) to judge the quality of the portfolio.Tip: Include the scoring rubric with the instructions given to students (#6 below).

5. Establish standards of performance and examples (e.g., examples of a high, medium, and low scoring portfolio).

6. Create student instructions that specify how students collect, select, reflect, format, and submit.Tip: Emphasize to students the purpose of the portfolio and that it is their responsibility to select items that clearly demonstrate mastery of the learning outcomes. Emphasize to faculty that it is their responsibility to help students by explicitly tying course assignments to portfolio requirements.

Collect – Tell students where in the curriculum or co-curricular activities they will produce evidence related to the outcomes being assessed.

Select – Ask students to select the evidence. Instruct students to label each piece of evidence according to the learning outcome being demonstrated.

Reflect – Give students directions on how to write a one or two-page reflective essay/memo that explains why they selected the particular examples, how the pieces demonstrate their achievement of the program outcomes, and/or how their knowledge/ability/attitude changed.

Format –Tell students the format requirements (e.g., type of binder, font and style guide requirements, online submission requirements).

Submit – Give submission dates and corresponding rubrics

Cited: ©2020 University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa

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How what’s included can be evaluated:

Attached is a collection of various rubrics (7) intended for high school and first year college students, beginning with a rubric that is intended to evaluate rubric designs. These rubrics are a mixture of holistic and analytical designs (noted in the top left corner), with analytical providing a certain rating for each skill exhibited and holistic providing levels of criteria but one encompassing grade. These rubrics are the staple of the letter grade system in American education and often fall short of evaluating a student’s true ability level because of their one dimensionality. But as many classrooms, post secondary institutions, and graduation requirements depend on the letter grade system in place, a teacher’s continued utilization of such forms of evaluation is demanded by many districts.

With this understanding, this collection is dedicated to offering various models for rubric design that can be evaluated against the initial “Rubric for Rubrics,” to be modified and reimagined to fit the needs of various kinds of written, verbal, or project assessments that may be included in portfolios. My hope is that these resources give teachers the models needed to design and identify equitable evaluations so that they may be organically incorporated into this assessment alternative. This shifts attention away from a product based model and places emphasis on a process based model. While this is not a perfect solution for the evaluation crisis in the education system, it is a step towards equitable and inclusive grading that allows for differentiation and high achievement for disenfranchised groups

Remember*** In evaluating a portfolio, remember to: Share the rubric with students before they work on the portfolio, allow students to reflect on their portfolio, using the rubric, and ensure that you have checks for biases (e.g., rate portfolio with another teacher)

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Things to Remember while creating an evaluation:

1. Most of the grade should be dedicated to the completion of each component (up to 50%)

2. Major point values should be assigned to concrete utilizations of the units objectives and understanding goals. Avoid using terms like “effective” as they are subjective interpretations.

3. The rubric should be presented to students with models to show how full points can be earned for each performance.

4. Analytical and holistic rubrics have different effectiveness according to which kind of rubric they are being paired with. Developmental portfolios pair better with analytical while showcase pairs better with holistic. Do your research first.

5. Students should have some autonomy over what they are graded on. Maybe allow them to create an individual criteria for themselves or reimagine a rubric as a class each year. Each group's needs will be different.