Chapter 4

PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT

TOPICS

1. Purposes and Characteristics of Portfolio Assessment

2. Types of Portfolio
3. Elements of Portfolio
4. Steps for Developing Portfolio Assessment
5. Portfolio Evaluation

LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of the chapter, you should be able to:
1. Plan portfolio assessment tools of a given subject/course.
2. Develop and evaluate portfolio assessment utilized in the classroom.

The practice of developing portfolio has been widely used in a number of fields for
many years such as in architecture, advertising, art, and photography. This includes the
person’s best work. In the field of education, portfolio has become widely used in the
basic and tertiary level, which is utilized as one of the many procedures for formally
assessing the students. It has become very useful in developing creativity and talents
of the students, allowing them to support the claim that have achieved learning
outcomes.

TOPIC 1: PURPOSES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF PORTFOLIO

ASSESSSMENT

Portfolio is a systematic process and purposeful collection of student work to

document the student learning progress, efforts, and achievement towards the
attainment of learning outcomes. It is a systematic process that follows a well-
organized collection of products of students work. There are guidelines which are given
to be satisfied by the students for the purpose of continuous evaluation and reflection
on their work. Moreover, portfolio has a clear reason why students’ work must be
presented and serves its purpose as well.

It is a purposeful, organized, collection of evidence that demonstrates a person’s

knowledge, skills, abilities, or disposition. The term portfolio implies that from a larger

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set of evidence or artifact, a portable subset of these artifacts is collected and
displayed to another because they tell a specific story (Musial, 2009).

Moreover, Borich and Kubiszyn (2003) defined portfolio as planned collection of

learner achievement that documents what a student has accomplished and the steps
taken to get there. The collection represents a collaborative effort among teacher and
learner, to decide on portfolio purpose, content, and evaluation criteria.

This has become a turning point of using portfolio as an alternative assessment tool
other than traditional testing. Presented on the next page are the differences in
Assessment Outcomes between portfolios and standard testing practices.

Differences in Assessment Outcomes between Portfolios

and Standardized Testing Practices

Portfolio Testing
Represents the range of reading and Assesses students across a limited range
writing students are engaged in of reading and writing assignments
which may not match what students do
Engages students in assessing their Mechanically scored or scored by
progress and/or accomplishments and teachers who have little input
establishing ongoing learning goals
Measures each student’s achievement Assesses all students on the same
while allowing for individual differences dimension
between students
Represents a collaborative approach to Assessment process is not collaborative
assessment
Has a goal of student self-assessment Student assessment is not a goal
Addresses improvement, effort, and Addresses achievement only
achievement
Links assessment and teaching to Separates learning, testing, and teaching
learning
(Popham, 2011)

Portfolios contain relevant items from many different sources such as composition of
students in the form of essay, reports, stories; presentation such as observations
research investigation, and projects; narrative and anecdotal records; rating scales,
rubrics, self-reflection and checklists; visual arts such as photofolio, drawings,
paintings; performances as product, group work; and processes such as show-your
work problems, stages of writing a poem or a song.

As utilized in the classroom setting, portfolios have the same basic purpose and
principle to collect pieces of students’ performances or products that show
accomplishment or improvement overtime. These may be used depending on the
purposes and foci of the assessment to be measured. Thus, teachers should be guided
with the specific purposes in the process of collection.

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Why Use Portfolio?

Portfolios can be used for many purposes. The utilization of portfolio should be
identified before the collection of the work. Johnson and Johnson (2002) gave a
comprehensive discussion on the uses of portfolio, viz:

1. Portfolios give students the opportunity to direct their own learning. Students can:

a. Document their efforts, achievements, development, and growth in knowledge,

skills, expressions, and attitudes.
b. Use a variety of learning styles, modalities, and intelligences.
c. Assess their own learning and decide which items best represent their
achievement and growth.
d. Set their future learning goals.

With these, portfolios make the students as part of the assessment process by requiring
them to reflect and analyze their own work.

2. Portfolios can be used to determine students’ level of achievement. Portfolios

allow students to present a holistic view of their academic achievements, skills, and
outcomes. Portfolios allow students to present their work over a period of time and
show their progress in achieving learning outcomes.

3. Portfolios can be used to understand how students think, reason, organize,

investigate, and communicate. Portfolios can provide insight into students’ reasoning
and intellectual competencies by documenting students’ progression of thought and
work in achieving their learning goals.

4. Portfolios can be used to communicate student efforts, progress toward

accomplishing learning goals, and accomplishments. Portfolios allow students to
present their work as whole in relation to standards and criteria to peers, teachers,
parents, college admission officers, and so forth.

5. Portfolios can be used to evaluate and improve curriculum and instruction.

Portfolios provide a broad view on the effectiveness of the curriculum and instruction
thereby allowing teachers to improve and enhance their instructional methods and
curriculum materials.

Basically, one big contribution of portfolio is to give the students the chance to reflect
and revisit on their performances overtime. Life in school is an on-going process of
submitting paper works, productions, and performances. Each day, students
experience a variety of school tasks which measure the different learner’s cognitive,
affective, and psychomotor domains. Thus, collecting the students’ works retain all
these experiences for subsequent reflection and analysis.

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Characteristics of Portfolio Assessment

Learning outcomes define what to include and how to utilize portfolio. There should
be a clear reason of what to include and how portfolio is to be utilized. Purposes and
targets must be constructively aligned to the teaching and learning activities and
assessment as well. Below illustrates an example of portfolio that reflects student
achievement in a particular subject area.

Marth Portfolio: Points of Focus

Computations Knowing basic computation procedures

Problem Solving Developing and executing strategies
Mathematical Communication Reading and writing in mathematics
Mathematical Dispositions Having health attitudes toward mathematics
Technology Using computers and graphing calculators
Connections Relating mathematics to other subjects
Teamwork Working cooperatively with others to learn math
Growth over time Learning from mistakes
(Johnson, 2002)

There should be a systematic and organized collection of the students’ work. Gathering
of pieces of work should make a sample of the student works and not as exhaustive
collection. In basic education, portfolio is being collected at the end of the quarter for
teacher’s assessment and evaluation.

Portfolios typically identify students’ strengths. These provide students with

opportunity to show what they can do. Students are encouraged to submit examples
of their best work. A student’s deficiencies are addressed in terms of new goals for the
students rather than inadequacies in current performance. These also encourage
students to become reflective learners and to develop skills in evaluating the strengths
and weaknesses of their work.

Portfolio assessment actively involves students in evaluation process. Student-

reflection and self-evaluation develop students’ awareness in their own progress and
performance in the classroom. With this, there should be pre-established guidelines
for what to be included and appropriate criteria for evaluating students’ product.

Lastly, portfolio assessment facilitates communication of student’s achievement to

others. This provides an opportunity to have a dialogue from their teacher and with
classmates and develop as well the social skills of the students. The students can also
utilize portfolio to show others what has been achieved. It is encouraged to conduct
portfolio conferences between the students and teachers. With this, portfolio can
provide teachers and students with opportunities to collaborate and reflect on student
progress.

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 TOPIC 2: TYPES OF PORTFOLIO

There different types of portfolios you will encounter on assessing the performance
approach in your classroom. This is depending on the purpose and context of the
portfolio which are aligned to the learning competencies of the course of study. The
following are the emerging types of portfolio used in the teacher and learning
assessment.

I. Showcase Portfolio. This shows the best of the students’ best work. This type of
portfolio is based on the students’ personal criteria rather than the criteria of their
teacher. Students select their best work and reflect thoughtfully on its quality. This also
shows the uniqueness of students’ work that individual profiles emerge. Stiggins (2007)
described this portfolio as celebration portfolios and contends that this type of
portfolio encourages self-reflection and self-evaluation, but makes scoring more
difficult and time consuming because the unique structure and content of each
portfolio.

II. Documentation Portfolio. This portfolio displays and accomplishments related to

academic performance over time. The assembled work sample is to provide about the
student growth which also provides meaningful opportunities for self-evaluation of the
students. As a scrapbook of information, this may include observations, checklist and
rating scales and selections by both the teachers and students. Interactive assessment
between the teacher and students provides an opportunity to communicate the
strengths and needed improvements which also clarifies the accomplishment of
students through student and teacher conference.

III. Process Portfolio. This shows the steps and/or the results of a completed project
or task as the primary goal of this portfolio. This is very useful because the final product
does not always show the skills and knowledge that the student used in an effort to
complete the project. By asking students to provide evidence of their work along the
way, teachers can see both strengths and weaknesses in the thinking process and the
skills students used (Musial, 2009).

IV. Product Portfolio. The product portfolio is similar to the process portfolio except
that its focus is on the end product rather than on the process in which the product
was developed. In this type of portfolio, there is a little or no information about the
steps that was used in crafting the product. On the other hand, this type of portfolio
contains the final product as well as detailed explanations of each part of the final
product.

V. Standard-Based Portfolio. This collects evidence that links student achievement to

particular learning standards. It focuses on specific standards that are predetermined
by the teacher and discussed to the students at the start of the school year. Students
will gather evidence of accomplishments for each of the standards and present these
output clusters that relate to the standards given.

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 TOPIC 3: ELEMENTS OF PORTFOLIO

The contents of portfolio may be determined by the students who decide what include
in their portfolio; the cooperative learning group, their classmates who can
recommend what to include in the portfolio; and the teacher, school or the division
who can specify work samples and components to be included in the portfolio, it could
be an essay or photographs and other documents which strengthen the students’
learning outcomes. Illustrated below is an example of the best works portfolio in the
different field of studies.

The Best Works Portfolio

Subject Area Individual Student Cooperative Group

Science The best solution to a scientific The best scientific experiment
problem posed by the instructor, conducted, project completed
review of a scientific article, work laboratory.
conducted, original hypothesis
formulated, position paper on a
scientific issue, log or journal entry
form a long-term experiment.
Mathematics The best solution to a problem posed The best project completed ,
by the instructor, description of how to small business planned and
solve mathematical problem, review initiated.
of a mathematics article, original
mathematics theory developed,
photo/diagram/concept map of
mathematical idea investigated.
Language Arts The best compositions in a variety of The best dramatic production,
styles-expository humor/satire, video project, TV broadcast,
creative (poetry, drama, short story), newspaper, advertising
journalistic (reporting, editorial, display.
columnist, reviewer) and advertising
copy.
Social Studies The best historical research paper, The best community survey,
opinion essay on historical issue, paper resulting from academic
commentary on current event, original controversy, oral history
historical theory, review of a historical compilation, multidimensional
biography, account of academic analysis of historical event,
controversy participated in. press corps interview with
historical figure.
Fine Arts The best creative products such as The best creative products
drawings, paintings sculptures, such as murals, plays written
pottery, poems, dramatic and performed, inventions
performance thought of and built.
(Johnson, 2002)

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But generally, portfolio has its distinct elements which are expected and included from
the outputs of the students, viz:

I. Cover Sheet. This creatively includes the nature of the student’s (or group’s) work
and could be in a form of a letter. It also reflects the progress of the learners as it
summarizes the evidence of student’s learning and progress. The table below shows a
sample portfolio cover sheet.

FINAL PORTFOLIO

Name/Group:_________________________ Date:____________

Grade/Year Level:______________________ Section:__________

Subject/Course:_______________________

Purpose:___________________________________________________________

Type of Portfolio: ______________________

Entries Scores Comments/Suggestions

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Total Grade

Recommendations:

Suggested Future Goals:

Final Portfolio Grade:____________ Evaluator:______________________

Taken from Johnson and Johnson (2002)

II. Table of contents. This includes the title of each work sample and its page number.

III. Work samples. These are entries which are to be included in the portfolio which
can be categorized as core (samples which are needed to be included), and optional
(students preference on what to include). The core are the basic elements required
for each students and serves as basis for decision in assessing the student’s work. On
the other hand, the optional entries allow the folder to represent creativity and

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uniqueness of each student. In the introduction of the work samples, it is a must to
include the rationale, explaining what work samples are included, why each one is
significant, and how they all fit together in a holistic view of the student’s (or group’s)
work.

IV. Dates of all sample works to facilitate evidence of growth over time.

V. Drafts of the written products, or even the seminal attempts in writing the write ups
for the portfolio and the revised version based on the corrected versions.

VI. Self-assessment. This is written by the student or the group members which could
be in terms of self-reflection and analysis or a form of insights. Teacher may include
questions which can facilitate the assessment of the students.

VII. Future goals. This is based on the student’s (or group’s) current achievements,
interests, and progress.

VIII. Other’s comments and assessments. This may came from the teacher,
cooperative learning groups, and other interested parties such as the parents.

TOPIC 4: STEPS FOR DEVELOPING PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT

Designing a portfolio assessment requires some advance and careful planning. It begins
with a clear idea about the purpose of the assessment. The following steps provide a
general directions for developing portfolio assessment.

I. Identify Overall Purpose and Focus

The design and use of portfolio begins with a clear description of your purpose and
focus. The questions, “Why do I want a portfolio?” and “What learning targets and
curriculum goals will it serve?” sharpen the focus of identifying the purpose and focus
of portfolio. With these, you can clearly identify why you want your students to create
a portfolio. Below are list of questions on how to prepare and use portfolio.

Preparing to Use Portfolio

1. Who will construct the portfolio?

___ Individual students with teacher input and help
___ Individual students with input and help of cooperative learning groups
___ Cooperative base groups (whole group work and individual members work)
with teacher input and help

2. What type of portfolio do you want to use?

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 3. What are the purposes and objectives of the portfolio?
a. ________________________________________________________________
b. ________________________________________________________________
c. ________________________________________________________________

4. What categories of work samples should go into the portfolio?

a. ________________________________________________________________
b. ________________________________________________________________
c. ________________________________________________________________
d. ________________________________________________________________

5. What criteria will students or groups use to select their entries?

a. ________________________________________________________________
b. ________________________________________________________________
c. ________________________________________________________________

6. Who will develop the rubrics to assess and evaluate the portfolios?

________ Faculty ________ Students

(Johnson, 2002)

Portfolios may be used to assess understanding but are ideal for assessing product,
skill, and reasoning targets. This is especially true for multi-dimensional skills such as
writing, reading, and problem solving that are continually improved and demonstrated
through products. With extensive self-reflection, critical thinking is an important target.
Students also develop metacognitive and decision-making skills. As with other
performance assessments, portfolios generally are not very efficient for assessing
knowledge targets (McMillan, 2007).

It is important to distinguish between learning targets for individual work samples and
the content of the portfolio as a whole. The targets that reflect all content tends to be
broader and more general, such as “development as a reader,” “adapts writing to
audience,” “speaks clearly,” and “adapts writing style to different purposes.”

The present K to 12 Curriculum provides learning targets which need to be achieved in

the form of content and performance standards. Thus, the nature of using portfolio
assessment is based from the importance and focus of the learning targets. It
necessitates that portfolio matches with the learning standards and goals.

Below is an example of assessing reading skills performance which shows the

alignment of teaching and learning goal, activities, and assessment task which includes
portfolio evidence.

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 Reading Skills Performance

Goal Sample Classroom Portfolio Evidence Assessment Tools

Activity
Decode (basic Read simple texts Word bank (list of Individual progress
reading skills for words mastered), report, peer
beginning or weak selected “texts I compliment,
readers) can read”, self/peer-
completed reading assessment
tasks, reading on checklists, rating
cassette scales
Understand simple Read familiar story, Cassette of story Self/peer-
texts (narratives, Practice scanning read, reading assessment, rating
expository types) ads, TV guide, strategies scales, answer key
Identify main checklist,
points and details completed reading
in a news report task, corrected test
item
Appreciate Semi-extensive Reading logs, Self/peer-
literature reading activities reading journal, assessment
(stories/poems (i.e. both guided book tasks, checklists
read in class), e.g. and independent cassette, video
understanding reading) clips, artwork
character and
theme
Reading literature Sustained silent A log of books/ Teacher’s record of
(extensive reading) reading in class as booklets/reading student’s reading:
well as at home cards/news Rating scale
articles; creative relating scale
tasks and comment relating to content,
cards presentation and
language
Use simple Work with Dictionary Answer key
information tools/ glossary, table of exercises:
resource materials contents, alphabetizing, Appropriate
dictionary, matching information
definitions to (found/ partially
Search engines, words, synonyms, found/ not found)
encyclopedias antonyms, etc.

Results of search,
as part of project
(+comment card)
From Kemp and Toperoff (1998)

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II. Identify the Physical Structure

Once the purpose and targets have been clarified, we need to think of the physical
structure of the portfolio. Some practical questions affect the successful use of
portfolio in your classrooms:

• What it will look like?

• Where will the students place the outputs?
• What type of container is appropriate?
• Do they need file folders? Clear book? Plastic bins?
• How are the materials to be organized – categorically, numerically,
alphabetically, by subject area or in other ways?
• Where can students store the portfolios for easy access?

If students cannot mange and access their materials affectively, they will become
discouraged. You may need your original intentions based on the answer to practical
considerations. Choices of products and work outputs influence students on what to
include in their portfolio.

III. Determine the Appropriate Organization and Sources of Content

The content of portfolio consists of entries (student products and activity records)
which provides assessment information about the content and processes identified in
the dimensions to be assessed. These naturally are artifacts which are derived from the
different learning activities. The range of samples is extensive and must be determined
to some extent by the subject matter and the instruction as present in the table below.

Language Arts Mathematics Science Social Studies

Favorite poems, Solution to an Prediction based Presentation of a
songs, letters open-ended on prior view of society
question experience
Finished samples Graphs, histograms Data tables Written
of different writing descriptions of
genres; persuasive, different cultures,
letters, poetry, institutions,
information, professions
stories
Finished writings Geometric shapes Concept maps Discussion of
drawn from other equality, justice,
subject areas democracy,
freedom, rights,
and other large
social concepts
Literature Examples of Drawing to scale Drawing of
extensions: scripts perimeter, area, artifacts
for drama, visual cubic space

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 arts, webs, charts,
timelines, murals
Audiotape of Problem made up Drawing to scale Drawings of
readings by student to artifacts
display a concept
Adapted from Musial (2009)

Select the organizational entries of portfolio that will allow the students to meet the
purpose of portfolio. If your target is to show performance product, select output
oriented tasks. If you need to provide feedback to students on the procedures they use
in putting together a report, include a summary of that process as part of the portfolio.
McMillan (2007) pointed out to use work samples that capitalize on the advantages of
portfolios, such as flexibility, individuality, and authenticity.

The categories or type of entries should consider the content and process dimension it
will assess and the minimum and maximum number of entries per category. Make sure
that entries should fully represent the students’ attainment or growth and learning
progress. This allows variation so that students can show individual work. This often
means giving students choices and potentials about what they want to include in their
portfolio entries.

It is best also to determine the types of work samples to be included in the portfolio at
the same time that instructional activities are developed. Products and performances
that result from instructional activities often provide useful work samples in portfolios.

IV. Determine Student Reflection Guidelines

Before implementing your portfolio assessment plan, establish guidelines to help

students self-reflect along the way. With this, students will develop greater ownership
of the process and will have experience in working collaboratively with you as their
teacher.

Below are examples of questions which are helpful in determining student reflections.
These questions help the students gain metacognitive skills including self-reflection
and assessment.

• Describe the steps that you used to complete today’s activity. Which steps
really helped you complete the activity and which ones were less useful?
What would you change next time?

• What personal strengths did you notice in completing today’s work? What
difficulties did you have and how did you overcome them? What kind of help
did you need that you could not get? Where might you find that help in the
future?

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 • What aspect of today’s work was meaningful to you? What effect did the
work have in your own attitudes, perspectives, or interests?

• What weaknesses did you find in your efforts to complete your work? How
might you overcome one of these weaknesses? What resources would you
like to use that are not available to you?
(Musial, 2009)

V. Identify and Evaluate Scoring Criteria

After determining the student reflection guidelines, the next step is to establish the
scoring criteria you will use in evaluating student performance. By working on the
student criteria, students will develop greater ownership of the process and will have
experience in working cooperatively and collaboratively with you as a teacher.

However, as the facilitator of learning, you are responsible to ensure the reliability and
high quality of scoring criteria. The students should be informed also on how you will
evaluate their portfolios. This can be done by sharing the scoring criteria with your
students so that they can ask questions, give their suggestions and insights. The table
below shows example of Math portfolio under the content of Problem Solving.

Math Problem-Solving Portfolio Rating Form

Content Categories

_____ Problem Solving _____ Numbers and Operations

_____ Estimation _____ Predictions
_____ Problem One _____ Problem Two
_____ Problem Three
To be completed by student:
1. Date submitted:__________
2. What does this problem say about you as a problem solver?
___________________________________________________________________

3. What do you like best about how you solved in this problem?
___________________________________________________________________

4. How will you improve your problem-solving skills on the next problem?
___________________________________________________________________

To be completed by teacher:
1. Quality of Reflection
Rating Description
5 Has excellent insight into his/her problem-solving abilities and some ideas
of how to get better
4 Has good insight into his/her problem-solving abilities and some ideas of
how to get better

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3 Reflects somewhat on problem-solving strengths and needs. Has some
idea of how to improve as a problem solver
2 Seldom reflects on problem-solving strengths and needs. Has little idea of
how to improve as a problem solver.
1 Has no concept of himself or herself as a problem solver.
2. Mathematical Knowledge
Rating Description
5 Shows deep understanding of problems, math concepts, and principles.
Uses appropriate math terms and all calculations are correct.
4 Shows good understanding of problems, math concepts, and principles.
Uses appropriate math terms most of the time. Few computational errors.
3 Shows understanding of some of the problems, math concepts, and
principles. Uses some terms correctly. Contains some computation errors.
2 Errors in the use of many problems. Many terms used incorrectly
1 Major errors in problems. Shows no understanding of math problems,
concepts and principles.
3. Strategic Knowledge
Rating Description
5 Identifies all the important elements of the problem. Reflects an
appropriate and systematic strategy for solving the problem; gives clear
evidence of a solution.
4 Identifies most of the important elements of the problem. Reflects an
appropriate and systematic strategy for solving the problem; gives clear
evidence of a solution most of the time.
3 Identifies some important elements of the problem. Gives some evidence
of a strategy to solve the problems but process is incomplete.
2 Identifies few important elements of the problem. Gives little evidence
of a strategy to solve the problems and the process is unknown.
1 Uses irrelevant outside information. Copies parts of the problem; no
attempt at solution.
4. Communication
Rating Description
5 Gives a complete response with clear, unambiguous explanation; includes
diagrams and charts when they help clarify explanation; presents strong
arguments that are logically developed.
4 Gives good response with fairly clear explanation, which includes some use
of diagrams and charts; presents good arguments that are mostly but not
always logically developed.
3 Explanations and descriptions of problem solution are somewhat clear but
incomplete; make use of diagrams and examples to clarify points but
arguments are incomplete.
2 Explanations and descriptions of problems are weak; makes little, if any,
use of diagrams and examples to clarify points; arguments are seriously
flawed.
1 Ineffective communication; diagrams misinterpret the problem;
arguments have no sound premise

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 Sum of ratings:_______________
Average of ratings:____________
Comments: _________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________

Adapted from Kubiszyn and Borich (2003)

In evaluating scoring criteria, the rubrics available must be consistent with the purpose
of the portfolio and with the overall curriculum framework. Reliability must be
considered as well, to give the same results for the same students when applied by
different teachers.

VI. Communicate the Results of Portfolio Evaluation

The final step in implementing portfolio assessment is to conduct a conference with

each student to review its content, the students’ reflections, and assessment of the
individual output. Give your student guidelines for these conferences so that they an
prepare some questions ahead of time and allow the students to give their views and
insights during the conference. As a result, this serves as an avenue to determine the
strengths and limitations of portfolio for plan of action formulation.

The following is a checklist for implementing and using portfolio:

• Are students knowledgeable about what a portfolio is and how it will be used?
• Do students know why portfolios are important?
• Are the students responsible for or involved in selecting the content?
• Is there a sufficient number of work samples but not too many?
• Is a table of contents included
• Are specific self-evaluation questions provided?
• Is the checklist of contents complete?
• Are scoring criteria for individualized teacher-written comments provided?
• Are student-teacher conferences included?
(McMillan, 2007)

TOPIC 5: PORTFOLIO EVALUATION

Portfolio Evaluation

I. Student Evaluation

One advantage of portfolio assessment is allowing students to revisit, reflect, and

evaluate their own work. This allows them to practice critiquing and conceptualizing
the quality of their work based on the criteria performance. This also provides an

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opportunity for students to become better achievers as they learn to reflect on their
strengths and weaknesses.

Teacher as a model should be the first person to demonstrate the skills in evaluating
and critiquing portfolio. Once the students understand the process and the principle of
evaluating, they can start to engage with their own reflection and establish a
comfortable, confident and reliable analysis and critique of their own work.

Some questions can be asked to facilitate student self-reflection for individual work
which give insights into how students have been reaching the learning targets:

• Why did you select this piece of writing?

• What did you learn from the selection?
• Can you identify your strengths and weaknesses?
• What problems have you encountered in doing the task?
• Which is the most satisfying experience?
• What are your insights after reading the poem?
• Is this your best work?
• What kind of work would you like to do in the future?

II. Teacher Evaluation

Evaluating a portfolio involves making judgments about students’ outputs. The teacher
can use numerical scores to summarize judgment or qualitative system. Scoring needs
to be reliable and should not be affected by inconsistencies not related to the qualities
being judged.

As a rule of thumb, it is important to remember that the purpose of portfolio is to

assess the students’ outcomes of the instructional goals. The samples of entries are
indicators whether students have achieved the goals of instruction which are evaluated
based on the portfolio’s entire content, structure, and individual entries.

In most of the classroom situations, the teacher is both the observer and the rater. If
there are some important instructional decisions to be made, additional raters must be
considered in order to make scoring more fair.

III. Student-Teacher Conference

As mentioned in the steps in developing portfolio assessment, the final step is to

conduct a conference with each student to review the contents, reflections, and
evaluation. It should be scheduled throughout the year which provides important link
between the students and teachers. Your students can be responsible for conducting
the conference and this will serve as a motivating force for the learners to produce
excellent portfolio in the future.

McMillan (2007) pointed out that students need to compare their reflections with your
evaluations and make plans fur subsequent work. Although weaknesses and areas for

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improvement need to be covered, emphasize students’ progress and achievement as
well.

One way or another, this also provides an excellent means of communicating with
parents. The work outputs and reflections of the students can be a sort of window into
what is happening withing the classroom as parents see the different aspects of their
children’s experiences in the school. As a tripartite communication between the
parents, teachers, and students, portfolio assessment provides framework for
meaningful three-way discussion of the progress, achievement, and limitations.

After the portfolios are complete, it is a good idea to have an exhibition of portfolios
and/or student-led parent-teacher conferences, in which students present their
portfolios to their parents.

Below is a checklist which can help you design and enhance your portfolio assessment
program.

A Portfolio Development Checklist

1. What purpose(s) will your portfolio serve? (Check any that apply.)
 Prepare a sample of best work for future teachers to see
 Communicate to parents what has been learned
 Evaluate my teaching
 Assign course grades
 Create collections of favorite or best work
 Document achievement for alternative credit
 Submission to a college or employer
 To show growth in skills and dispositions
 Others: ________________________________________

2. What cognitive skills will be assessed by the individual entries?

 Cognitive strategies (specify) ____________________________________

 Deep understanding (specify) ___________________________________
 Communication (specify) _______________________________________
 Metacognition (specify) ________________________________________
 Procedural skills (specify) _______________________________________
 Knowledge construction (specify) ________________________________
 Others ______________________________________________________

3. What dispositions do you want entries to reflect?

 Flexibility
 Persistence
 Collaboration
 Acceptance of feedback

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  Others (specify) __________________________________________

4. What criteria or rubrics will you use to judge the extent to which these skills
positions were achieved?

_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________

5. In rating the portfolio as a whole, what things will you look for?

 Variety of entries
 Growth in reflection
 Growth in skill or performance
 Organization
 Presentation

6. What kind of scale will you construct to rate the overall portfolio?
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________

7. How will you combine all your ratings into final grade
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
8. Who will be involved in the planning process?

 Learners
 Teachers
 Parents

9. What content categories are included in the portfolio?

_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________

10. Will learners have a choice over content categories?

 Yes
 No

11. Who decides what samples to include in each content area?

 Learners
 Teachers
 Parents

12. How many samples will be included in each area?

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  One
 Two
 More than two

13. Have you specified deadlines of the entries?

 Yes
 No

14. Have you developed forms to rate and summarize ratings for all drafts and final
products?

 Yes (specify) _______________________________

 No

15. What are your instructions on how work gets turned in and returned?
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________

16. Where will the portfolio be kept and who has access to them?
 Where (specify) ______________________________
 Who (specify) _______________________________

17. Who will plan, conduct, and attend the final conference?

 Learners
 Other teachers
 Parents
 Others (specify) ___________________________________

Adapted from Kubiszyn and Borich (2003)

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