WHAT ARE STUDENT PORTFOLIOS?

Portfolios are collections of selected student work representing an array of performance. Beyond this simple definition, student portfolios vary widely in content and purpose and even in who decides what goes into the portfolio. A portfolio might be a folder containing a student's "best pieces" and the student's evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the pieces. Or, a portfolio may also contain one or more "works in progress" illustrating how a product, such as an essay, evolved through stages of design, drafting and revision. Decisions about what goes into the portfolio are typically made by the student creating the collection but may also involve teachers and peers as well as structural requirements for the entire project.

A portfolio is a systematic collection of student work and related material that depicts a student's activities, accomplishments, and achievements in one or more school subjects. The collection should include evidence of student reflection and selfevaluation, guidelines for selecting the portfolio contents, and criteria for judging the quality of the work. The goal is to help students assemble portfolios that illustrate their talents, represent their writing capabilities, and tell their stories of school achievement...

Portfolio is purposeful collection student work

of

Not just a folder of work, but-Work selected to serve particular purpose (e.g., document growth, certify achievement) May contain examples of best work of different types (e.g., book review, creative story, persuasive essay) Usually a "self-portrait" that benefited from guidance and feedback The label "portfolio" is often unorganized collections of work. misapplied to

Portfolios are extremely valid measures of literacy. A new and exciting approach to validity, known as consequential validity, maintains that a major determinant of the validity of an assessment measure is the consequence that the measure has upon the student, the instruction, and the curriculum .There is evidence that portfolios inform students, as well as teachers and parents, and that the results can be used to improve instruction, another major dimension of good assessment.

A portfolio can be defined as "a purposeful collection of student performances that exhibits a student's effort, progress and achievement over a period of time" Through the portfolio processes of collecting, selecting, organizing and reflecting, an individual is actively involved in constructing the story of her/himself as a student. The artifacts included in the portfolio demonstrate what that student knows and can do. These artifacts, collected over time, will provide an ongoing record of the student's accomplishments.