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Module 4: Portfolio Assessment

Time Table: 5 Hours

Topic Learning Outcome:

• Compare and contrast the three types of portfolio
• Create portfolio work samples which are essential to assess their progress or achievement.

Deepen!

Portfolio Assessment

Portfolio refers to the collection of projects and works of students that exemplifies their
skills, attitudes and interests within a certain period of time. It is the compilation of students’ best
works and materials which are essential to assess their progress or achievement. Examples of
portfolio work samples are poems, songs, letters, drama scripts drafted and revised stories written
by the students in their literature or Language subject, and final solutions of students in solving
complex mathematics problems, etc.

Definition of Portfolio Assessment

Portfolio Assessment is the systematic, longitudinal collection of student work created in

response to specific, known instructional objectives and evaluated in relation to the same criteria
(Ferenz, 2001).

Student Portfolio is a purposeful collection of student work that exhibits the student’s
efforts, progress and achievements in one or more areas. The collection must include student
participation in selecting contents, the criteria for selection, the criteria for judging merit and
evidence of student self-reflection. (Paulson, Paulson, & Meyer, 1991 as cited by Ferenz, 2001 in
her article Using Student Portfolio for Outcomes Assessment).

The portfolio should represent a collection of student’ best work or best efforts, student-
selected samples of work experiences related to outcomes being assessed and documents
according to growth and development toward mastering identified outcomes.

Comparison of Portfolio and Traditional Forms of Assessment

Ferenz (2001) pointed out the differences between traditional assessment and portfolio
assessment.
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Traditional Assessment Portfolio Assessment

Measures student’s ability at one time Measures student’s ability over time
Done by the teacher alone; students are not Done by the teacher and the students; students
aware of the criteria are aware of the criteria
Conducted outside instruction Embedded in instruction
Assigns student a grade Involves student in own assessment
Does not capture the student’s language ability
Capture many facets of language learning
performance
Does not include the teacher’s knowledge of Allows for expression of teacher’s knowledge of
student as learner student as learner
Does not give student responsibility Students learn how to take responsibility

Three Types of Portfolio

There are three basic types of portfolio to consider for classroom use. These are working
portfolio, showcase portfolio and progress portfolio.

1. Working Portfolio

The first type of portfolio is working portfolio which is also known as teacher-student
portfolio. As the name implies, it is a “project at work”; it contains the work in progress, as well as
the finished samples of work used to reflect on the activities done by the student and the teacher. It
documents the stages of learning and provides a progressive record of student growth. This is an
interactive teacher-student portfolio that aids in communication between the teacher and the
student.

2. Showcase Portfolio

Showcase portfolio is the second type of portfolio also known as the best work portfolio or
display portfolio. This kind of portfolio focuses on the student’s best and most representative work;
it exhibits the best performance of the student. The best work portfolio documents the students’
efforts with respect to curriculum objectives. It may also include the evidence of student activities
done outside the school.

3. Progress Portfolio

The third type of portfolio is progress portfolio and it is also known as the teacher
alternative assessment portfolio. It contains examples of students’ work with the same types done
over a period of time which are then utilized to assess their progress. All the works of the students
in this type of portfolio are scored, rated, ranked, or evaluated.

Uses of Portfolios
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1. It provides both formative and summative opportunities for monitoring progress toward reaching
identified outcomes.
2. It communicates concrete information about what is expected of students in terms of the content
and quality of performance in specific curriculum areas.
3. It allows students to document aspects of their learning that do not show up well in traditional
assessments.
4. It is useful to showcase periodic or end of the year accomplishments of students such as in
poetry, reflections on growth, samples of best works, etc.
5. It is also used to facilitate communication between teachers and parents regarding the child’s
achievement and progress in a certain period of time.
6. Administrators may use the portfolio for national competency testing to grant high-school credit
and to evaluate educational programs.
7. It combines the purpose of instructional enhancement and progress documentation. Through the
portfolio, a teacher is able to review the students’ work periodically and makes notes to revise his
instruction for the next year.
Advantages of Portfolio (Venn, 2000)
1. It is consistent with the theories of instruction and philosophies of schools promoting students’
involvement in learning.
2. It is an excellent way to document student’s development and growth over time.
3. It provides students the opportunity to have extensive input from the learning process.
4. It fosters a sense of ownership of the work and the skills in critical self-reflection and decision-
making.
5. Portfolio contents may be used to illustrate the process and procedures students follow.
6. It combines paper-and-pencil tests with performance and product assessments.
7. It promotes student self-evaluation, reflection and critical thinking.
8. It measures performance-based assessment from genuine samples of student work.
9. It provides opportunities for students and teachers to discuss learning goals and the steps to
achieve those goals in structured and unstructured conferences.
10. It enables measurement of multiple dimensions of student progress by including different types
of data and materials.

Disadvantages of Portfolio (Venn, 2000)

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1. Logistics involved in designing and maintaining a portfolio system may be overwhelming with
little or no support.
2. All stakeholders need training to design, implement, manage and assess portfolio.
3. Portfolio is a new assessment strategy to most teachers, relative to previous approaches, with
many unresolved issues.
4. Gathering all the necessary data and work samples can make the portfolio bulky and difficult to
manage.
5. Requiring extra time to plan an assessment system and conduct the assessment.
6. Scoring portfolio involves the extensive use of subjective evaluation procedures, such as rating
scales and professional judgment; these limit reliability.
7. Developing a systematic and deliberate management system is difficult, but this step is
necessary in order to make a portfolio more than a random collection of student work.
8. Scheduling individual portfolio conferences is difficult and the length of each conference may
interfere with other instructional activities.
Guidelines for Assessing Portfolio
1. Include enough documents (items) on which to base judgment.
2. Structure the contents to provide scorable information.
3. Develop judging criteria and a scoring scheme for raters to use in assessing the portfolio.
4. Use observation instruments such as checklists and rating scales when possible to facilitate
scoring.
5. Use trained evaluators or assessors.

Contents of Porfolio
1. Table of Contents
2. Single best piece, which is selected by the students and can come from any class and need not
address an academic subject
3. Letter explaining the composition and selection of the best piece
4. Poem, short story, or personal narration
5. Personal response to a book, event, current issue, mathematical problem, or scientific
phenomenon
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6. Prose piece from any subject area other than English or Language Arts.