Portfolios and Career Readiness: A Need for New Assessments

Portfolios and Career Readiness
A Need for New Assessments
 

              In the preface of James Popham’s book Classroom Assessment: What Teachers Need to Know, he says, “Eons ago…Pressure to raise our students’ scores on those achievement exams was nonexistent. We taught pretty much as we saw fit. But, of course, the world of education is different today – much different.”  So, my question is, if the world of education is so much different, then why do we continue to assess in the same way?

              One assessment trend that is becoming more popular, and moving away from memorization and regurgitation, is portfolio assessments. Popham defines portfolio assessments as, “…a systematic collection of one’s work” (2017, p.220). The new rise in portfolio assessments, is largely due to their relevance to the real world. Portfolio assessments are fairly new in education but have been used for years in other fields. In fact, many teachers who use portfolios do so because of their transference into career fields. An article by Edutopia called The Power of Portfolios: A Positive Practice, details how secondary schools in Pittsburgh are using portfolios to assess students. The article explained, “The best way to assess a person’s abilities and understanding in these fields is to review samples of their work. That is why professionals in these fields compile portfolios” (1997, p.1).  Those schools and teachers that are implementing portfolio assessments see the task as more meaningful and more insightful than your typical selected and constructed response assessments. The process becomes meaningful in participating in self-reflection and self-assessment. Kathy Howard, one of those Pittsburgh teachers said, “Student reflection opened the door to what was missing in my experience and my knowledge as a writing teacher. There is a shift in the power base from teacher to students. Students start looking at models of good writing and setting their own criteria and standards for good work” (Edutopia, 1997).

              Other schools beyond Pittsburgh have seen success in implementing portfolios. Impact Academy in California reported 70 percent of their students scored proficient or above on the California Standardized Test for Algebra, compared to 36 percent statewide (Lenz, 2014). This report stands out because a lot of our current assessments are used to prepare students for standardized testing. However, the use of portfolios to teach students to become thinkers, not simply test takers, is showing success even on standardized testing.

              So how would a teacher begin to implement portfolios in their classroom. Edutopia published an article by Vicki Davis titled 11 Essentials for Excellent Digital Portfolios. The article suggests ways of implementation, such as, including a variety of content, create a specific timeline, and connecting the portfolio to the coursework. To follow Davis' instructions more in depth, follow the link below.
https://www.edutopia.org/blog/11-essentials-for-excellent-eportfolios-vicki-davis.

Personally, I feel this is a very great starting off point; however, there is one important element that the list is missing, rubrics. If you are to use these portfolios as a form of assessment, then there needs to be guidelines on how to asses them.

              Putting Rubrics to a Test by Heidi L. Andrade, suggests using rubrics because, “…when using as part of a formative, student-centered approach to assessment, rubrics have the potential to help students develop understanding and skill, as well as make dependable judgments about the quality of their own work.” To include an effective rubric, there needs to be three important features:

1.       Evaluative criteria

2.       Descriptions of qualitative differences for all evaluative criteria

3.       An indication of whether a holistic or analytic scoring approach is to be used

(Popham, 2017, p.203)

Even with there being three distinctive things to include, they can be adaptive to the teacher and the student needs. For example, if you want the scoring to be quicker and an overall look at the project, you would employ a holistic approach. However, if you want a more detailed insight into individual components, you can award points to each element, having a more analytic approach.

              My final suggestion for using rubrics to assess portfolios is to be aware of errors in scoring. Popham suggest being aware of three reasons that scoring errors can occur. Those reasons are: scoring instrument flaws (lack of descriptive rigor), procedural flaws (overwhelming number of evaluative criteria), and teacher’s personal-bias errors. Just like any form of assessment, the teacher needs to review their assessment procedures, have a colleague assist, and evaluate for fairness.

              The suggestion to use portfolios as means of assessment comes back to the discussion on why and how we assess students to begin with. Kieran Egan hit the nail on the head when he wrote the article Testing What for What? Egan argues the point that one main purpose of education is socialization. Egan said, “Testing how well students perform on academic tasks is not a good way to determine their future job possibilities and prospects. It does not efficiently promote education’s socializing role, and it undermines the academic role” (p.29). If socialization is a fundamental part of education, then schools such as Pittsburgh, who are implementing portfolios, are ahead of the game. They are preparing students for real world experiences, while assessing them, so that we might continue to help them improve their academic and future career goals.

             

References

Andrade, H. L., Du, Y., & Want, X. (n.d.). Putting Rubrics to the Test: The Effect of a Model, Criteria Generation, and Rubric-Referenced Self-Assessment on Elementary School Students' Writing. University of Albany, SUNY.

Davis, V. (2017, November 17). 11 Essentials for Excellent Digital Portfolios. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/11-essentials-for-excellent-eportfolios-vicki-davis

Edutopia. (1997, July 01). The Power of Portfolios: A Positive Practice. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/power-portfolios

Egan, K. (2003). Testing What for What?Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Lenz, B. (2014, April 14). The Power of Performance Assessments. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/the-power-of-performance-assessments-bob-lenz

Popham, J. W. (2017). Classroom Assessment What Teachers Need to Know(8th ed.). Pearson.

Almost a School Shooter

Almost a School Shooter

One of the most current and controversial conversations in education right now, is that of school shootings. Common media topics revolving around school shootings include gun control, mental health, arming teachers, tougher security, and red flags. Just to name a few. Aaron Stark, who  is known for his TED Talk I Was Almost a School Shooter, commented on the debate of mental health and gun control. He said, “If I had possessed a rifle, I would have been a killer, but if I had known love, I would never have wanted a rifle.” An incredibly important statement on the power of love.

All aspects of this controversial conversation are important, but one aspect that has had more attention than in past years, is the emphasis on mental health. The concept being, if you can help these kids who are struggling with depression and anxiety, among other mental health issues, then you can prevent their final outlet of harming someone else. 

In Aaron Starks TED Talk he describes his moment of wanting to commit a mass shooting. The decision occurred in his darkest moment. He was homeless, a victim of abuse and bullying, and after turning himself into social services for cutting himself, his own mother told him next time she'd buy him the razor blade. What Aaron Stark endured was trauma. There have been multiple studies that prove abuse and trauma affect the brain. For Aaron, he wanted a way out of the pain. He was ready to be done, but first he needed an outlet, and his outlet would be to to hurt as many people as possible. 

So what stopped him? Friendship. Aaron had set up a deal to get a gun within three days, and in those three days Aaron said his friend, "Treated him like a person when he didn't feel like a human." Aaron describes his friend's actions as simple, but having a deep impact. To me, Aaron's message goes even beyond the discussion of gun control and mental health, but to a person's character. His friend's character.

The need for character education goes beyond classroom management and helping create citizens who are equipped for the workforce, it's about creating a society that learns to lift instead of break. A society that can disagree without resorting to violence. A society that can actively listen and work towards understanding and empathy. Aaron Stark stressed, "Love people who you feel least deserve it, because they need it the most." 

I'm not saying that we make education to where students never have to deal with adversity, but in a society where the media, including social media, allow children 24 hour access to hate filled topics and poor examples of how to handle disagreements and approaching differences, we need something in our society to counter balance this. Yet another heavy responsibility for teachers, but when has our job ever been easy?

I am not naive to the difficulties of incorporating another subject into my day. Time constraints is a real struggle. But, there are so many incredible programs, resources, books, videos, and much more, to help support teaching character education. Aaron's story is just one example of how powerful one person's act of kindness can be. We need to be sharing more stories like Aaron. We need to be teaching character education.Our students need it, our society needs it.  

More Marshmallows, Please!

    

I Just Can't Wait

Can you?

       One of the most popular lessons in psychology, besides Pavlov’s dog training and Skinner’s reinforcement theory, is Mischel and Ebbesen’s marshmallow test. For those who are not familiar with the marshmallow test, here is a quick video summarizing their work. 

        The original findings of this test was that young children who showed self-control at a young age, and could wait for the second marshmallow, were more likely to be successful later in life.

Interestingly enough, this study was replicated, with a few changes, but the results were significantly different. The original sample of 90 kids, were enrolled in the Stanford preschool, easy access for a Stanford researcher. The new study, conducted by Tyler W. Watts of New York University, included 900 children, all from different demographics. Another change was Watts cut down the required 15/20-minute wait time of the second marshmallow, to seven minutes. Perhaps a bit more developmentally appropriate for a four-year-old.

Just like Mischel, Watts' followed up with the subset group of children who were able to delay gratification and wait the time for the second marshmallow. However, instead of corroborating the original findings, Watts' found that the ability for the children to wait had very little positive impacts on them later in life. Even more so, “…this effect was nearly obliterated when the children’s backgrounds, home environment, and cognitive ability at age four were accounted for” (Hendricks, 2018, pg.1). Based on the new study, Watts was able to come to the following conclusion, “, "Our results show that once background characteristics of the child and their environment are taken into account, differences in the ability to delay gratification do not necessarily translate into meaningful differences later in life." They also added "We found virtually no correlation between performance on the marshmallow test and a host of adolescent behavioral outcomes. I thought that this was the most surprising finding of the paper” (Hendricks, 2018, pg.1). 

         Even though the study produced new and interesting results, the most intriguing part of the study was a possible connection between those children who waited for the second marshmallow and affluent parents. Even though the ability to delay gratification doesn’t correlate to the child’s ability to be successful later in life, it can be an insight into the child’s economic background. I have a few possible theories to this finding.

1.     It is entirely possible that there is a correlation between children delaying gratification and socioeconomic status. For children of poverty, there might not be a guarantee of food, let alone a treat. For them, there could be a risk in waiting.

2.      If a child is living in poverty, there is a likelihood they are experiencing more than one at risk factor. Poor nutrition, one parent household, lack of parental education. These at risk factors can impact brain development and IQ. Self control is connected to the frontal cortex. Could at risk factors directly relate to the lack of development of the frontal cortex?

3.     The children who were able to delay gratification were able to because of their exposure to different experiences in which they have seen the positive outcomes of waiting. Such as: waiting for a large gift or vacation, their meals end with dessert, or getting an allowance for chores.

       The replication of the study highlighted two important points for me. The first being the strong impact home life can have on a child's future success and opportunities. The study found that the children in similar demographics were in similar places 11 years later. Their socioeconomic status played a bigger role in where they were at age 15, than if they delayed eating the marshmallow. As a teacher, this places even more importance on our education system. We cannot control where our students come from, but we can continue to study and understand how good teaching and safe environments can help counter the effects of an at risk home environment. The second point is the importance of re-evaluating experiments that might not be able to be generalized to a newer population. Without Watts' new study, we would still be teaching to the same marshmallow test. 

     

 I want to end this blog by leaving something to ponder, perhaps a discussion for another day. This video is about the topic of self-control and the frontal cortex. It seems studies, such as the marshmallow test, are focused on our desire to instill self-control in children, but this video addresses the notion that in some cases, a lack of self-control might be a good thing. I found it interesting and thought provoking. Enjoy!

References and Articles

Marshmallows for Everybody! (2019, January 24). Retrieved from https://bigthink.com/mind-brain/new-marshmallow-experiment?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1

https://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/a-new-study-says-marshmallow-test-is-awful-at-predicting-which-kids-will-be-successful-but-great-at-identifying-kids-with-rich-parents.html

https://www.psychologicalscience.org/publications/observer/obsonline/a-new-approach-to-the-marshmallow-test-yields-complex-findings.html

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/new-research-marshmallow-test-suggests-delayed-gratification-doesnt-equal-success-180969234/