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.