The Progress Portfolio

David J. Rosen
Adult Literacy Resource Institute, Boston, MA

Since the end of the 1980's, writing portfolio assessment has become a hot idea in public schools. Teachers are using writing portfolios in major urban school systems in Pittsburgh and Rochester. Vermont includes them in its statewide school assessment process. And since 1990, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has added portfolio assessment to its list of ways to measure student writing. Portfolio assessment has spread so quickly that by the spring of 1990, the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory's test center could establish a portfolio information clearinghouse to publish and update a bibliography on portfolio assessment practices.

Not surprisingly, teachers of adults and out-of-school young adults have also been experimenting with portfolios. As early as September 1989, in an article which appeared in the New York City Literacy Assistance Center's Update, LAC staff member Sara Hill suggested that adult literacy programs could use writing assessment portfolios and described them as follows:

"The writing folder or portfolio is a way of keeping track of the changes in individual student writing and contains all writing from the beginning of the class-scraps, notes, drawings lists, drafts, revisions, final pieces, etc. Journal entries, too, maybe important to keep in the folder. All should be dated so that you can have a clear sense of writing growth and both student and teacher should have access to it -- perhaps keeping it in a special 'folder box.' From time to time the teacher and student should go through the folder, with the student selecting 'favorite' and 'least favorite pieces' and talking about what worked and didn't work. Teacher and student might also note changes in the spelling and mechanics of writing over time and whether or not a student is revising or has discovered new revision strategies..."

While much attention has been given to whole language portfolios as a means of assessing writing, there is another portfolio model, less-known but more comprehensive. With this model, learners and teachers can assess writing and other basic skills improvement. And with this model a learner can also document a wide range of learning accomplishments and polish and present them to others.

The Purpose

The model is a blend of writing folder assessment and a tangible collection of finished products which is something like an artist's portfolio. This assessment-presentation model is currently being tried with young adults in a number of youth service corps around the country. This portfolio model has the advantage of providing direct, performance-based assessment of writing, mathematics, problem-solving, oral presentation, job readiness, and even vocational skills. It uses simple, low-cost materials such as a folder, three-ring binder, and cardboard artist's portfolio case, and can include written and audio- and video-recorded demonstrations of skill and knowledge.

The presentation portfolio has several purposes:

• to provide a single place where a learner can record and keep evidence of learning from other parts of his or her life;
• to be a way a learner can show family, friends, teachers, prospective employers and training programs, and college admissions officers what that person can do;
• to recognize a learner's accomplishments;
• to be a learner-centered assessment process, one which begins with the student's needs and goals in a student-created learning plan, links assessment and documentation of achievement to those goals, and puts choices about what, when, and how assessment is done in the control of the learner; and
• to provide an organized way to collect and effectively present direct evidence of learning which a learner may need for "attainment of competencies," certification, graduation, getting a job, and entering training and/or college.

As with a writing assessment portfolio, the focus of this model is on learner growth, but here attention is also paid to recognizing and effectively presenting achievement to others. As with writing assessment portfolio models, learners keep their writings in a folder, and they are periodically reviewed for growth; but in this model learners also polish and organize writings and other evidence of learning for presentation. Every learner has a three-ring loose-leaf binder with tabbed dividers and plastic sheet protectors. Some learners may also have a cardboard artist's portfolio case to hold nonprint items such as audio and video cassettes, or other, larger evidences of learning.

In the binder, or achievement portfolio, learners can place selected samples of their best written work: poems, original song lyrics, a short autobiography, stories, essays, letters, a resume, a completed college application, and before-and-after photographs of visually-oriented projects they have done on their own or with others. Learners can also include other evidence of newly-acquired abilities, such as results of written tests which they believe demonstrate their skills or knowledge, or letters others have written about their knowledge, skills, or character.

Although the achievement portfolio, sometimes called a presentation portfolio or interview portfolio, might include some materials describing the learning center or program, the purpose is to put the learner's work in context, not to document the program's achievements. Also, the achievement portfolio is intended to show the learner's accomplishments in meeting her or his own goals, not to compare one learner with one another.

Each item included in the loose-leaf binder or portfolio case should be a clear piece of evidence of the learner's ability to do something, for example:

• to show clarity about one's personal and career goals a learner includes a list of goals and a short plan for future learning and skill development with her anticipated timeframes;
• to demonstrate his knowledge of community resources, his ability to do research by telephone, and to present the written results of his research a learner includes a five-page, word-processed directory of government-subsidized, childcare resources which are located near the learning center (he also did the word processing);
• as evidence of her ability to measure area, and to paint walls, a student in cludes before-and-after photographs, including close-ups, of the apartment she painted; with these she includes the sheet which shows how she calculated how much paint she needed;
• to show his understanding of how state government works, a student includes his word processed letters to his state senator and representative urging support for a bill to increase funding for adult literacy education;
• to show his readiness for work as a commercial driver, a learner includes his new license. (This was his main goal when he entered the center.);
• to demonstrate group presentation and facilitation skills, a learner includes in her portfolio case a videotape of her facilitating discussion in a study circle, and of her presentation to the learning center advisory committee on the center's new learning progress assessment tool: portfolios!;
• as evidence of readiness to enter college, a learner includes her GED diploma, a completed Financial Aid form, and completed applications to three colleges; and
• as one piece of evidence of work readiness, a young adult learner includes the award he received for perfect class attendance.

The Process

A student begins the portfolio process by creating a development (or everyday) portfolio when she enrolls in the learning center. Initial assessments of needs, learning goals, and possibly a learning style inventory can be included in this catch-all collection which is kept in a large expandable folder or Pendaflex folder containing separate file folders for each kind of work. Each week, she adds completed pieces and work-in-process to the development portfolio and she reviews it informally with her teacher(s) and/or other learners to assess her progress in attaining her goals.

At the end of each cycle, she uses the development portfolio for a more formal review of her progress, to determine areas of improvement, and to revise. old goals and set new ones. At this time she may also decide what audiences she hopes to present the achievement portfolio to and she may select (and possibly polish) the pieces she wishes to put in her achievement portfolio binder or case for presentation. In programs which have specific graduation requirements, such as adult, external or alternative diploma programs, a learner may incorporate these goals and objectives in her learning plan, and the divisions of her achievement portfolio might reflect these. Where students are at beginning levels of basic skills, or English language learning, the achievement portfolio will most likely reflect intermediate accomplishments, and the audiences are more likely to be the learner herself, family, friends, and teachers or tutors. More advanced learners will probably select accomplishments for an audience of current or prospective employers or training programs or college admissions personnel.

As the achievement portfolio grows, the learner will add new tabbed dividers. Depending on the learner's interests and the type of learning center program, tabbed sections might include: personal learning plan (including needs and goals); competency checklists; test results; licenses, certificates and awards; work readiness documents (including a resume and any employer letters of recommendation); and writing samples (typed poems, essays, letters, etc.). Some learners will want to emphasize personal creativity; others will focus on work readiness; many will want to stress academic achievement. As the portfolio's purpose is to represent the learner's achievement from her point of view, these decisions should be left to the learner. Teachers and other learners should, of course, feel free to make suggestions.

When a learner is ready to use the achievement portfolio for employment or entering further education or training, program staff or other learners assist her in learning strategies for presenting it. The achievement portfolio is intended to be a flexible tool. A loose-leaf binder is used so that its contents can be easily reorganized for a specific audience, including only those accomplishments which are pertinent to that audience.

The learner should not rely on the binder or audio or videotapes to present herself, but should use these as props for presenting herself. She should also have many opportunities to role play, rehearse or practice presenting her achievement portfolio materials with other learners, learning center staff, and visitors as her audience.

Notes

"Northwest Report," The newsletter of the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, April 1990. Available at no charge from NWREL, 101 S.W. Main St., Suite 500, Portland, OR 97204.

Hill, S. "Alternative Assessment Strategies: Some Suggestions for Teachers." Vol. VI, No. 1, (September, 1989) issues of Update, a publication of the Literacy Assistance Center, 15 Dutch St., 4th Floor, New York, NY 10038.

Information about a national youth service corps portfolio assessment model is available from the Urban Corps Expansion Project, Public/Private Ventures, 399 Market St., Philadelphia, PA 19106

Originally published in Adventures in Assessment, Volume 2 (May 1992),
SABES/World Education, Boston, MA, Copyright 2003.

Funding support for the publication of this document on the Web provided in part by the Ohio State Literacy Resource Center as part of the LINCS Assessment Special Collection.