Portfolios as Alternative Assessment in a
Community-Based ESL Transition Program

Richard Goldberg
Asian American Civic Association

This article concerns an idea that is still evolving. It’s an idea that
was implemented in January, 1993, but was hatched several years earlier through my experiences at other workplaces. It’s an idea that exemplifies the spirit of cooperation between two community-based organizations and a community college. And it’s an idea, similar to one tried in other places, which shows students a lot about how they can see their progress beyond traditional standardized tests.

Background
The Massachusetts English Literacy Demonstration (MELD) was established in late 1992 through a U.S. Department of Education grant. The Massachusetts Department of Education wrote the proposal for three partnerships between community-based organizations and community colleges.

The focus here is on one of those partnerships, involving the Asian American Civic Association and Quincy School Community Council, both located in Boston’s Chinatown community, and Bunker Hill Community College. The partnership adopted the acronym ETP (English Transitional Program).

The MELD program in Chinatown consists of three steps: an ESL class, Adult Basic Education (my class) and then enrollment at Bunker Hill in programs leading to either a one-year certificate or a two-year associate’s degree. Depending on their English proficiency, students can enter the program at any of the three steps.

At all levels students receive counseling throughout the transition from Chinatown to Bunker Hill, which lasts between 20 weeks and almost one year. Before the first classes began, teachers and program administrators agreed that helping students build an on-going collection of their work was worth a try. Since MELD was part of a national demonstration project, we had the freedom to experiment.

Previous Experience
My feelings about portfolio assessments go back to an experience in my previous career as a television news producer and writer in Boston. While teaching broadcast journalism courses at two local colleges, it was easy for me to have students assemble portfolios. Among other things, the curriculum called for students to write between 15 and 25 news stories ranging from politics to economics to items off the police blotter. They also had to put together a five-minute news program on an audio tape cassette. I instructed students to use this collection of their work as a presentation portfolio similar to the one described below. When students returned from their internships at radio and TV stations, they told me about excellent feedback from their employers. Many students heard similar things from their bosses such as, “These examples show me you know enough to get right to work. I don’t have to take time to teach you.”

In the past two years, I have read some of the recent literature about alternative assessments, beginning with David Rosen’s article, The Progress Portfolio (see Adventures in Assessment, Vol. 2: Ongoing, May, 1992). Especially helpful were the resources quoted at the end of David’s article. At that time the presentation portfolio model and its step-by-step process seemed like a natural for many of the students in my class at a displaced workers transition center. Unfortunately, since it was late in the cycle, I didn’t do anything with this idea.

A publication which had an even greater effect was It Belongs to me a Guide to Portfolio Assessment in Adult Education Programs (Fingeret, 1993) (reviewed by Steve Reuys in Adventures in Assessment, Vol. 5: The Tale of the Tools, October, 1993). Fingeret’s work, which crystallized many of my beliefs about alternative assessment, is a great “how-to-do-it” from people who have done it. Of greatest value for me was the section on moving materials from writing folders to portfolios and how students assess their collections on a regular basis and make the choices as to what constitutes “progress.”

Beginnings
During the first cycle of the MELD class, I was fortunate to have a group of students who liked to write, so writing became the focus of their portfolios. The ABE course content is theme-based and students generate most of the themes, such as the American college system, health care, workers’ rights, the legal system, and American government, economics, and culture.

Throughout much of the cycle, students were writing a composition a week, which gave us plenty to look at once we began the process of moving material from writing folders to their portfolios. Toward the end of the cycle, one of the issues that surfaced was fear of failure, especially in a college classroom the students next step.

“Certainly, I worry about the college class. I ask myself: If I go to Bunker Hill, can I understand the teacher’s lecture? Can I finish the homework? Can I qualify for the test? Can I—Oh, I don’t know.”

One of the ways we dealt with these fears was to have students conduct a self-assessment to show them how they improved in almost 23 weeks. (See Fig.1, Progress Checklist). In subsequent cycles, the self-assessment was done at the mid-point and again at the end of the course.

There were other things in students’ folders. (See Fig. 1-A, From Folders to Portfolios). One woman kept a running list of activities by skill area: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. We also had a math test with no computation, only brief descriptions in English of math terminology (the students’ often-articulated math weakness), such as perimeter, area, volume, radius, diameter, and circumference. Folders also included copies of Individual Education Plans (IEPs), which were updated with the program counselor about every six weeks. In many cases, students’ educational goals became more sharply focused through these documents (see Fig. 2, Individual Educational Plans).

All of this presented a big problem as we tried to wrap things up in the last two weeks of the cycle. There was simply too much material in the folders and too little time for students to reflect on what was meaningful as an indicator of improved English skills. In the end, each student decided what he or she would put into the portfolios. Since this was the first time we were using portfolios, the criteria we used included questions such as, “What kinds of things in your folder would give a teacher at Bunker Hill a good picture of your ability to use English?” “What things in your folder show that you used English well?” Among their entries were the kinds of compositions which they might be asked to do in college, such as compare and contrast or taking a point of view and defending it (one example, “would you disobey a law which you believed was unfair?”). Then copies were made. Original documents were returned to each student. A completed application form for admission to Bunker Hill was included and the portfolios were turned over to the college.

Portfolios at Bunker Hill
The turning point in the MELD program’s use of portfolio assessments came when Bunker Hill Community College agreed to use student portfolios as an alternative to its standardized Comprehensive English Language Test (CELT), which is given to non-native English speakers who apply for admission. The entire process of convincing college officials involved a discussion between Alan Shute, MELD’s program liaison at Bunker Hill, and Ralph Radell, chairman of the school’s ESL Department. Alan is a full-time employee who works out of Bunker Hill’s Center for Self-Directed Learning. He also teaches an ESL course at the college and becomes the advisor to all MELD students once they register for courses. Long before they get there, he introduces students to the resources available at the Learning Center, usually in the second week of each cycle. His presence is a key element of our program and makes the Chinatown connection to the school much more visible and credible. Once students enroll at the college, they can take many courses in the Learning Center as well as in a traditional classroom.

The first time Radell looked at students’ portfolios, he was not given their CELT scores. He was concerned about portfolio entries, for example, not knowing how many times their essays had been revised. A writing sample done under a 30-minute deadline on the same day as the CELT is given high priority in the evaluation of borderline test scores. After the next cycle, more and systematized information was provided. This time, CELT scores were included, along with results of each student’s work in the Learning Center over the past six months, attendance, and a student profile giving some of Alan’s personal observations for a more complete picture of the student’s abilities and motivation. Students are actively involved in the decision on where they will be placed. Before they register for courses, they talk with Alan about the challenge and pace of the courses in which their portfolios placed them. For the most part, students are happy with their placement by portfolio, although in a few cases, students have felt more comfortable starting in the lower level courses where their standardized test scores placed them (see Fig. 3, BHCC Results).

Lessons of the First Year
With each cycle, the process of introducing, implementing, and managing portfolios as alternative assessments gets easier, since all of us are sold on the idea that portfolios offer a more complete, in-depth picture of students than their test scores. The concept is still introduced during the first week of classes in Chinatown. Before students in the ESL class move up to the ABE class, they present a portfolio of their work to me. Now we try to show students that a portfolio is a way for them to measure their progress over a period of time. There is also an incentive for students, since we remind them Bunker Hill gives their portfolios equal weight to the standardized college placement test. MELD program graduates who are now students at the college come back to talk with current students and often mention how they felt comfortable with the academic ESL level placement made by their portfolio.

Subsequent classes do essays during the first week of the cycle on defining goals, which become the first entries in their portfolios (see Fig.4, Defining Goals). We give students more time to reflect on what’s in their folders. One ABE class took almost one hour to answer these questions 12 weeks into the cycle:

• What in your folder tells you that you have made progress?
• How do you know?
• What other things that you have done (not in the folder) also tell you that your English has improved?
• What else would you like to add to your folder? (See Fig. 5, Portfolio Evaluation).
  

This was a big change from the previous kinds of biweekly class evaluations I used, short answers (I liked ; I did not like ) and checklists, which were often rushed at the end of Friday classes and rarely told me more than I already knew.

We also allow more time for reflection at the end of each cycle, when students notice some of the biggest changes and I see the biggest rewards of portfolio assessments (see Fig. 5: How Did I Improve?).

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The Future
As we near the end of the second and final year of federal funding for the MELD program, we continue to refine the process of portfolio assessments. Now the portfolios are used not only as a presentation portfolio for enrolling at Bunker Hill, but also as an on-going document of students’ work once they get there. As their advisor, Alan tracks their progress and adds to the portfolio teachers’ mid-semester evaluations or recommendations for early intervention if a student is at risk. Also included are course schedules, transcripts and requirements for each student’s chosen certificate or degree program. The portfolio is then used when Alan advises students during registration periods.

After just one semester the results are encouraging. Only one student said she struggled with her placement according to the portfolio, but she passed the course. Another student who placed into non-ESL academic courses gave birth to her first child just before final exams and will have to make up incomplete work. All the MELD students moved up the following semester, a tribute to their motivation and commitment. Nine more graduates of our classes in Chinatown joined them at the college in January, 1994. There’s also evidence that portfolio assessments are taking hold in other parts of Bunker Hill. Some teachers in the college’s non-credit ESL division have followed MELD’s example and are encouraging their students to develop portfolios as an alternative placement to the CELT.

Progress Checklist -Fig.1
Individual Educational Plans - Fig. 2
Placement - Fig. 3
Excerpts on Defining goals - Fig. 4
Portfolios and Improvement - Fig. 5

This article was published in Adventures in Assessment, Volume 6 (Spring 1994), SABES/World Education, Boston, MA, Copyright 1994.

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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.