Portfolio Assessment in Education: Goals and Benefits

Introduction to Performance Assessment

This paper examines performance assessments and how they assist in attaining educational goals. Educational assessment background is presented, and the ways in which performance assessments are used to achieve those goals are analyzed.

The effect of professional development on improving mathematics instruction has been examined in several studies. The first study involved thirty-six teachers who participated in professional development over three years. The fidelity with which teachers engaged in professional development significantly affected their judgment accuracy (Thiede et al., 2015). The second study involved sixty-four teachers drawn from eight schools that were randomly selected to serve either as controls or to receive professional development. Judgment accuracy was higher among teachers who received professional development and among those with a stronger ability to perceive students' computational skills than among those who did not receive professional development.

Field education is widely appreciated as a key tool for integrating theoretical knowledge with real-world practice. Furthermore, field education is the signature pedagogy for the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE). According to Shulman, the signature pedagogy of a profession is the characteristic mode of learning and teaching within that field (Tapp, Macke, & McLendon, 2012). Examples of signature pedagogy include conducting medical rounds in medicine and student teaching in teacher education. Three facets of professional practice are incorporated in this pedagogical approach: (1) thinking — the employment of professional knowledge; (2) the utilization of occupational skills; and (3) integrity — the operationalization of ethics and values in the field. Field education is a central method of learning and teaching through which students are socialized via social work education to function as practitioners (Tapp, Macke, & McLendon, 2012).

Educational Goal Assessment Background

Assessment involves evaluating and testing students in order to gauge the progress they have made toward the goals set for a program. It is valuable in any training process because it helps all involved parties measure their performance and how close they are to attaining defined performance metrics. In physical education, quality assessment models incorporate the following elements (New Hampshire Physical Education):

1. Formally stated instructional objectives (psychomotor, affective, and cognitive)
2. Pre-assessment of learners
3. Measuring the attainment of objectives through reliable and valid tests during and after delivering appropriate instructional activities
4. Evaluating the progress of students toward desired results

A quality assessment model is grounded in the following principles (New Hampshire Physical Education):

1. Establish appropriate instructional goals by drawing on local, state, and national guidelines and standards.
2. Select and use appropriate measures to determine student progress in meeting those goals. Assessment can take several forms; both informal and formal tools may be used.
3. Develop an evaluation scheme that reflects the achievement of instructional objectives. Grading should not be the only outcome within an evaluation scheme.

The purposes of assessment include the following:

1. Student learning: Educators use assessment to gauge the progress their students have made. They identify the strengths of their methods and the areas in need of growth. Various tests such as mid-terms and post-tests can be used, and the assessment may be unit-based or cover the entire school year.
2. Improvement of teaching: Teachers use assessments to determine which elements of their instructional methods are effective. What works is noted, and areas requiring improvement are addressed. Various assessment tools may be employed to determine the kinds of instruction most useful in meeting students' needs.
3. Communication: Assessments should be used as a means of communication among students, educators, parents, and administrators. Students and parents look to assessments to understand what is being learned and how it is being learned. Educators use assessments to evaluate teaching methods and identify gaps within a curriculum (New Hampshire Physical Education).
4. Program evaluation: Assessments can effectively gauge the effectiveness of a program and provide pointers as to what changes are needed to optimize the program and aid in attaining desired objectives.
5. Program support: Consistent assessment may be used to validate a program. The data gathered can be objective and can provide evidence of whether the objectives or goals being set are actually being attained by students and teachers. A sound measure of the program is possible when clear data is available.

Portfolio Assessment

General performance is a reflection of a student's ability to transfer skills and knowledge to different learning situations by applying various activity formats and instructional approaches, including the following instructional elements (2015 Educators Manual):

• Media and other materials (e.g., written material, computers, art materials)
• Activity formats (e.g., group discussions, experiments, classroom projects, and paired research)
• Response methods (e.g., oral, visual, word-processed, handwritten)
• Presentation formats (multimedia, oral, written)
• Application of skills in a community setting (e.g., in a grocery store)

Trained and qualified scorers examine every portfolio strand and use the following criteria to score each rubric area, given the evidence the portfolio presents (2015 Educators Manual):

• Completeness of portfolio material
• Complexity level at which the student meets curriculum framework standards in the subject in question
• The student's accuracy in responding to questions or performing various tasks
• The degree of independence the student demonstrates while responding to questions or performing tasks
• Self-evaluation during each activity or task (e.g., self-correcting, reflection, goal setting)
• Generalized execution of skills across various settings and contexts using various response methods and materials

References

New Hampshire Physical Education K-12 Assessment Document. (2007, January 1). Retrieved April 7, 2015, from

2015 Educator's Manual for MCAS-Alt. (2014, January 1). Retrieved April 7, 2015, from

Thiede, K., Jesse, D., Brendefur, J., Osguthorpe, R., Carney, M., Bremner, A., & Sutter, J. (2015). Can teachers accurately predict student performance? Teaching and Teacher Education, 49, 36–44.

Tapp, K., Macke, C., & McLendon, T. (2012). Assessing student performance in field education. Field Scholar, 2(2).

Campbell, C. (2015). How a portfolio of schools meets students' needs. Educational Leadership, 72(5).

Cadd, M. (2012). The electronic portfolio as assessment tool and more: The Drake University model. The IALLT Journal, 42(1).

Williams, S., & Staulters, M. (2010). Literacy instruction in rural elementary schools in Jamaica: Response to professional development. The Journal of Negro Education, 79(2), 97–111.

Arter, J., & Spandel, V. (n.d.). Using portfolios of student work in instruction and assessment. Retrieved April 8, 2015, from

The pros and cons of assessing students through portfolios. (n.d.). Retrieved April 8, 2015, from http://www.teach-nology.com/litined/assessment/alternative/portfolios/