Bibliography of Assessment Alternatives: Portfolios

• articulate well that the goal of portfolios is to allow students to take control of learning
• describe the kinds of classrooms in which portfolios are most likely to be successful
• outline a step-by-step plan for getting started and involving parents
• describe a procedure for teaching self-evaluation and goals-setting skills
• help with student-teacher portfolio conferences
• include complete portfolios for a second- and fifth-grade student
• include an appendix of reproducible letters, questionnaires, forms, and charts
(AL# 400.3PORCLT)
Coalition of Essential Schools. [Various Articles on Exhibitions of Mastery and Setting
Standards], 1982-1992. Available from: Coalition of Essential Schools, Brown
University, Box 1969, One Davol Sq., Providence, RI 02912, (401) 863-3384.
Although not strictly about portfolios, this series of articles discusses performance
assessment topics and goals for students that are relevant. The articles are: Rethinking
Standards; Performances and Exhibitions: The Demonstration of Mastery ; Exhibitions:
Facing Outward, Pointing Inward; Steps in Planning Backwards; Anatomy of an Exhibition;
and The Process of Planning Backwards.
These articles touch on the following topics: good assessment tasks to give students, the
need for good performance criteria, the need to have clear targets for students that are then
translated into instruction and assessment, definition and examples of performance
assessment, brief descriptions of some cross-disciplinary tasks, the value in planning
performance assessments, and the notion of planning backwards (creating a vision for a high
school graduate, taking stock of current efforts to fulfill this vision, and then planning
backward throughout K-12 to make sure that we are getting students ready from the start).
No technical information nor performance criteria are included.
(AL# 150.6VARARD)
Coleman, Laurence J. Portfolio Assessment: A Key to Identifying Hidden Talents and
Empowering Teachers of Young Children. Located in: Gifted Child Quarterly 38,
Spring 1994, pp. 65-69.
The “Early Assessment for Exceptional Potential of Young Minority and/or Economically
Disadvantaged Students” project trained teachers to use portfolios to assess exceptional
potential in young students and to alter their instruction. Project participants first listed 18
primary identifiers of exceptional potential. These included such things as “exceptional
Assessment Resource Library, (503) 275-9582 17 Portfolio Bibliography
(formerly Test Center) NWREL, December 1996