Bibliography of Assessment Alternatives: Portfolios

Fingeret, Hanna Arlene. It Belongs To Me: A Guide to Portfolio Assessment in Adult
Education Programs, 1993. Available from: Literacy South, Snow Building,
331 W. Main St., Durham, NC 27701, (919) 682-8108.
This is a short paper on the use of portfolios in adult literacy programs. Although the paper
states that it emphasizes portfolios to assess skill levels, actual steps for implementation also
imply their use as an instructional tool. For example, the first step is "clarify your beliefs
about literacy and their relationship to how you work with students." Some assistance with
student self-reflection is also provided. Not included are samples of student work, criteria, or
technical information.
(AL# 440.3ITBELM)
Flanagan, Anna. Vermont Writing Portfolio Is Revised. Located in: The Council
Chronicle, April 1994, p. 2. Available from: National Council of Teachers of English,
1111 W. Kenyon Rd., Urbana, IL 61801.
This document is a newspaper article on the status of Vermont's writing portfolio in grades 4
and 8. It is based, in part, on a presentation by Geof Hewitt. The article addresses Vermont's
attempts to improve the scoring reliability of it's portfolios. The major change is in the
design of the scoring guide.
(AL# 470.3VERWRP2)
Flood, James and Diane Lapp. Reporting Reading Progress: A Comparison Portfolio for
Parents. Located in: Reading Teacher, March 1989, pp. 508-514.
The authors describe the content of a reading portfolio designed to show student progress to
parents. They suggest the portfolio contain test scores (norm-referenced and criterionreferenced),
informal assessments (IRIs), samples of student writing at the beginning and end
of the school year, student self-evaluations, and samples of the material students can read at
the beginning and end of the school year. The article includes three-questions for students to
promote self-analysis of reading processes, but does not include sample checklists or IRI's.
(AL# 400.3REPREP)
Forster, Margaret, and Geoff Masters. Portfolios Assessment Resource Kit, 1996. Available
from: Australian Council for Educational Research, 19 Prospect Hill Rd., Camberwell,
Victoria, Australia, 3124, (+613) 9277 5656, fax: (+613) 9277 5678.
The authors propose that all portfolios can be described along three dimensions: (1) purpose
(formative assessment and diagnosis v. summarizing achievement at the end of instruction),
(2) content (everything v. a small, select sample of work), and (c) who selects (student v.
"external agency"). They give examples of what, in their opinion, are three basic portfolio
systems that represent different combinations of these dimensions:
Assessment Resource Library, (503) 275-9582 27 Portfolio Bibliography
(formerly Test Center) NWREL, December 1996