3.4.4. TYPES OF PORTFOLIO

• Growth portfolio: focuses on the student’s development and growth over time, and “will contain evidence of struggle, failure, success, and change” (Rolheiser, Bower, & Stevahn, 2000, p. 4).
• Working portfolios: serve as a holding bank for students’ work in progress before it moves into a display or an assessment portfolio or is sent home with the student. This type of portfolio can help the students reflect on their work, can help teachers assess students’ needs, and can be presented to demonstrate students’ growth over time or present the evidence of the student’s strengths and weaknesses.
• Display, showcase, or best work portfolios: contain samples of the student’s best work. Selected by the student, the pieces that have made the students proud and that demonstrate their highest level of achievement can be presented to the teacher. Best work portfolios can be collected over several academic years so that the student may also display the work to the next year’s teacher. High school students can also use portfolios during interviews with prospective colleges or employers. Best work portfolios can include work produced by the student in different academic disciplines, as well as some examples of extracurricular activities that help showcase the student’s skills. For example, write Danielson and Abrutyn (1997), while portfolios can contain students’ written assignments, videos, projects, resumes, and testimonials, they may also include “a project from scouts or a poem written at home” (p. 4).
• Assessment portfolio: primarily documents what students have learned, showing their ability to master the curriculum objectives. It is important to match the selection of items for the portfolio with the outcomes. “For example,” write Danielson and Abrutyn (1997, pp. 3-4), “if the curriculum specifies persuasive, narrative, and descriptive writing, an assessment portfolio should include examples of each type of writing. Similarly, if the curriculum calls for mathematical problem solving and mathematical communication, then the portfolio will include entries documenting both problem solving and communication, possibly in the same entry.”

Because the assessment portfolios are evidence of student achievement—and, in some situations, serve as criteria for important decisions, such as high school graduation, “it is essential that the procedures used to evaluate student work in the portfolio meet standards of validity and reliability,” write Danielson and Abrutyn (1997, p. 6). That means that it is important to develop “rubrics with clear criteria and descriptions of different levels of performance” (Danielson & Abrutyn, 1997, p. 6) that portfolios will be evaluated on.