The Advantages of Portfolio Assessments

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A portfolio is a systematic collection of a student's work and related materials that allows a teacher or potential employer to comprehensively assess and evaluate the student's activities, accomplishments and achievements. Portfolio assessment is a process that encourages reflective learning and teaching and arms a student with the best knowledge of themselves. While portfolio assessment can be used in any subject area, it most commonly is used in fine art, graphic design, photography, journalism and music.

Self-Evaluation

Portfolio assessment allows the student to continuously self-evaluate, periodically reflecting on his past work and thinking critically as he prepares to meet future goals. Self-evaluation can help build the foundation for a confident, competent student.

Student Work Samples

While standardized-test results are a general assessment of the knowledge retained by a student, portfolio assessment provides genuine and varied samples of a student's work. The performance is measured through work across a period of time, rather than on a given day, providing flexibility in how different students accomplish their learning goals.

Cooperative Learning Activities

Portfolio assessment involves the student as well as her teacher and peers. This may include peer evaluation, tutoring, cooperative learning groups and peer conferencing. These cooperative measures often help students establish healthy confidence in themselves and their communities.

Structure and Flexibility

Portfolio assessment effectively combines structure and flexibility. The flexibility of portfolio assessment allows students with different learning styles to be measured fairly thanks to the inclusion of multiple materials, data and techniques. Teachers and students share the responsibility for collecting and responding to the data, teaching students valuable skills, such as evaluation and organization.

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