Contact:

David Niguidula – david@richerpicture.com

What purpose does your assessment tool serve? 

Our Digital Portfolios are designed for K-12 students to reflect on their learning, and to help students show standards – yet express their own individuality.

Please indicate which category best describes your tool:

a.        _____ Tools that allow users to ask questions of data (tools for collecting and disaggregating data, including surveys, self-reported data and standardized data)

b.       ____ Tools for observation (including teacher observation and observation of student behavior or performance)

c.        _X__ Tools for reviewing student products (including electronic or digital portfolios)

Who is the audience for this assessment tool?

Each school selects its primary audience. At some elementary schools, the primary audience are parents; in some high schools, the primary audience are teachers or advisors who review the portfolio to determine if the student is ready to graduate.

What technology is used?

The Digital Portfolio is a web-based tool. Most schools begin by using a web template, editing with a program such as Microsoft FrontPage or Netscape Composer. Increasingly, though, schools are moving beyond HTML files and asking for the information to be stored in a web-accessible database. This can be hosted by the district or through our organization.

Approximately how many people are currently using this system?

What professional development (for students or assessors) is required to use the tool?

If students or teachers are comfortable with basic technology functions (e-mail, word processing, surfing the web), then they can learn the basics of creating an entry for a portfolio in about 45 minutes. However, what takes significant professional development is the time spent on assessment: How do we decide what goes into the portfolio? How do we know what is considered “good enough”?

To use the tool effectively, what else should the school have in place?

The school needs three things: administrative leadership, technical support, and teacher buy-in. Ideally, the school should have already considered what it wants to do with portfolios – and how it will share student work – before developing a technological version.

If you haven't already addressed it, how does your tool help students or teachers demonstrate that they are meeting standards?

The main menu of the Digital Portfolio lists the standards that students are expected to meet. Each time that a student enters a piece of work, he or she has to consider which standards are being addressed.

What questions would you like participants to address?

• How can a digital portfolio help a school in the process of change?
• How can we use this tool as a supplement – or an alternative – to the standardized assessments prevalent in most states?