ABSTRACT

Portfolios can be used for hiring, evaluation, professional development, license renewal, performance bonuses, and advanced certification. Portfolios are teacher-directed because teachers determine what to include in the portfolio, even with an externally imposed framework that is highly prescriptive. Teachers choose the content and the format of entries. The greater potential for portfolios, however, possibly lies in their use for professional development either in conjunction with evaluation or as a separate activity. Portfolios provide an opportunity to “freeze” teaching moments and extract them from the daily routine of teaching for closer examination and analysis. Portfolios supplement other methods of evaluation, primarily observation, and, taken together, they can provide a “union of insufficiencies, a marriage of complements, in which the flaws of individual approaches to assessment are offset by the virtues of their fellows.” Many of the drawbacks to portfolios can be addressed through more specific design guidelines and formative support within the local context.