What educators around the country are finding out as they work with portfolios is reviewed, focusing on the classroom. Portfolios are purposeful, collaborative, self-reflective collections of student work generated during the process of instruction. Although they can be used in any academic discipline, portfolios are widely used in English and…

When evaluating student performance, teachers often find themselves in a quandary. Teachers must judge, sometimes with firm frankness, while also demonstrating caring. Fortunately, assessment in schools is moving away from judgment to embrace the notion of teachers and students sitting beside one another during the teaching, learning, and…

This journal presents the following articles: "Introduction: Volume 14--Examining Performance" (Marie Cora) "Fair Assessment Practices: Giving Students Equitable Opportunities to Demonstrate Learning" (Linda Suskie); "Assessing Oral Communication at the Community Learning Center Development of the OPT (Oral Proficiency Test)" (JoAnne Hartel and…

This special double issue focuses on the issue of alternative assessment and its place in educational reform. "Alternative Assessment: A National Perspective" (T. Stefonek) emphasizes that the fundamental purposes of new assessment methods are grounded in educational goals, meaningful outcomes, and curricular and instructional programs…

The five articles of this theme issue focus on new developments in the evaluation of science education programs that have both substantive and theoretical implications for the field of evaluation. Past and current evaluation approaches are reviewed, and an overview is given of new assessments consistent with new curriculum developments. (SLD)

This document describes performance assessments (PAs) (alternative assessments or authentic assessments). PA requires students to perform a task rather than select an answer on a ready-made list. Some methods that have been used successfully to assess performance include open-ended or extended response exercises, extended tasks, and portfolios.…

"The ERIC Review" is published three times a year and announces research results, publications, and new programs relevant to each issue's theme topic. This issue explores performance-based assessment via two principal articles: "Performance Assessment" (Lawrence M. Rudner and Carol Boston); and "Alternative Assessment:…

The four articles in this theme issue provide an overview of assessment in the social studies and the rationale behind the movement for a more authentic assessment of learning outcomes. In the first article, "Thinking as an Unnatural Act," William T. Daly offers a clear rationale for social studies teachers to re-examine the methods of assessing…

The seven chapters of this issue focus on technical qualities of performance assessments and report the findings of systematic empirical inquiries. They add to the body of research that shows that performance assessment, although time consuming and expensive, merits the serious attention of educators. (SLD)

This updated annotated bibliography presents articles about portfolio assessment uses collected and reviewed by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NREL) Test Center to date. Documents have been obtained from a number of sources, including consortium efforts by the Northwest Evaluation Association and the Alaska State Department of…

This monograph provides a status report on issues related to accountability, including standards and assessments, data systems, and the role of incentives for schools, teachers, and students in improving student achievement. Using information gathered from the literature and interviews with state administrators of vocational education, this paper…

This serial is in four sections. Part 1--Features: "American Social Policy"; "A Generational Perspective on Young Adults"; "Rising Income Inequality and Poverty"; "A Victim of Policy Neglect? 'Wealth Inequality'"; "Balancing Growth with Economic Equality"; "Economic Inequality: 'A Comparative…

This newsletter reports on the activities of Equipped for the Future (EFF), which is a National Institute for Literacy (NIFL) initiative that develops content standards to ensure that every adult can gain the knowledge and skills needed to fulfill real-world responsibilities as workers, parents, and citizens. A message from the NIFL…