Teachers and administrators attest that the current workshop and seat-time approach to professional development has not been working. Microcredentials offer a new approach. Inspired by the badging movement, microcredentials offer teachers opportunities to document their learning using work samples, videos, and other artifacts. Based on this…

Managing the human capital in education requires measuring teacher performance. To measure performance, administrators need to combine measures of practice with measures of outcomes, such as value-added measures, and three measurement systems are needed: classroom observations, performance assessments or work samples, and classroom walkthroughs.…

In this article, the author suggests solutions to unleash student creativity. The article focuses on the author's idea for electronic portfolios, Web-based collections of a student's work. To put her idea into practice, the author created an electronic portfolio project that spanned five 90-minute class sessions (about one session every week or…

The Teacher Assessment Project at Stanford University focused on both simulation exercises and portfolios. Although portfolios are messy to construct, difficult to score, and vulnerable to misrepresentation, they provide a connection to the contexts and personal realities of real teaching and help document teaching and learning over time.…

Faculty at an Illinois school felt that going beyond test scores to collect more substantive evidence of their curriculum and teaching seemed innovative, but underestimated how important the selection and assembly process was to the children. Over time, faculty learned to "hang loose" about portfolio contents, specify containers, make…

In this article, the author argues that, if schools truly were based on standards, they would look much different than they do now. She describes the standards-based system of an experimental school in Colorado. Here, she discusses how students document their work in a variety of ways, such as: (1) various types of portfolios; (2) oral delivery;…

As the Annenberg Institute's National School Reform Faculty collect, present, and consider their cooperative efforts, they offer beginnings of a theoretical framework for teacher portfolios and practical guidelines for their construction and presentation. Teachers can use portfolios to demonstrate improvement, tackle important questions, and…

State-supported teacher networks like the California Subject Matter Projects and the Vermont Portfolio Networks can be a useful alternative to conventional inservice training programs. Networks are cost-effective and connect teachers with resources, provide ongoing support, and expand teachers' leadership opportunities. A mix of constructed and…

Because professional teaching portfolios serve as visual representations of teachers, their contents should be determined by individual teachers and should vary significantly. Portfolios might contain a table of contents, resume, statement of philosophy, official documents, letters of recommendation, evaluations, photographs, self-goals, goals for…

"Performance assessment" is a broad term covering many types of testing methods that requires students to demonstrate their competencies or knowledge by creating an answer or a product. Seven common forms of performance assessment are constructed-response items, writing, essay responses, oral discourse, exhibitions, experiments, and portfolios.…

Howard Gardner's biggest concern about American students is their lack of genuine understanding--the ability to apply knowledge, skills, and other attainments successfully in new situations. His book "The Unschooled Mind" develops a learning approach based on Piaget's cognitive development theory, Gardner's own multiple intelligences…

For all its attractiveness, alternative assessment is fraught with complications and difficulties, as Rhode Island's experience shows. Although alternative assessment can be systematic, there are no ways to rate large numbers of performance-based tasks, portfolios, interviews, exhibits, or essays. Some standardization is necessary, and assessment…

A writing instructor describes her experience teaching 15 San Quentin Prison inmates how to write fiction, revise their work, and submit it for publication. Inmates were polite, demanded advice on mechanics, and avoided writing about reasons for life sentences. Insights later emerged in stories. (MLH)

Educational portfolios can happen, even within extremely incompatible organizational structures. When designed in accordance with four principles (opportunities for meaning-making, interactions with people who matter, assemblage over an extended period, and a supportive presentation context) these projects can be transformative and profoundly…

A 3-year pilot study of alternative assessments for over 500 beginning teachers revealed numerous possibilities, including high-inference classroom observations, semistructured interviews, structured simulation tasks, performance-based assessment center exercises, portfolios, videotaped teaching episodes, and revamped multiple-choice examinations.…