A study explored the ways information about first-grade children's uses of literacy at home might inform school-based assessment of children's literacy knowledge. Subjects, 10 families (all Caucasian) in a small suburban community of white-collar professionals and administrators and 14 families (Caucasian, Latino, and African-American) in a large urban community, contributed at least three artifacts from the home literacy environment to the children's classroom literacy portfolio. To provide data sources, the artifacts were read and sorted according to category, and how teachers used the artifacts to construct the child's literacy profile was analyzed. Results indicated that: (1) the level of parent participation in the urban setting was higher than the participation in the suburban setting; (2) the artifacts in the two settings presented clear differences in children's purposes and motivation for literacy uses in each community; (3) the process of joining home artifacts with school artifacts provided teachers with a context for assessing the strength of the curriculum as well as knowledge of individual children; and (4) the process of including parents as partners in constructing the portfolio influenced not only the evaluation of the child's literacy, but also the parents' understanding of the classroom and the teachers' understanding of the home. (One table of data and 10 figures representing home literacy artifacts are included; 13 references are attached.) (RS)