Portfolio Assessment: Whose Work Is It? issues in the Use of Classroom Assignments for Accountability

In this article, we examine one challenge to the integration of classroom and large-scale portfolio assessment. When raters working outside the classroom context are asked to make judgments about an individual student based on a portfolio of work composed with the support of peers, teachers, and parents, whose work is being judged? We argue that certain answers to this question could threaten the validity of inferences that can be drawn about individual performance from portfolios constructed in the social complexities of classroom life. We begin by examining the ways in which the nature of classroom work may undermine the validity of "individual" portfolio scores. We illustrate with Center for Research in Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) data from both an evaluation of a statewide assessment program and a laboratory study of the scorability of elementary writing portfolios. We conclude with implications of the "whose work?" issue for portfolio assessment policy and practice.