The Local Benefits and Burdens of Large‐scale Portfolio Assessment

ABSTRACT This paper examines research on the use of portfolios in large‐scale assessments in the US. Overall, the research indicates that portfolio assessments produce many of the desired instructional benefits. However, the assessments also place considerable burdens on teachers, and these burdens do not appear to lessen during the first two or three years of implementation. The author raises concerns about the long‐term sustainability of portfolio assessments without improvement in student performance, the use of portfolios in high stakes accountability contexts, and the difficulty of aligning specific scoring procedures with broader curricular goals.