STUDENT PORTFOLIOS

The student portfolio is part of the Department of Education’s assessment plan of student progress and teacher education program effectiveness.

William Jewell College Department of Education Teacher Education Programs are based on professional standards from:

1. Missouri Standards for Teacher Education Programs

    2.   Renaissance Group Standards

Additional information on Teacher Work Sampling is available at “Teaching Processes Prompt and Scoring Rubric”.

Construction of the portfolio begins when the student first takes courses in education.  Each instructor will recommend assignments that should be placed in the portfolio as evidence of knowledge or skills that meet specific standards.  The faculty have compiled and students have been provided a copy of a matrix illustrating which standards each artifact meets. 

The purpose of the portfolio is to document student progress and development.  In each course and field work experience the student acquires knowledge and skills that help them grow into an intentional teacher.  The assignment artifact(s) from each course are evidence that each teacher education student has acquired a specific body of knowledge and/or a set of skills.  Assignments may also include reflection pieces wherein students must discuss how their understanding of a topic or their skill has developed. 

The portfolio will grow throughout the program with the culminating piece of the portfolio being the teacher work sample.  The teacher work sample is a unit which the teacher education student begins to design in the education courses taken during the semester just prior to student teaching.  The teacher education student then completes and implements the unit plan (using the standards and guidelines of the Renaissance Group) during student teaching.  The teacher work sample unit requires not just development of a unit but reflection within that design about why the teacher has designed instruction in the way that he/she has done and reflection on the results (student achievement) after implementation of that unit.  The teacher work sample must be done satisfactorily to pass student teaching. 

Portfolio – Developing as a professional

One of the ways that students will monitor their own development as a teaching professional is through construction of a developmental portfolio.  Instructors in each education course will identify artifacts from that course that should be included in the teacher education student’s portfolio.  Each item will have been evaluated (graded) by the instructor of that course and the teacher education student should reflect if this is his/her best work or if the artifact could be improved and/or if additional study and/or tutoring/assistance is needed in this subject or skill set.  If the instructor believes the artifact does not demonstrate competency at the appropriate developmental level he/she will provide that feedback via written feedback, assignment score or on a care team form.

This process allows teacher education students to grow developmentally.  Students do pieces of analysis in specific courses, building their understanding of the teaching/learning process and teaching skills as they go.  This also provides the faculty with measures of student progress along the way.

Teacher Work Sample

As part of the portfolio process Department of Education faculty decided to adopt the Renaissance Group Standards and rubrics starting in the 2005-2006 academic year.  These standards will be used as the organizer for portfolio artifacts as decided upon by faculty members as discussed above.

In addition to artifacts which emerge from early course and field work the student’s final portfolio will include a teacher work sample done using the Renaissance Group’s standards and rubrics.  The teacher work sample will be started during methods course work and will be finalized and done during student teaching. 

Teacher Work Sample Product

The Renaissance Group based their standards on research with Kentucky teachers that indicated the factors that distinguished successful schools from unsuccessful schools and found that successful schools had:

• Intentional verbal communication about curriculum
• Used test scores to identify curriculum gaps.
• Used samples of student work to inform instruction.
• Aligned instruction and assessment with state learning goals. 

Therefore the TWS product is a unit designed by the teacher education student  The focus is on causing student learning and using data about the actual performance of students to inform instructional decision-making. 

This practice underscores the fact that it is the teacher’s job to cause P-12 student learning – to measure that learning and to be accountable for it.  By doing the TWS unit, our teacher education students demonstrate that they are influencing P-12 student learning.

The actual process is based on unit planning – design instruction to cause learning:

• Starts with standards – what standards inform instruction?  From standards the process moves to
• Assessment
  • Define your learning objectives and the evidence that will show you that students have achieved those objectives [what will it look like]. 
  • Once you know what evidence of student learning you want to see you can create assessments that will evaluate/measure that evidence.
    • Must have some form of pre-assessment (to assess prior knowledge and inform instructional decision making process);
    • Must have formative assessment (to gauge understanding/progress of students; modify; design instruction for individual needs)
    • Must have post-assessment (final) assessment which shows what each student learned during the unit.  Nearly identical to pre-assessment OR based on same objectives/criteria (if not paper/pencil or reproduceable performance)

• Having planned assessments tied to objectives the teacher education student can then plan instruction –
  • Consider the instructional context – what is prior knowledge of students? Who are your students?  How do the individuals learn?  What is the community/societal/cultural context of these students/this classroom?  What will be the influence of all these factors on instruction?
  • Plan instruction to accomplish the objectives and to lead to the planned assessments – here are the elements of
    • Lesson plans/instructional activities (tied to standards and objectives),
    • Time for instruction – creating a unit calendar. 

• Implement instruction –
  • Start with pre-assessment and use that data to modify plan before you start;
  • Instruction as planned with formative assessment -- modifying as you go along for group and individual needs based on that data – relate to calendar for unit – time management – how to accomplish objectives within the limited time but still meeting student needs.
  • Post-instructional assessment – nearly identical to pre-assessment and THIS then allows you to CHART THE STUDENT’s GAIN – how did their knowledge/skills/performance increase DURING THIS unit?

• Chart each individual’s gain in graph based on learning objectives; chart class growth in bar graph on each objective. 

• Analyze student performance for each learning objective and consider implications for future instruction.  Is there something that needs to be re-taught/reviewed prior to moving on to next unit?  Are there individual students who need individualized assistance (with this content and/or in general – are there skills that need to be built?  What modifications might individual students need in future instruction?).

The teacher education student is responsible for compiling his/her own portfolio on paper or electronically but ultimately the portfolio must be submitted to the Department of Education on a CD so we recommend keeping the portfolio in both forms and making back-up copies.  The Department of Education has a CD-writer and scanner available for student use, if you need access please see the Department of Education Secretary in Marston 110, ext. 5498 or (816) 415-7627.