Alternative Assessments for Student Achievement- How to Make a Portfolio

If you have ever worked in a school that served grades 3-12, you likely are very familiar with your state’s district assessment. Some have individualized standardized assessments like the MCAS in Massachusetts, and other states opt to use a test that isn’t state specific like the Smarter Balanced Assessments. Regardless of what state you live in, ALL students under IDEA and Title 1 regardless of whether or not they have a disability and are accessing grade-level standards need to participate in whatever state wide assessment has been selected for where they live.

Obviously, it would not be fair or right to sit students with a cognitive disability in front of a test containing items they have had no instruction in. It might not even be possible, even with the use of accommodations, to capture a student’s learning using the standardized assessments. In order to make sure that all students’ achievement is being accurately measured, every state has come up with its own way to give what is called alternative assessments. This could be a dynamic assessment that tailors the questions to the learners’ responses, it could be a document review of the student’s data towards their IEP goals and objectives, or it could be a portfolio.

I teach in Massachusetts, and the portfolio system (called the MCAS-ALT) is the one we use for any students who are not found eligible to take the MCAS. Most states set a benchmark for the percentage of students in a district they want taking the alternative portfolio. In most states, this percentage is 1% which is roughly the percentage of students in the United States with significant cognitive disabilities. States set these guidelines to prevent districts from abusing the portfolio assessments, which get weighted towards the district’s achievement measures differently than the standardized test.

It is important to note that there are 2 types of portfolios. One type of portfolio measures student performance against alternative achievement standards. These are not grade level expectations, but rather below grade level standards that align with the student’s current abilities. The other type of portfolio is an accommodation for students who struggle to take standardized assessments, and their team decides that they would be more likely to show what they know using a portfolio or collection of their work throughout the school year to show mastery of grade level standards. In this blog post, I will be talking about tips for putting together a portfolio of alternative achievement standards for students with the highest support needs.

1. Use data you already have. I was guilty of ignoring this advice when I was a new teacher. I would sit down to pick the alternative achievement standards that each of my students would be using to show progress in math, reading, and writing, and I would pick skills that we hadn’t worked on yet or that we were working on in the future. What I wish I did, and what I do now that I have more experience, is to select standards that the student has already worked on this year. For example, if in the fall we worked with the student on identifying more vs fewer, I’m going to use that in my portfolio and use the data I’ve already collected! Save yourself time and headaches by showing the progress your students have made all year, not just when you started putting together the portfolio.
2. Have a second set of eyes look over everything. Portfolios often have many different parts that have to be completed in a standardized way to ensure the student will receive full credit for their work. You will end up looking at the pages and cover sheets and graphs so many times that you are bound to miss mistakes. Have a trusted coworker go over your portfolio when you think you are finished with a checklist of requirements to make sure you have everything you need included.
3. Pick standards students will be successful at. It is an amazing feeling when your students meet really high expectations, and that is something we want to do all the time not just portfolio season. However, I’ve seen many teachers try to use the portfolio as a time to work on things the student isn’t ready for yet. You do not get more points or more credit if you pick standards that are closer to grade level vs farther from grade level. You will get penalized, however, if the student you’re assessing doesn’t show any growth or progress on the standards you have picked. Just like when writing an IEP, it is important to set meaningful and attainable objectives for your students.
4. Don’t change a student’s regular access method. Another pitfall I’ve seen when reviewing other teachers’ portfolios is that they select assignments for the students to do that easily align with the standard and may even be pre-written for you, but don’t align with the student’s regular access method. By access method, I mean how a student communicates knowledge. Here is an example- a teacher of a student who primarily uses eye gaze to indicate choices and make selections for work asks their student to touch the picture that has the same initial sound as the target picture. There is nothing wrong with the objective itself, other than under accommodations the teacher put “uses eye gaze to demonstrate knowledge!” This shows the judges of the portfolio that you didn’t spend enough time editing and customizing the document, and can actually deduct points from a student.

Portfolios seem really daunting when you first start out, but the more you complete the better you’ll understand the process and they won’t take nearly as long to complete as they did when you first start teaching! If you have any questions about portfolios you are completing for your students, please send me an email or drop a comment below!