Portfolios for assessment and reporting in NSW primary schools

Abstract

Two trends influencing school assessment practice in New South Wales (NSW) in the 90s are the authentic assessment movement, involving performance and situated assessment, and outcomes-based education, which was introduced with the national curriculum. Portfolios emerged relatively recently as an assessment and reporting strategy that exemplifies both trends. This article reports a study involving a survey of 64 randomly selected primary schools in NSW, and a case study of a single school. The purpose of the study was to ascertain teacher interpretations of the purpose of portfolios; to identify what teachers include as contents; to determine how portfolios are used to assess and report; and to examine the impact of portfolio use on one school's assessment and reporting practices. The results indicate that teachers regard portfolios as strategic collections of student work demonstrating the achievement of outcomes, particularly in English and maths, and that student self-assessment and teacher-student collaboration in content selection are not yet well developed. These results are explained both in terms of the context and the recency of the innovation.