Student Portfolio and Profiles: A Holistic Approach to Multiple Assessment in Whole Language Classrooms.

The assessment process in whole language classrooms in the Honolulu (Hawaii) School District is described. The development of alternative measures based on actual student performances was a natural outcome of the teachers' training and implementation of a holistic education/whole language program. Multiple and multidimensional assessment emerged from the holistic perspective, resulting in performance-based measures that included authentic samples of students' work. The systerratic gathering of selected works led to the development of student portfolios and the student summary profile. Assessment is treated as an integral part of the instructional and learning processes rather than as pre/post measures on test items. Formal and informal measures and process and product measures are being tested in Chapter 1 programs and in Students of Limited English Proficiency programs. Three years of development have led to some significant results in sustained growth in student achievement. Classroom teachers are recognizing the worth of assessment and evaluation as an integral part of instruction. Performance-based measures developed through portfolios can serve as a significant way to measure student growth and development more accurately. Thirteen figures and one table are included. (SLD) *********************************************************************** Aeproouccions suppileo ey WKS are the best tnat can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** U.S. DEPARTMENT Of EDUCATION °Mc* of Educational Rematch and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES RIC) INFORMATION CENTE S'inis document Ms been reproduced as recanted from the person or oisanizetton originating O 'Amor changes have been made to improve reproduction Quaid,/ PoantsolvowiY00.0nSatat,i.thISCIOCu r"." do not naCOSSnlY represent otboal OERI Position Or Policy "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY 3)00.mo) y Eivok, TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." STUDENT PORTFOLIO AND PROFILES: A HOLISTIC APPROACH TO MULTIPLE ASSESSMENT IN WHOLE LANGUAGE CLASSROOMS Donald Y. Enoki Honolulu School District A paper presented at the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, April 20-24, 1992 2 BEST COPY AVAILABLE STUDENT PORTFOLIO AND PROFILES: A HOLISTIC APPROACH TO MULTIPLE ASSESSMENT IN WHOLE LANGUAGE CLASSROOMS BMW= ti A growing national concern over tho limitations of traditional evaluation methods based primarily on standardized norm-referenced tests in measuring and reporting student performance, has led to the development of major research efforts in multiple assessment. Currently, most forms of assessments attempt to measure highly specific and specialized kinds of knowledge, yet with limited application outside of the schools. Students are tested and evaluated for what they know rather than what they understand and are capable of applying. Teaching practices which emphasize the acquisition of language skills only, traditionally result in knowledge learned rather than knowledge understood and applied. These kinds of skills have very little relevance outside of the classroom. The focus of assessment practices should be on the 'mastery of ongoing processes' (R. Zessoules and H. Gardner, 1992) such as, the students capability of integrating information to form higher levels of conceptualization and not simply possession of information and the mastery of skills. Assessment must be viewed as an on-going process and an integral part of the instruction and not as gross 'pre/post' measures of student growth to be compared with everyone else but with himself/herself. Recent research and pilot testing on multiple assessment and multiple measures have begun to demonstrate various alternatives in gathering, validating, and measuring student progress and in determining proficiencies. Major focus has been on student performancebased measures within the framework of holistic education and whole language teaching/leaming. Authentic assessment based on the actual performance data that are gathered on the students' work, serve as the basis for determining classroom progress. Multiple-measure assessment is a major attempt at placing assessment where it rightfully belongs not as measurements to drive the curriculum and instruction. as. in the case with traditional norm-referenced tests but rather, places assessment as an integral, and on-going part of the curriculum and instruction in real and authentic settings. A BITIEWAIIESGBEICK The Honolulu School District in the Hawaii school system is identified as the largest of seven (7) districts in the state. The District located in the urban City of Honolulu consists of fifty seven (57) public schools with an enrollment of over thirty five thousand (35,000), including nearly fifty percent (4,500) of the state's ten thousand (10,000) second language speaking students whose dominant language is not English. These students represent over twenty five (25) different languages and cultures in the District and are identified as recent immigrants or second-generation children of non-English speaking parents. The Students of Limited English Proficiency (SLEP) program serves as the major instructional program in grades K to 12 to azaist these students to learn English as a second language (ESL) and to adjust to the American culture in the Hawaiian setting. The