Portfolios and a Backward Approach to Assessment

What does a letter grade have to do with what has been learned? Has a student mastered a concept just because he or she has earned an A? When parents look at their child's report card, do they know what was taught or learned or what difficulties their child may be having? As students get older, it appears that they share less and less with their parents, which creates a gap between school and home. Results of a survey conducted in 2001 at Rice Lake Middle School in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, involving 154 students and 34 parents showed that only 22 percent of students bring schoolwork home to share with their parents on a regular basis. In the same survey, 82 percent of parents and students agreed that learning is more important than grades. Often, when parents do see something from school it is because the child needs help, rather than to celebrate the successes of that child.