TESTS WORTH TAKING - USING PORTFOLIOS FOR ACCOUNTABILITY IN KENTUCKY

In response to the 1990 Kentucky Education Reform Act, the Kentucky De partment of Education began requiring writing portfolios from all four th, eighth, and twelfth grade students. These portfolios were intended to accomplish three goals: (1) to improve the amount and kind of writ ing produced by students in the schools, (2) to train teachers to asse ss individual student writing in order to provide better instruction, and (3) to hold schools accountable for the progress of all students. During the first two years of the portfolio requirement, the Departmen t of Education focused on the accountability aspect of the assessment, stressing the rewards and sanctions schools could expect based on the ir students' performance. This emphasis influenced the meaning that po rtfolios came to have for the faculty and students of the high school described in this study. I observed the way the nine members of the Pi ne View English Department interpreted and implemented the portfolio a ssessment during its second year. They experienced the assessment as a test of their competence as a department and felt great pressure to p roduce good portfolio scores but little incentive to explore ways port folios might be used in the classroom. Consequently, while the assessm ent portfolios did change the amount and kind of writing produced by P ine View students and the criteria used to assess student writing, it did not demonstrably alter the way student writing was understood or t aught.