A Think Twice Review of:

Portfolios – A Backward Step in School Accountability

Think Twice - Sep 19, 2007

Publisher/Think Tank - Lexington Institute

Author(s) -

This report argues that the current standardized testing system should be retained and criticizes the use of multiple measures, particularly portfolios, to assess school performance.

Reviewer(s) - William Mathis, University of Vermont

Mathis’s review concludes that the Lexington report is ill-founded and of little value as research or policy development. Mathis notes that the report more closely resembles political propaganda than a research report. According to Mathis, It provides no new data, examines only two studies done and includes only results favorable to the report’s conclusions. In addition, the report is problematic because its author presents portfolios as representative of all non-test measures of student performance – which they are not – and concludes that non-test based measures of performance are ineffective.