Required Components of Graduation Portfolios as a School-Wide Diploma Assessment

These components were drawn from Rhode Island's existing portfolio systems and represent the minimum components that a graduation portfolio system must contain in order to be considered a valid graduation portfolio for the purposes of School-Wide Diploma Assessment. A school or district is free to add additional elements to their system and students certainly can maintain other types of portfolios that do not include all these elements as part of the customary teaching and learning process. The required graduation portfolio components include:

Aligned Evidence
Valid and reliable evidence aligned with the school's Expectations for Student Learning/Learner Outcomes and integrated with the other components of the school's/district's Graduation by Proficiency system.

Sufficient Evidence
Sufficient number and types of entries to demonstrate proficiencies defined by the school's Expectations for Student Learning/Learner Outcomes. The graduation portfolio should contain entries from each of the core areas (ELA, mathematics, science, social studies, the Arts, and technology). Graduation portfolios will help ensure that students have sufficient opportunities to meet all of the requirements of their school's graduation by proficiency system. At a minimum there should be many entries that demonstrate both content knowledge and applied learning proficiencies that fall into three broad categories:

• Required Entries
  These are entries that have undergone a review process and / or been identified as valid and reliable. These entries might include common tasks, anchor assignments, district or school developed tasks.
• Area of Special Interest Entries
  At least one entry should provide evidence of an extended independent research project or activity demonstrating many of the applied learning skills as outlined in the New Diploma System Technical Assistance Bulletin.
• Student Selected Entries
  A number of entries should be entries chosen by the student to meet the requirements that the graduation portfolio reflect both student choice and an area of specialized interest.

Evaluated Evidence
Each entry should be evaluated using valid and reliable rubrics and/or a review process.

Student Reflections
Formative student reflections for specific tasks or entries including the entries from the six core areas.

Summative Reflection
An overall summative reflection on the collection of entries in the graduation portfolio that includes:

• Reflection on the best work in the portfolio;
• How the body of work is connected to both personal goals (beyond high school) and the school's expectations;
• The learning process and progress as represented by the collection of evidence selected for inclusion in the graduation portfolio.

(Summative Reflection May include: Career-focused/Transitional portfolio - in the context of life beyond high school, student describes how portfolio supports their goals for life beyond high school)

Review Process
Each graduation portfolio should undergo a review process that includes an opportunity for students to share their graduation portfolio with the review panel and the school community. The Review process ensures consistency and fairness of the evaluation process. The purpose of the student demonstration/sharing component is to allow students to demonstrate proficiency in oral communication skills, as well as to provide them the opportunity to share how the graduation portfolio reflects their learning process.