Luther College Portfolio System: Three Portfolios in One

The Luther College Education Department Portfolio System is designed to show a candidate’s development, that is, his or her growth with respect to the InTASC standards*, from “understanding” to “application” in the real world context the learning in the Teacher Education Program is intended. The system includes three distinct portfolios that, as a package, demonstrate growth over time. The three levels of the portfolio system include “introductory,” “developing,” and “advanced.”

The system is a gradual release model.

• Initially, for the “introductory portfolio,” the faculty includes in specified courses specific activities that generate artifacts candidates may use to demonstrate the candidate’s understanding of particular competencies.

Over time, the candidate is expected to choose an appropriate activity/artifact to demonstrate beginning application of each competency. The “developing portfolio” includes work submitted from the “methods” clinical.

The entire final, “advanced portfolio” is made up of “candidate-choice submissions.” The evaluator is likely not to have worked with the candidate as he or she used the artifacts that documents application of the competencies. The artifacts are generated by student teaching activities; few, if any, come from college coursework activity.

Our portfolio system is one part of the Luther College Education Department’s “assessment system,” a set of multiple assessments that make it possible for the faculty to evaluate individual candidate achievement and to evaluate the efficacy of the various programs within the Education Department. The Education Department is held accountable by our various constituents, including our accreditation agencies (the state of Iowa and the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation) to show the formative and summative achievement of the InTASC, that is, how the candidates demonstrate their knowledge, understanding, and application of what teachers know and do.

*The InTASC (the Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium) standards, released in 1992, is a set of standards designed to articulate what teachers know, understand, and are able to do. These standards were adopted by most states, including Iowa, and adapted by many teacher education programs as a way to summarize the outcome learning expected of teacher candidates and consequently, to assist in the definition of teacher education programs.

[A copy of the Luther Education Competencies, developed from the 1992 InTASC standards, is found in another link in this section of the Portfolio System.]