Digital Portfolios

What did you learn in school today? Traditionally, most students, and even most educational institutions, have answered this question by referencing the traditional rituals and accouterments of school—classes, essays, tests, grades, and textbooks. Most schools looking at their own internal goals and processes to prove that they and their students have been hard at work. While the “work” of school; assignments and siloed subjects are important and certainly reflect the way learning has always been organized, at CSS this year we have been asking our students a series of slightly different questions.

• Which pieces of your intellectual work are you the most proud?
• How do your assignments show growth in the essential skills and capacities institutions of higher learning and employers are looking for?
• How will you use the skills and knowledge you have gained in the future?

As I’m sure you already know, CSS Middle and Upper School students have begun selecting and posting some of the required examples of their work in their Google drives as part of their first digital portfolio. Each “artifact” selected by a student captures their work in and understanding of one of the following 8 capacities:

1. Analytical and Creative Thinking and Problem-solving
2. Complex Communication— Oral and Written
3. Leadership and Teamwork
4. Digital and Quantitative Literacy
5. Global Perspective
6. Adaptability, Initiative, and Risk-taking
7. Integrity and Ethical Decision-making
8. Service to others

Children’s School teachers are more heavily involved in student selections for the portfolios and the number of capacities and artifacts is scaled to a developmentally appropriate level.

While seven of these capacities were created by the NAIS Schools of the Future project, the eighth capacity of service to others reflects our school’s commitment to creating ethical leaders who place high value in being strong citizens in their communities.

Research on student portfolios shows that:

1. Portfolios encourage students to reflect upon and “own” their own learning.
2. Portfolios provide a longitudinal record of student learning for students, advisors, parents, and administrators that is more real and comprehensive than standardized testing.
3. Student selection of submissions allows them to express their interests and passions.
4. Portfolios create opportunities for students to engage in metacognitive thinking as each Middle and Upper School student writes a reflective essay about each piece (100 words for MS students and 250 words for US students). Please follow this link if you would like to know more about the research regarding portfolios and meaningful reflection.
5. Lastly, measuring student learning through a Digital Portfolio is something that only a progressive and independent school can do. While public schools are struggling to adapt their teaching to the PARCC test, CSS is able to connect student work to the skills and knowledge that students will need most in the future. The digital portfolio is unique in Colorado and it reflects best practices in schools nationally.

Connecting student learning to the real world, another way our school is preparing its students to be citizens in a dynamic world.