Bertie Kingore, Ph.D.
ignored role of portfolios is parental assessment of
children'sexceptional learning needs.
Parents have the right and need to be active partners with schools in planning and supporting the education of their children. When identifying gifted potential, districts benefit from parental assessment information in forms other than checklists. Portfolios enable parents to be proactive instead of reactive. They encourage parents to be viable members in the assessment process by preparing concrete examples of children's abilities and needs.
Portfolios increase the crediblility of parental assessment of gifted potential by documenting the depth and complexity of the child's work. Documentation through products illustrates each gifted characteristic of the child that a parent has observed and increases the likelihood that a parent's perception of the child's needs is respected. However, if parents overestimate the advanced potential of a child, school personnel can meet with the parent to share a small set of typical examples of grade-level products to compare with the parent's selections and concretely substatiate that the child's learning needs are best met through the core curriculum rather than advanced contents.
Parental development of a portfolio to substatiate a student's gifted potential is particularly needed when the child is:
Parents need guidance in selecting products that are appropriate and effective. Share your district's mission statement and definition of giftedness with parents so they can more directly match selections in the portfolio to the school's philosophical stance. For example, when your school's program serves academic giftedness in language arts, math, social studies, and science, you want parents to include products that demonstrate advanced talents in one or more of those areas.
The product list included in the parent section is meant to prompt ideas of a wide range of products from home that might be appropriate for students' portfolios (adapted from Kingore, 1999a). A variation of these products specifically suited to very young children is shared in Communicator (Kingore, 1999b).
The following factors increase the assessment value of a portfolio:
The parent section of this article (which can be found here) helps parents understand how to facilitate their assessment and development of a portfolio. Specify to whom parents should share the portfolio once the product selection process is complete.
Kingore, B. (1999a). Assessment: Time-Saving Procedures for Busy Teachers, 3rd ed.. Austin: Professional Associates.
Kingore, B. (1999b). Portfolios: Documenting the Needs of Young Gifted Learners. Communicator: California Association for the Gifted, 30(4), 10-11, 46-47.
Kingore, B. (2001). The Kingore Observation Inventory, 2nd ed. Austin: Professional Associates Publishing.