Research Summary

The Question

What happens when I help teachers develop a portfolio system for collecting and assessing student writing?

Summary

I work at Juan Morel Campos Secondary School (JMC) located in Williamsburg, New York. JMC is a Title 1 school in which 71% of the students are Hispanic and 23% of African-American. In New York City, when at least 90% of the student body population comes from low-income households, a school is eligible for a Title 1 grant funding from the United States Department of Education. This grant affords our school money for my position, extensive classroom libraries and additional professional development support from Teachers College Reading and Writing Project. As a School in its third year of SINI (school in need of improvement) status, Juan Morel Campos has not met Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) on the accountability measure for the past two years despite receiving Title 1 funds. The student body population and the subgroups (ethnic groups, students with disabilities, students with limited English proficiency) have not met a minimum target score on the New York State English Language Arts test for two years in a row. Students are measured from levels one through four. The pressure to move our students from level two to level three is intense. The creation of this portfolio to justify our students’ ELA skill level despite their poor standardized test scores was the manifestation of this pressure.