The number one question I get asked: What should I put in my child’s portfolio?
By law, the only requirement for a portfolio is a log of educational activities and documentation proving progress. There are no specific requirements regarding format nor for what content to provide. Scroll to the end of this post to find the complete homeschool law.
What I look for as an evaluator: signs of progress.
As an ESE tutor and parent myself – and someone who has dedicated years of research in diversified learning and instruction – I know intimately that progress looks vastly different from child to child.
All children are on their unique learning journey. Children with neurological and developmental differences will have unique learning profiles.
As an evaluator, I look at where the child started the year, how they progressed, and where the child ended. This is why I suggest home educators provide 5-6 samples of work from the beginning, the middle, and the end of the year. These samples can be (but are not limited to) workbook samples, worksheets, writing activities, book reports, completed projects, curriculum provided assessments, photographs of field trips, and/or performance assessments. Please visit here for record keeping ideas and here for a checklist.
Parents of exceptional students who are not doing traditional school work yet may also provide videos or photographs of activities which show the skills the child is working on. These skills can be in communication, motor, adaptive, social, and even behavioral.
Spreadsheet records of the progression of skills are highly beneficial for planning instructional scope and sequence and learning targets. These can also be included in your log of activities.
Children working with therapists and/or tutors may also provide treatment plans and/or evaluations showing progress in lieu of work samples.
Students taking online coursework which do not report to the state may provide end of course completion documentation. Note: only students using FLVS part-time need to have a portfolio evaluation.
I also take into great consideration the home educator’s input as to where the child needs developing the most. For example, a home educator may discover mid-year that a child has significant learning gaps in one subject and decides to change curriculums to address that gap, knowing the importance of foundational skills to future progress, going back to recover skills is often necessary for progress.
In my evaluation conversations, I love hearing all about these homeschool journeys: figuring out what works, what doesn’t work, where the child is progressing, and setting goals for the new year.
Every child is on a different academic path.The beauty of homeschool portfolio evaluations is that you get to tailor it specifically to your child’s unique progress!
My goal for portfolio evaluations is to create a low stress process of showing off and celebrating what your child has accomplished this year!
The following is the Florida law regarding homeschool portfolios*:
(d) The parent shall maintain a portfolio of records and materials. The portfolio must consist of the following:
1. A log of educational activities that is made contemporaneously with the instruction and that designates by title any reading materials used.
2. Samples of any writings, worksheets, workbooks, or creative materials used or developed by the student.
(e) The parent shall determine the content of the portfolio, preserve it for 2 years, and make it available for inspection, if requested, by the district school superintendent, or the district school superintendent’s agent, upon 15 days’ written notice. Nothing in this section shall require the district school superintendent to inspect the portfolio.
HB 731 Clearly states that the parent shall determine the content of the portfolio.
*Pulled from FPEA.com
Deborah Kline, EdS 