KSU SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY PROGRAM PORTFOLIO

For some time classroom teachers have been using portfolios to assess children's progress and skill-mastery. In fact, portfolios have become institutionalized in Ohio as a means of student-evaluation through their inclusion as preferred Fourth, Sixth and Tenth Grade Proficiency Test formats. In school psychology we've been using CBA portfolio-related assessment of children's work for almost a decade. Consequently, there is a natural spill-over to the use of the portfolio as a means for monitoring progress in the developing professional. This is not just in the evaluation of school psychologists; classroom teachers, too, will need to prepare a professional portfolio prior to getting their credential to teach.

So as to keep close to the cutting-edge, at KSU we'll be incorporating into your preparation program full encouragement for you to initially develop, and keep updated your professional portfolio.

Rationale for Portfolios: The goal of the portfolio is for you to develop a tool for reflection that can be used throughout your career. You will use this as a purposeful collection of work which shows your efforts, progress, and achievement in specified areas. The portfolio does not replace graded assessment through evaluation of assignments that professors maintain for each course. Rather, the portfolio provides opportunities for you to connect field & classroom experiences and to reflect on interpretations and judgments that most assessment does not allow. A portfolio is not simply a "product" to show to a potential employer that describes your accomplishments—rather it can also serve as a vehicle for reflection. Its true value becomes enhanced when it leads to mid-course corrections in professional preparation.

During the process of developing your portfolios, faculty and fellow preservice school psychologist will guide your recognition of how your prior, tacit beliefs affect your decisions about your work. Portfolio assessment supports a more comprehensive & multidimensional "portrait" of each preservice professional within and across particular learning contexts during the school psychologist preparation program at Kent State University.

Portfolios, Explanation: 'Entrance', 'Working' & 'Professional'

As a vehicle to help with ongoing reflection throughout your program, this process will begin with an "Entrance" portfolio ― a reflection of your entering experiences, beliefs, knowledge and goals. As a pre-service professional in the program, you will be guided by peers and professors to build on this base and develop ongoing "Working" portfolio to document your ongoing understanding of "self as school psychologist." You should plan on storing your assignments, documentation of work in schools, etc., in boxes or a file cabinet. v

Near the completion of your program of study, you will be given guidance to select a few exemplar-pieces of evidence that will be placed in a "Professional" portfolio. This portfolio will serve as a tool when you interview by allowing others to see a "portrait" of your images, commitments, and professional growth. This professional portfolio should not be considered a summative evaluation, but only a step in your ongoing inservice professional development. You should seek peer or supervisor support to regularly (semi-annually or annually) update your evidence and written reflections regarding your practices with children and families.
 

Potential Categories For Organizing Your Artifacts in the 'Entrance' and 'Working' Stages

To organize artifacts collected throughout your program of study, I suggest that you consider filing in categories. You may find some artifacts you create could be filed in more than one category. You could choose the most appropriate category and attach a note to the artifact (e.g., "See also _______ category").

Try to provide examples that illustrate observable qualities of an effective, constructivist educator that guide your practices in working with children and families. Thus, for each characteristic that you feel you are mastering, you will collect a tangible artifact to document your progress.

CREATING AN ENVIRONMENT FOR STUDENT LEARNING

Planning and organizing content knowledge for students, individually and in groups

EDUCATION AND REEDUCATION

Using methods that promote student learning, particularly for those who have experienced failure in formal educational settings;

Assessing (i.e., capturing and interpreting student knowledge, skills, and attitudes)

COLLABORATING/COOPERATING

Family and Community--Connecting all influences on student learning;

Knowledge of local resources for the purposes of student/family referral

PROFESSIONALISM

Ongoing development-of-self as school psychologist

KNOWLEDGE OF THE "CORE" OF YOUR PROFESSIONAL PREPARATION

Your knowledge, skills-in-implementation, and personal observations/reflections about the relative importance of each of the core areas in school psychology preparation that were reflected in your KSU professional training (i.e., the program).

PERSONAL/PROFESSIONAL PERSPECTIVE ON DIVERSITY, & MULTICULTURAL CONCERNS

KNOWLEDGE OF, AND APPLICATION-SKILLS IN THE USE OF EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES IN SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY & PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE

Computer usage: E-Mail; scoring and interpreting test results; word processing in report preparation (platform[s] used, skill level, software supported, etc.); experience in using Internet & WWW to access school psychology information.

SPECIAL INTEREST/KNOWLEDGE

The particular specialty knowledge which you have elected to develop which helps make you a well-rounded generalist, albeit a school psychologist with specialty interests & knowledge.

The School Psychology Portfolio

Students develop and maintain a cumulative Portfolio of their progress throughout their preparation program. A portfolio is a systematic and organized collection of evidence concerning a student's professional competencies and personal growth. The portfolio is essential to: 

(1)    the development of self-evaluation skills, 
(2)    the documentation of acquired competencies, 
(3)    the continuous nature of development in all competency areas, &  
(4)    monitoring and charting academic and professional development.

The Portfolio serves as a tool from which to evaluate and establish goals, is a major source of documentation at the Internship Readiness Review (conducted during the Fall semester of the year prior to internship), and additionally is helpful documentation in preparing for future professional pursuits such as job application materials and support for the interview process.

Students are expected to keep their Portfolios up-to-date and to be ready to share their Portfolios with faculty upon request (i.e., students should not need a lead time of more than a week-or-two to prepare their Portfolios for review by advisors). Faculty may review the Portfolio at least once each semester; and more regularly (e.g., by the Field Facilitator) during the internship experience.

The Portfolio should be developed in a hard-cover loose-leafed binder and organized with tabbed dividers. There are three major sections to the Portfolio: (1) Overall Development, (2) Competency Area Development, and (3) Selected Documentation. Each of these sections should be further organized reflecting the required parts and components.

Within each of the required categories, you are expected to provide documentation in a cumulative fashion. Thus, typically you will have multiple entries, documents, or examples. When this is the case, the category should be organized in reverse chronological order. That is, you add the most recent entry on top of previous entries.

The internship portfolio is a purposeful collection of student work that exemplifies the student's achievements in specific competency areas. All KSU School Psychology students seeking Licensure will construct a personal portfolio which will contain examples of the student's:

1. Competence in all areas of the KSU School Psychology professional preparation program;

2. Progress in formal course work leading to the award of the masters & specialist academic degrees; and

3. Expertise in specific areas of Specialization. The Specialization explanation is a detailed, insightful account of the area(s) of competence in which the student claims to have achieved advanced knowledge and experience. In most cases, students will have completed coursework, clinical/practicum work, original research, and possibly attended professional workshops as background to their specialization. In the specialization discourse the student should (1) define their specialization, (2) trace their personal development toward the specialization, (3) discuss the application of their specialization to the practice of school psychology, and (4) discuss needed research/model practice that would advance the specialization area. In writing this section, students is encouraged to actualize the scientist-scholar-practitioner model under which they have been trained.

*** The portfolio could be organized around the following themes ***

Preamble: Personal Competency Statement. The Personal Competency Statement is a written self-description of one's competencies focusing on areas of expertise and boundaries or limits of practice skills. This statement must be based on coursework, research, and supervised clinical/practicum experiences. The statement should represent a succinct, integrative summary of discrete skills and interests with consideration to general service delivery parameters (e.g., age range of clients, service settings, types of problems/disorders). It may range over the past, the present, and future aspirations.

Of all the components of a Portfolio, the Preamble should represent your best effort at creating a succinct definition of "who you are and what you can do" as a developing professional psychologist. The Mission Statement should never exceed two, double-spaced pages.

1.     Professional Development

1. Ohio School Psychology Association -- Membership, Attendance at Conferences

2. National Association of School Psychology -- Membership, Attendance at Conferences

3. American Psychological Association (School Psychology Division, Student membership) -- Membership, Attendance at Conferences

2.     Problem-Solving Assessment

  a.     Intellectual
  b.     Educational
  c.     Personality Testing
  d.     Curriculum-Based
  e.     Informal
  f.     Eligibility for special education placement
  g.     Other specialized testing

3.     Practicum Experiences--including Log, Supervision Notes & Summary

  a.     Cognitive Assessment
  b.     Developmental Assessment of the Young Child
  c.     Counseling Practicum
  d.     School Psychology--Field Experiences (for those without a teaching credential)

4.     Intervention(s): for example, as appropriate...

1. Behavior Management/modification and Analysis

2. Contingency Contracting

3. Groups - Skill Training Groups

4. Token Economy Program

5.     Research Experience

1. Statistics - Descriptive and Inferential

2. Research Project - Participation (self-initiated, faculty initiated)

3. Journal Reading - Log of Journal Articles Read or Critiqued (Sample)

4. Set up and/or Evaluate Research Design

6.     Instruction (teaching)

1. Direct Instruction

2. Regular Classroom Instruction

3. Adapting the Curriculum

7.     Internship Experiences

a.     In-service Training Session--Integrating Experience presentation

(1)     Topic Presented
(2)     An Outline of the Presentation
(3)     Summary of Results

b.     Consultation (Teacher, Parent, Co-Professional, etc.)

(1)     Identify the problem
(2)     Describe your consultation activities
(3)     Report how you evaluated the treatment
(4)     Summary of results

c.     Alternative Interventions (Treatment/Programming/Plan Implementation)

(1)     Describe the referring problem
(2)     List your implemented plan
(3)     Describe the treatment program
(4)     Summary of results

8.     Counseling as an Intervention

1. Describe your general counseling philosophy. If you subscribe to an established counseling orientation state it and defend your reasons for adopting it. If you plan to author your own counseling philosophy, describe it and justify your position.

2. Assisting students who manifest a learning or emotional problem is always a challenge. What counseling strategies would you use in dealing with sampled academic/social difficulties and differences? ...For example...

   Low self-concept, irrational thoughts, or anger
   Dysfunctional home background
   Conflict with teachers or parents 
   Academically disengaged student (won't do student)
   Academically fragile student (can't do student)

3. Provide an example of a counseling intervention activity you've conducted. Include the following:

Problem identification―Describe the referring problem

Problem goals

How did you get the student to assume ownership of the problem and accept the responsibility to implement a change strategy ?

Describe the treatment program--List your treatment goal, describe the treatment program

Report and evaluate the results

Report any modifications

Summary of results

Additional Information which could be included in the Portfolio:

Student pre- and post-internship self-analyses of professional competencies (self evaluation). The self-evaluation report should:

provide a forum and opportunity to self-assess your knowledge and skills;

be thematically organized--address development in each of the competency areas;

be summative--of your activities and your development;

be integrative--cite oral and written evaluations from supervisors and faculty, coursework and grades, field experiences, and other professional growth endeavors; and

conclude with a Summary.

Evidence of participation in professional development (attendance at workshops, conferences, and presentations; presentations at workshops, conferences, parent groups, etc.; participation in professional organizations [e.g., positions held, service on committee, etc.).

Transcript(s) of all graduate work to date--at KSU and other universities.

Praxis Exam Score.

Selected term papers projects--i.e., those not included in #3 above.

Letters of support (e.g., from internship field facilitator, principals, supervisors, special education personnel, parents, etc.).

Other selected documentation: Your best learning experiences may not be reflected by case reports of course products. You may wish to document your competencies, for example, by accompanying your portfolio with an audio or video tape. Or perhaps you attended a conference which had a profound impact on you (in such a case you might choose to include the conference program as documentation, highlighting the presentations you attended). This other selected documentation is optional and should be kept to a minimum.

Index to documentation: It is expected that any one work sample may serves as documentation of developing competencies in multiple areas. Thus, it is important to develop an index showing the relationship between your selected work samples and the competency areas. You should develop a new index each semester--with the current index on top.

Resume

All preceded, of course, by identifying personal/biographical information 
(e.g., cover sheet including name, address, etc.).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Portfolios ― Hints, Tips & Suggestions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We have some 'lessons' to share resulting from a review of portfolios prepared by recent KSU School Psychology Interns . The process involved us first in glancing through a handful―as though we were folks wanting to see which ones caught our 'eye'―this caused us to realize that there are features which, if incorporated into a Portfolio, immensely increase its eye-appeal. Some of these features are simply issues of 'show-and-image,' others are essential components which if left out lead the reader to wonder where to turn next.  What follows is a listing of the notes we took then, and suggestions for improving the overall delivery of the Portfolio. In no special order, we suggest ...

1. It makes sense if the whole document follows a taxonomy (perhaps the content of the NASP Standards? or the sections included in the Ed.S. Prospectus? or the APA domains?), so that like-items are grouped together.

2. The portfolio needs a 'Table of Contents' or some sort of advance organizer--so that readers can hone in on elements of particular interest to them.

3. Pagination helps in locating items indexed in the contents listing.

4. The portfolio should be prefaced with a personal/professional Mission Statement (preamble).

5. The Mission Statement should be supplemented by a 'classic format' resume; some folks include a couple of resumes in a pocket at the front of their portfolio for leaving with readers--this would probably be welcomed by reviewers.

6. The work included in the portfolio should be exemplars of your BEST work. There should be no scratch-paper type notations on the work, nor should there be instructors' evaluative comments. These distract the reader. Readers end up focusing on the added commentary and not your writing samples. Reprint essays you've written--including all the 'tidy-up' elements suggested by instructors in their comments. Use single-spacing to enhance 'eye-appeal'; remember this is the place for your BEST work to shine through. There certainly shouldn't, for example, be copies of the 'contract' for field experiences included in this document. Nor does it seem appropriate to be seeing a copy of the prospectus, or of syllabi for courses you've taken. However a course listing of work already completed and a transcript does seem appropriate.

7. If you've received any significant awards or honors then these should be included--as well as 'thank you' letters received. These should be aligned close to presentations/publications to which you've contributed, and other significant professional contributions. Don't include letters/diplomas celebrating the fact that you've joined a professional organization like OSPA--just list your membership! Be particularly wary about including work which was created by a group of students--this is a place for the solo-you to shine through.

8. If you have provided significant service to the Community (through work experience, agency employment. volunteer work, etc), then that should be included.

9. Don't include copies of your admission letter to KSU SPSY program. Nor should you have a photocopy of your application material; however, this information should be reviewed as you prepare the mission statement, since it might contain gems.

10. Photos of you are fine if they feature you 'at work'--however, we don't suggest any studio shots reminiscent of year-book & prom. Avoid the photo montage for after 10 shots it seems that they overwhelm.  There's no place for a photo-montage in a professional portfolio. 

11. The document must be attractive, and reflect ease-of-handling. That means tabs dividing sections are helpful, as are any 'signposts' or other means which help the reader negotiate a way through the document. Tabs must be typed. Use a three-ring-binder (at the pre-internship stage) to assist in adding/subtracting content gathered during Internship.

12. Top-fill sheet-protectors hold work well. However, most readers will NOT pull multiple documents from within the top-fill sheet-protectors. That means if you have several multi-page documents each one goes in a separate sheet protector. In turn this means that you'll be very unlikely to include a 'research paper' in a Portfolio.

13. Avoid including any reference to marriage status, church/synagogue or other religious affiliation.

14. You should highlight special skills and foci you've developed―for example, if you've got good computer skills, then let the reader know. However, be careful about showcasing your non-professional hobbies (i.e., don't mention your cooking prowess or your dedication to your pet dog)

15. Above all, you need to keep the reader's journey through your portfolio in mind as you create it. That means you should prepare its content and arrangement with an overall plan in mind. The document must have a 'structure' imposed on it. If the reader has to impose a purpose on this collection of documents (which certainly is not the reader's responsibility...) then some of the power of your message is dissipated. And, it must be attractive...it must be attractive...it must be attractive...it must be attractive.