Who evaluates portfolios?
First, we may well consider that portfolios will be reviewed at several levels. There might be an initial committee of peers within one’s own department whose primary function is formative. Here, the review might be fairly deep and thorough. The Department of Biological Sciences has a Committee on Teaching Effectiveness that reviews portfolios and returns to the individual faculty member (conifdentailly) an assessment of the three greatest teaching strengths and three challenges for future growth, as evidenced in the portfolio. The committee has four members. Following conventions in the review of grant propoals, one is a “primary reviewer” who examines the portfolio in depth; a secondary reviewer also examines it (though in less detail); all members discuss the consensus evaluation. One can also imagine a departmental committee that uses portfolio review as a way to evaluate course balance, integrate courses, plan departmental growth, etc. Centra (1994) describes a community college w
