More Kids' Grades Ride on a Portfolio of Work Putting Collections of In-Class Work on Par with Standardized Tests Raises Questions of How to Most Fairly Measure Achievement

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In a basement room of the red-brick Mary Lyon Elementary School in Boston, Deborah Rooney is teaching first-graders to be archaeologists.

But instead of digging for fossils, Ariel, Larry, Marcus, and Ms. Rooney's 12 other students are learning to archive their art projects, math worksheets, and writing samples to create a portfolio of their best academic efforts.

"I don't keep number grades," Ms. Rooney says. So how do I assess this early in the year? I have to look at their portfolios. It's a huge help." Student portfolios have been popular for a century or more. But the old standby has been whittled into a state-of-the-art tool for "authentic assessment" - …