Teaching to Learn, Learning to Teach

creation and assessment into classrooms. It recommends involving students in clearly de-
fined and guided multistep projects that are evaluated at different points in the creative
process. It also recommends detailed assessment rubrics that examine both content and
presentation.
The Central Park East Secondary School (CPESS) in New York City, which is part of the
Coalition for Essential Schools, offers an even more radical departure from traditional as-
sessment. CPESS requires that seniors create and defend 14 portfolios to graduate (Meier &
Schwartz, 1995). Each student selects seven major areas and seven minor areas for portfolio
development. Four of the major areas are required of every student: science/technology,
mathematics, history and social studies, and literature.
At CPESS, student portfolios reflect cumulative knowledge and skills acquired by students
while at the school. They demonstrate students’ command of information about the subject,
their ability to explain their own and other people’s points of view, their ability to draw con-
nections between different topics, their ability to think creatively about the subject, and
their ability to explain the broader relevance of their work. Students work with staff advisors
to prepare their final portfolios and a presentation to the graduation committee for review
and evaluation. The committee assesses a student’s portfolio using an established scoring
grid that weighs both the substance and style of the work. When portfolios need to be modi-
fied or expanded, students are given the opportunity to complete the necessary work and
resubmit the portfolio for approval.
The majority of the material included by students in their portfolios is originally done as
coursework. The inclusion of collaborative work is encouraged. Interdisciplinary projects
can be submitted in more than one portfolio area. Because each student works at a different
pace and in a different way, and because students bring a diversity of academic, social, and
cultural experiences with them to their work, CPESS has no single prescribed formula for
completing the portfolio-assessment process.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION—CHEATING AND PLAGIARISM

In a survey of 21,000 students by Josephson Institute of Ethics, 70% of high school and

54% of middle school students admitted cheating on an exam (Altschuler, 2001). Also,

97% of high school students let someone copy their work. The Internet and word proces-

sors have also made it easier for students to acquire and camouflage other people’s work.

Teachers have one of two options. The first is to crack down on students by monitoring

their work and punishing malefactors more severely. The second is to integrate instruction

and assessment so students are continually producing and updating work and the end

product is the result of an ongoing process.

Questions to Consider:

1. Do you believe there has been an expansion of student cheating in school in recent
   years? Explain your views.


2. The Judeo-Christian Bible recommends that someone who is “without sin” should
   throw the first stone at a person accused of an infraction such as cheating. When you
   were in school, did you cheat on tests and reports? Why? What would have made you
   stop?
   3.In your opinion, which of the strategies described previously would be more effective at
   reducing cheating by students? Explain.

218 CHAPTER 8