Compare methods

	Portfolio Assessment	Formative Assessment
Field	Education	Education
Family	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	1992	1998
Originator	Performance-assessment tradition (Arter & Spandel; Koretz; Vermont/Kentucky programs)	Scriven (term); Bloom; Black & Wiliam (modern synthesis)
Type	Assessment based on a purposeful collection of student work over time	Instructional process using evidence of learning to adapt teaching and feedback
Seminal source	Arter, J. A., & Spandel, V. (1992). Using portfolios of student work in instruction and assessment. Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, 11(1), 36–44.	Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (1998). Assessment and classroom learning. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 5(1), 7–74.
Aliases	Educational Portfolio Assessment, Student Portfolio Evaluation, Showcase / Working Portfolio Assessment, Portfolio-Based Assessment	Assessment for Learning, Classroom Formative Assessment, Feedback-Based Assessment, Embedded Formative Assessment
Related	4	4
Summary	Portfolio assessment evaluates learning through a purposeful collection of a student's work assembled over time rather than through a single test. The portfolio may showcase best work, document growth, or demonstrate mastery against standards, and typically includes student selection and reflection. Articulated for education by Arter and Spandel and stress-tested in large-scale programs analyzed by Koretz, it captures authentic, complex performance that on-demand testing misses, while raising distinctive challenges for the reliability and comparability of scores.	Formative assessment, or assessment for learning, is the practice of gathering evidence of student understanding during instruction and using it immediately to adjust teaching and to give feedback that moves learning forward. Unlike summative assessment, which measures learning after the fact for grading or accountability, formative assessment is woven into the teaching cycle. Synthesized influentially by Black and Wiliam, it is defined not by the type of instrument but by whether the resulting evidence actually changes subsequent instruction and learning.