"This is no different than portfolio assessment"

The LRO is similar to and different from portfolio assessment. The LRO is similar to traditional portfolio assessment in that students are partly evaluated on their process (drafting, revising, peer reviewing, etc.)

The LRO is different from traditional portfolios in that students do not receive their "grades" on assignments, students write observations instead of journal entries, students are encouraged to work more for learning's sake than to work for a grade, progress and improvement are accounted for by more then drafts and papers, and finally, the LRO is more concrete. Students are not judged according to an arbitrary rubric of A, B, C but are evaluated on their demonstration.

While theoretically, all student evaluations are based on such, many teachers still only look at what students do not do and judge student work based on final products. Often, teachers do not ask students to account for the changes in their thinking, analysis skills, etc. Even requiring pre-writing activities and multiple drafts is not enough for it is still difficult to tell what students actually know and have actually learned because many forms of learning and improvement are often not accounted for in written papers. Likewise, even though teachers may include participation and attendance as part of the final grade, these factors still do not account for learning.

Thus, not only are the components of the LRO different (observations instead of journal entries, arguing for grade, etc.), but theoretically, methodologically, and pedagogically, the LRO is different.