---

We are in a wonderful place right now in discussing thew ways assessment and the classroom meet, theoretically and practically.

We need to keep in mind that students as writers are often assessed by a variety of groups that move closer and closer to the classroom, before finally entering it: national assessments, university wide assessments, college-wide assessments, English department assessments, course assessments, individual assignment assessments.

Writing teachers can not help but have their pedagogy influenced by this hierarchy of tests. It seems to me that if portfolios are to be a valuable and useful form of assessment, they must return the majority of assessment power to the instructor. In other words, if portfolios are just another assessment hurdle added to the student's list then it's not worth it. Can portfolios satisfy the requirements of the upper circles of assessment? In this case the discussion we are having about the localized and pedagogy specific nature of portfolios seems crucial. If the upper circles of the assessment hierarchy continue to value standard, universal measures for all, then it seems to me that portfolios will never satisfy them. So are we creating more assessment headaches for students by touting portfolios?