Documented Accomplishments

Yes, you may type in bold or italics or for emphasis.

Artifacts are documents that have been produced by engaging in educational activities related to interaction with families, community, or professional development. Examples of Artifacts are letters you have received from parents, letters you have sent home, professional articles, grant proposals, syllabi for professional classes you have taught and overviews of presentations or workshops. Verification Forms are used when activities do not leave a paper trail, and are completed by colleagues, parents, and/or community members who comment on your description of the activity and confirm its accuracy. Only the Verification Form included in your portfolio instructions will be accepted for this entry.

Assessors must be able to see that the activities and accomplishments you submit belong to you. Your name and the date of the accomplishment must be included on all of your documentation. In the case where your name and the date do not appear, we advise you to add your name and the date and submit a Verification Form in addition to your other documentation to strengthen your evidence.

While we prefer candidates to submit the original, a faxed or photocopied Verification Form will be accepted.

The same person may verify only one accomplishment within each category for Documented   Accomplishments. For example, a person who verifies in Category 1 may not verify another accomplishment within this category, but could verify an accomplishment in Category 2 and one in Category 3. While this is possible, it is more likely that convincing evidence will come from more than just one source.

Documentation that exists on paper larger than 8.5" x 11" must be reduced for submission. Please remember that the text on the page you submit must be in a 12 point or larger font.

An activity or accomplishment that lies outside of the given time constraint may only be included if some of your involvement in the activity is current.

It is unavoidable that some candidates will share similar activities, especially if they work at the same school. The fact that you both may submit proof of attending the same workshop does not disqualify your submission. Please note, however, that simply because you both attended the same workshops and in-services does not mean that your scores will be the same. What each individual candidate does with the knowledge or skills acquired at such activities will determine the strength of this evidence. Assessors will read your Description/Analysis to see if the activity has been related to student learning and what significance it has within the candidate's teaching context.

Although photographs are not discouraged, they may not be the strongest form of evidence. You may want to consider submitting some type of written document that accompanies your photographs. Remember that you must obtain a release form from all people whose images appear in photographs. If permission cannot be obtained, the photograph cannot be submitted.

Evidence of activities that significantly impacts students that do not belong on the teacher's roster may be included, but it is important that the majority of the accomplishments you document impact the learning of your students.

Neither one is preferred over the other nor will a preponderance of one type over the other affect your score. For some activities and accomplishments, you will acquire documentation easily. For others, you will discover that there is not a paper trail, and, thus, you must find someone who knows what you have done to sign a Verification Form. In every case, it is up to you to decide whether to submit an Artifact or a Verification Form. Your decision should be based on which type of documentation will most clearly communicate the nature of your accomplishment. Assessors look for the connections between what you say in the Description/Analysis and what you attach as the documentation to support it.

For evidence that appears in a language other than English, candidates may submit a separate sheet that translates the documentation/verification. In Entry 4, this separate sheet of transcription does not count towards the total page allowance.

Yes, it is acceptable to submit activities and accomplishments from a school other than the one where you are currently teaching. Remember that documentation of your work with families and community of your students must be taken from the current school year.

Yes, provided the accomplishments are within the specified time period and they demonstrate an impact on student learning.

Accomplishments relating to your work with students' families and community must come from the current year. All evidence of your work with students must be gathered during the 12-month period immediately preceding the portfolio deadline. Accomplishments relating to your work as a learner and leader and/or collaborator must come from the last five years.

Example: if your portfolio is due March 31, 2009, the evidence as a learner and leader and/or collaborator must be gathered between April 2004 and March 2009. If a project/program being used as evidence encompassed the entire 2003-2004 school calendar year (i.e., it began in the fall of 2003 and continued through the spring of 2004), it will be acceptable as evidence.

You must not remove information identifying you from the evidence you submit, because assessors must know whose evidence they are evaluating. The full name of anyone who verifies your accomplishments must also appear. Leave last names in place when the evidence is printed matter that is not confidential in nature (for example, names from a newspaper article, journal article,     school board letterhead, and similar documents). It can be very difficult to remove all traces of school identity from the evidence, as the impact of many school-related documents is at least partly derived from the authority behind the institution. Therefore, it is all right to leave in school, institution and geographic identifiers when you believe that this information is significant.

Student work and video evidence submitted in response to classroom-based entries must be from students in the content area and at the developmental level of your certificate area. If your teaching  context changes in such a way that your content area, developmental level, or both are different, you may need to "borrow" a class to complete your classroom-based entries. You may, however, submit evidence for Entry 4: Documented Accomplishments that comes from both of your classes, even if the students in one of the classes are outside the developmental range of your certificate area. If you submit evidence from classes with students in different age ranges, you must submit documentation, description, and analysis for at least one accomplishment in response to Category 1 (i.e., your work with the families and community of your students during the current year) that shows evidence of your work with the families and communities of students at the developmental level, and in the content area, of your selected certificate area.

Yes, you can submit a Communication Log in response to Category 1 of Entry 4 (i.e., your work with the families and community of your students during the current year) that features interactions with classes that are not in the developmental range of your certificate area. But your Communication Log must include interactions with the families and community of students that you worked with that are in the content area and at the developmental age range of your selected certificate area. In addition, you should be sure to provide a Description/Analysis for the information in your communication log, not just the log itself.

E-mail may be used to document your work with families and your professional development as an Artifact. E-mail is not the same as a letter of verification.

A communication log is actually documentation of your work with your students' families and their community. You will need to write a Description/Analysis for your work just as you would any other accomplishment or activity. You will need to explain not only why your work is significant in your teaching context, but also the impact it has on student learning. Remember that a communication log is not mandatory. It is one possible way to keep track of the communications you make outside the classroom with various people regarding your students and their learning. What is important is that you submit documentation that you have gone above and beyond routine efforts to build communication.

The Communication Log should be an accurate representation of your outreach with the families of your students and your community. We recommend that you do not "cut and paste" random entries from your school Communication Log. Instead, choose whole pages that best illustrate interactive communication between your students, families and others interested in the students' learning. You could describe a communication that spanned over several weeks but only submit a sample(s) of the documentation.

Yes. While a candidate must demonstrate proficiency for the certificate area, a candidate's entire teaching context may be taken into consideration in preparing Entry 4. Each one of your accomplishments must demonstrate an impact on student learning. World Languages Other than English candidates must demonstrate impact on student language learning. School counseling accomplishments must be significant within the school counseling context and candidates must show what impact their accomplishments have on student learning and the improvement of their school counseling programs.

Entry 4 asks you to describe your activities or accomplishments that are significant in your counseling context and what impact they have had on student learning and the improvement of your school counseling program. Impact should show improved student learning; however, it may not be strictly related to academic improvement. By learning, we mean learning in the broadest sense of the word. The learning impact could be a result of improvements in cognitive, social, behavioral, therapeutic, or emotional skills in relation to the student learning.