A student's portfolio is a collection of accomplishments, reflecting his or her performance and interest levels. Portfolios serve as evaluators of personal strengths and weaknesses of the students and illustrate work progress. Student portfolios can include a record of comments to support cooperative teaming. A video recording of students speaking French in the classroom can be shared and used to evaluate conversational skills.

Student portfolios are then ideal method of assessment because they represent classroom-based performance and, hence, can be easily included in the course curriculum. According to the view of numerous educators, teachers, and researchers, they provide a much better method of student evaluation, as opposed to the age-old procedures of conducting separate tests on different subjects. Unlike the conventional trend of stuffing assignments into notebooks, portfolios represent the natural aptitudes of the students and provide a way of saving their own performance for future reference.

There is no established way of developing a student portfolio. It is the student who has to choose and collect, according to his or her individual preferences, and reflect the same in the portfolio. It is therefore better to start early on the matters of interest that the student would like to preserve in the portfolio. The matter can consist of a mathematical trick or an economics project.

However, proper guidance from the teachers and input from peers are essential for developing good portfolios. The age or grade of the student may influence the quality of the portfolio. Elder students can develop impressive portfolios that reflect a deeper understanding of a represented topic combined with audio- visual means, such as videos and photographs. Younger students may need more help and guidance in choosing the topics and developing the portfolio. The resulting portfolios help to assess improvement and genuine interest.