University City High: Senior Portfolio

This petition was created in order to bring to notice the issues surrounding the Senior Portfolio required at University City High School (UCHS).

It is of a unanimous opinion that the current organization for the requirement of the UCHS Senior Portfolio is of a ridiculous nature, providing no assistance in readying the Senior class for the real world, anymore than they already are.

Currently the structure of the Portfolio has left little room for a personal touch, instead allowing it to be a sort of generic almanac of the students works throughout his/her High School career.

Along with the binder portion of the Portfolio a new requirement has been added, the creation of a PowerPoint presentation. Under normal circumstances the presentation would be easily created and could provide insight about the student, but currently it just stands as a reproduction of everything that is within the binder, just now in a slide format.

That is why we seek one of two things:

1. ... The Restructuring of the Portfolio Process

Currently the process of having the Senior class go through the creation of a Senior Portfolio contains no meaningful tie with the student, just feeling like a collection of work that was amassed through their High School years. The works within it could possibly no longer reflect who the student is now, as opposed to when they were created. Along with that, the PowerPoint is completely useless and in a way redundant,as the Panel will definitely experience Deja Vu as they review both the Binder and the PowerPoint.

A remedy to the way the entire portfolio is structured would be to allow the Individual Student to pick out how they will create their end of the year presentation. Allow them to have creative freedom, whether they want to use PowerPoint or make a Three Panel Board. Do not require it to feature their works, allow them to present themselves through their own words and even to talk about their future aspirations, their hobbies, what they have a passion for, and what they have learned though life. Add MEANING to the presentation!
Through this, every student will have a unique presentation allowing them to stand out individually as opposed to having a basic structure that everyone will follow. (Of Course the matters of their presentation will have to be appropriate)

2. ... The Complete Removal of the Senior Portfolio

If all else fails, remove the problem. Currently the Portfolio is very limited in scope as to what a Panel will understand about the student, and a Rubric makes it much more difficult for an individual to stand out. It seems this final project is a weak attempt at preventing Seniors from catching the dreaded Senioritis.
With the removal of the Senior Portfolio, the stress that builds upon the Senior class will decrease necessarily, as the students are usually juggling AP classes, filling out College Applications, participating in Extra-Curricular activities, and so much more that having one more thing to worry about leads to imbalance within the student as he nears the end of his/her High School career.


In Conclusion, we sincerely hope that you will hear our voices within the matter if not for the current standing class, but for the rest of the generations of Senior Class Centurions.