Mt. Hope High School Digital Portfolios

As many of you know, at Mt. Hope High School in Bristol, RI, we have to show proficiency in different areas. Be it from writing to speaking to playing an instrument we need to demonstrate we can do it to get our diploma. Unfortunately, the way we have to show proficiency is annoying. Well, not annoying but for everyone its too much work. Digital portfolios have to be one of the hardest things I, personally, have ever had to do just to graduate.

For a student, we have to enter different assignments in our digital portfolio and by the end of our senior year we have to show we are proficient in every Proficiency Based Graduation Requirements (PBGRs). If we miss even one PBGR we held back and told that we have to graduate later rather than our assigned year and make up that PBGR in our second senior year or again we dont graduate. We also have to take classes that we dont want to take just to get these PBGRs, like cooking classes or parenting classes when we should have a choice as far as electives goes. It makes no sense whatsoever.

For the teachers its even worse. Not only do they have to grade papers on hard copies but they also have to grade digital portfolio work. It tends to backlog the teachers a little too much. They also have to make sure we do all of our stuff in there, basically they have to baby us; its a necessity they have to do. Teachers are here to help us graduate, and babying is how they have to do it with digital portfolios when they shouldnt have to at all. Plus, they have to make sure they enter all grades and all PBGRs necessary, when all they should have to do it grade papers.

Digital portfolio is completely online based, therefore many bugs and of course, because its the internet, its unreliable. Weve already had issues with them being down, classes not on the persons roster, and assignments that get deleted all together. Were basically putting our graduation and high school future into the internet, which is unreliable as it. Plus, a rather disgruntled student could in and knock down the whole thing, definitely not safe plus it could mess up others college dreams. Do you trust your credit card information on the internet? Didnt think so.

What Im getting to here, and what everyone who signs this petition wants to get to, is the fact that digital portfolios are too much work for everyone. From the teacher to the student, its just not enough. My solution, because you cant make a change without a solution, is that we go over the Senior Projects. In Rhode Island, they give you the option of having either a digital portfolio or a Senior Project, and I think Mt. Hope should revert to a Senior Project. Senior Projects are a project you plan for all through high school until your senior year. Its a project of your choice to show you learned something, and it can be anything you want. They say that Senior Projects are harder, but I think its easier than having to add assignments to a computer when some people dont even have computers. It makes no sense.

Therefore, I feel that we should switch to Senior Projects rather Digital Portfolios. Out of the fact its easier, we get to have individuality, and it saves teachers the work.