Pratt has joined a growing number of art schools that are looking beyond the portfolio in admissions and moved toward higher academic standards. This may be because the art portfolio has traditionally been a collection of the best works of the individual instead of an integrated self-assessment tool. Portfolios build on initially on engineering designs, papers and other assignments that students have completed for courses. For example, speeches given to learn spoken communication, papers written to learn writing, projects done to learn design, structures analyzed to learn analysis and projects organized to learn organizational skills are typical examples. This can be helped by incorporation of more traditional outcomes indicators such as standardized test results.
Portfolios are a logical way to document the course.
The portfolio demonstrates mastery, whereas a transcript emphasizes the number of subjects to which a person has been exposed. The quality of a student team's documentation is given equal weight to the quality of the prototype it makes. The design documents, e-mail messages, notebooks and sketches are all captured on computer. The artifacts are the product, but a portfolio also reflects the processes of planning, decision making, evaluation and self-assessment. Students view the portfolio exercise as a challenging assignment, an integrating experience and a confidence builder.