For nearly twenty years the educational community has utilized portfolios as a method of monitoring the growth and development of candidates earning certification as educators and as school leaders. Professors in the field of education have encouraged their students to share these portfolios with public school hiring officials. There is a belief…

In recent years American schools and the scholars who study these schools have become focused on bridging the achievement gap. The scholarly literature is most often focused on the discrepancy in achievement in one school, a region, or perhaps one nation. The literature examining the best practices of schools that have bridged this gap…