Portfolios have long been used effectively to allow learners to self-assess their work and demonstrate their growth. Increasingly, educators are being asked to document their effectiveness. Pre-service teachers complete performance tasks that document their achievement for certification or state licensure. Teachers in some districts have the option of submitting portfolios to demonstrate their effectiveness in meeting district evaluation criteria. Teachers seeking national recognition prepare and submit a portfolio for the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

These portfolios are not scrapbooks that capture moments in a teaching career, nor are they folders of resources and materials collected over a period of time. They are professional portfolios that allow educators to reflect on their practice against identified criteria. They are organized in ways that allow mentors and colleagues to easily review and comment on the evidence found in the portfolio.  Catalyst is an electronic portfolio developed by Professionals in Education Advancing Research and Language (PEARLL) in partnership with the Center for Applied Language Studies (CASLS) to meet the need of world language teachers who want to engage in reflective practice as they document their professional growth.

Educators may begin to create their e-portfolio by completing a personal profile that gives information on who they are, their position, years of experience and language(s) spoken. They then consider the seven TELL Domains: Environment, Planning, Learning Experience, Performance and Feedback, Learning Tools, Collaboration and Professionalism selecting an initial area of focus. Within each domain criteria and subcriteria identify teacher characteristics and behaviors that represent the model world language teacher. The subcriteria serve to explain a key practice by defining that practice in terms of what effective teachers do.

Self-assessment is at the heart of Catalyst and asks educators to reflect on their strengths and to set individual growth goals. More importantly, educators are able to indicate areas of strength and upload evidence that corroborates their work related to a specific subcriterion. The indication of doing something with confidence and shared evidence facilitates collaboration with others who are interested in working on that goal.

An educator may opt to self-assess on each of the criteria within a domain or may wish to limit their area of focus to one of the criteria. For each individual subcriteria educators use self-assessment tools provided within the framework to indicate their level of confidence from something that they might not do yet, to something they do rarely, sometimes, most of the time and finally with confidence. This self-assessment is based on the subcriteria allowing teachers to set individual goals against very specific criteria.

For example, an educator who selected the Planning domain and decided to focus on implementing standards-based units would self-assess on the following criteria.