Portfolios as a Means for Promoting Continuity in Leadership Development

Abstract

A major challenge facing leadership development programs is the discontinuity between their short-term nature and their long-term goals. This article describes a programmatic response to this problem: leadership portfolios. Developed for use in the Tri District Collaborative, a coalition of three high schools in Oakland County Michigan, the portfolio system enhances students' leadership abilities by extending the learning begun in the Tri District's year-long Student Leadership Academy. Although experience with the use of portfolios in leadership development remains in its early stages, they appear to hold considerable promise as a strategy for extending, enriching, and deepening a wide variety of leadership programs.