A student story project. T he assessment and instructional planning processes for students with learning disabilities (LD) or behavioral disorders (BD) continue to be critical topics. Students with LD or BD manifest wide-ranging problems in the academic, literacy, social-emotional, motivational, and cognitive realms. Students with learning disabilities exhibit poor academic achievement and literacy skills as well as problems with strategic learning, metacognitive awareness, memory problems, attentional deficits, language disorders, and so forth. It is a formidable task to evaluate and monitor student functioning across such a wide range of interconnected traits. For students with BD, the assessment system often overemphasizes externalizing problems (conduct disorders, disruptive behavior, etc.) and overlooks internalizing difficulties (anxiety, depression, etc.). Inappropriate placement and eligibility decisions about these students are sometimes made due to overreliance on standardized measures (Hallahan & Kauffman, Downloaded from and unequal participation among multidisciplinary team members (Ysseldyke & Algozzine , 1984). Lack of knowledge of social, cultural, and linguistic factors creates further constraints in assessment and identification practices among special educators (Hardman, Drew, Egan, & Wolf, 1993). A comprehensive and continuous assessment of these diverse needs poses a major challenge. In this article, an alternative vision of the assessment process for these students with special needs will be proposed.The descriptions that follow are drawn from (a) teachers' experiences with portfolio assessment, (b) an active study of the literature on alternative assessment, and (c) collaboration with other educators and practitioners. For the past 3 or so years, regular and special education teachers, assessment professionals, and university teacher educators have worked together to accumulate wide-ranging information about students with special needs. We have analyzed student portfolios collected in school settings and shared our experiences with informal classroom assessment. First, a rationale will be outlined for the increasing use of such approaches.