Authentic assessment portfolios collect real-world evidence of a child’s growth across domains, showing progress and informing next steps. In early childhood, portfolios bring together a variety of evidence—work samples, teacher observations, photos, and children's own reflections—collected over weeks or months. This broad view helps educators see development across multiple areas such as language, social-emotional skills, cognitive growth, physical development, and creativity, all within meaningful, everyday contexts. Because the evidence accumulates over time, portfolios reveal patterns of growth, highlight strengths, and point to specific next steps in planning and instruction. They also provide a rich basis for communicating with families about how the child is learning and where to focus next. Portfolios differ from standardized testing, which compares children to fixed benchmarks and often relies on one-time measurements. They are not used to determine funding, and they do not replace ongoing teacher observations with a single snapshot; instead, they synthesize ongoing observations and authentic work to reflect true progress over time.