Grading Rubrics
A rubric is a systematic scoring guideline to evaluate studentsÂ' performance
through the use of a detailed description of performance standards. Rubrics
are typically employed when a judgment of quality is required. Grading rubrics
can be used to evaluate a broad range of subjects and activities (including
papers, speeches, problem solutions, portfolios, essays, and any other subjective
task). Typically, rubrics specify the performance expected for several levels
of quality. These levels of quality may be ratings (e.g., Excellent, Good, Needs
Improvement) or numerical scores (e.g., 4, 3, 2, 1) which are then utilized
to determine an alphanumeric grade (e.g., A, B, C, etc). Rubrics provide an
objective and consistent way to assess subjective tasks, indicate what is expected,
and highlight how performance will be evaluated. Whether a scoring rubric is
an appropriate evaluation technique is dependent upon the purpose of the assessment.
Advantages of Implementing Grading Rubrics:
The advantages of grading rubrics can be broken down into
three broad categories: improving student learning, facilitating communication
between teacher and students, and enhancing academic quality.
| Student Learning |
Communication |
Academic Quality |
|
Assists students' ability to judge and revise their own work before handing
in their assignments
|
Helps students understand the teachers' definition of "quality"
|
Leads to insight concerning the effectiveness of instruction
|
|
Descriptions assist the students in understanding why they received the
score that they did and what they need to do to improve their future performances
|
Reduces the subjectivity involved in evaluating qualitative work
|
Identifies benchmarks against which progress will be measured and documented
|
|
Prepares students for the world of work by making the connection between
real, authentic tasks and their evaluation
|
Allows instructors to provide more detailed feedback to individual students
|
Instructors are able to grade according to customized descriptive criteria
that reflect the intention of a specific assignment and won't change according
to the hour of night or the amount of effort a particular student is suspected
of expending
|
|
When students are made aware of the rubrics prior to instruction and
assessment, they
know the level of performance expected and they are more motivated to
reach those
standards
|
Allows instructors to detail comments on one or two elements and simply
indicate ratings on others
|
Establishes academic "ground rules" to resolve potential academic disputes
|
|
Promotes student self-assessment of their own learning and
performance
|
Having received the criteria with an assignment, students are able to
write toward specific goals
|
Saves on grading time so adequate time is available for all instructional
activities
|
|
When students are involved in rubric construction, the assignment itself
becomes
more meaningful to the students
|
Clarifies the meaning of subjective grading comments
|
Ensures that all instructors are measuring work by the same standards
|
|
Students can see at a glance the strengths and weaknesses of their work
|
Ensures that students are aware of goals and expectations of performance
on assignments
|
Promotes the effective connection between assessments and course objectives
|
|
Provides a mean by which students can meaningfully reflect on past feedback
to improve cumulative performance
|
Encourages the clarification of criteria for quality work
|
Ensures consistency of scores across all students
|
Types of Grading Rubrics
When creating grading rubrics, one must select the type of
grading scale from which to base the rubric. The three main grading scales are:
- Criterion-referenced - performance levels based independently on
preset criteria
- Norm-referenced - performance levels based on comparative ranking
in the class
- Self-referenced - performance levels based on individual student
expectation
Generally, a criterion-reference scale is preferred as it
reduces student competition and provides a consistent baseline of expected
performance. Several different types of grading rubrics may be used; the
selection of the rubric is based on the purpose of the evaluation. The
following table describes the differences between analytic and holistic rubrics
and between task specific and general rubrics.
| Type of Rubric |
Description |
Advantages |
Disadvantages |
Special Purpose |
Holistic | provides a single
score based on an overall impression of a student's performance on a task | quick
scoring | provides
overview of student achievement | allows
effective scoring of overlapping components | supports broader judgments concerning the
quality of the process or the product |
| does not
provide detailed information | may be
difficult to provide one overall score |
| measuring the writing process with a set of
relevant guidelines, emphasizing organization, expression of ideas and use of
language | a quick
snapshot of achievement | a single
dimension is adequate to define quality |
| Analytical | provides specific
feedback along several dimensions | more
detailed feedback | scoring
more consistent across students | allows for the separate evaluation of various
factors | separate criterion can be scored on different
descriptive scales |
| | performance data that is used in planning for
improved instruction as well as communication with students | identifying relative strengths and weaknesses | providing detailed
feedback | assessing
complicated skills or performance | students self-assessment
of their understanding or performance |
| General | contains criteria that
are general across tasks | can use
the same rubric across different tasks | effectively
assesses a broad category of tasks |
| feedback
may not be specific enough |
| assessment
of reasoning, skills and products | projects
in which students are not doing exactly the same task |
| Task Specific | contains criteria that
are unique to a specific task | more
reliable assessment of performance on the task | effective
for measuring the acquisition of knowledge or skills |
| difficult
to construct rubrics for all specific tasks |
| assessing
knowledge | consistency
of scoring |
|
Steps in Rubric Development
- Identify important criteria based on learning objectives
- Determine whether criteria are best
assessed through holistic or analytical scoring rubrics
- If an analytic scoring rubric is created, then each criterion is considered
separately and separate descriptive scoring schemes are created for each
evaluation factor.
- For holistic scoring rubrics, the collection of criteria is considered
throughout the construction of each level of the scoring rubric and the
result is a single descriptive scoring scheme.
- Weigh criteria based on their relative
importance
- Describe levels of success, proficient
performance or performance expectations
- This includes a determination of the number of scoring levels that are
adequate for differentiating between various student performance.
- Create a grid or table reflecting
criteria and levels of performance.
Tips for Rubric Development
- Utilize a criterion-referenced rubric that provides specific criteria for
acceptable performance
- Criteria and scoring should be meaningful, clear, and concise
- Be sure that the rubric clearly and directly relates to learning outcomes
- Keep it short and simple using brief statements and phrases
- Students must be fully aware of the content and meaning of the grading rubric
- Each rubric item should focus on a different skill or knowledge area
- Include evaluations of both the product and process of learning
- Focus on how students develop and express their learning
- Evaluate only measurable criteria
- Ideally, the entire rubric should fit on one sheet of paper
- Reevaluate the rubric to ensure it provides useful information to both instructor
and student
- Limit the number of criteria included in the rubric (ten ranked items is
usually the upper limit)
- Criteria should be specific and descriptive (avoid vague descriptions like
"clear," "organized," and "interesting")
- Include a range of performance levels with a descriptive meaning of the
required performance for each level
- Each score category should be defined using descriptions of the work rather
then subjective judgments
- Include space for comments either within or at the conclusion of the rubric
- It is better to have a few meaningful score categories then to have many
score categories that are difficult or impossible to distinguish
Checklist for Effective Rubrics:
|
___ |
Does the rubric relate to the outcome(s) being
measured? |
|
___ |
If the assessment is to address critical thinking skills,
does the rubric reflect that? |
|
___ |
Does it cover important dimensions of student
performance? |
|
___ |
Do the criteria reflect current conceptions of excellence
in the field? |
|
___ |
Does the rubric reflect what you emphasize in your
teaching? |
|
___ |
Does the highest scale point represent a truly exemplary
performance or product? |
|
___ |
Are the dimensions or scales well-defined? |
|
___ |
Is it clear to everyone what each scale measures? |
|
___ |
Is there a clear basis for assigning scores at each scale
point? |
|
___ |
Is it clear exactly what a student needs to do to get a
score at each scale point? |
|
___ |
Can you easily differentiate between scale points?
|
|
___ |
Is the rubric fair and free from bias? |
|
___ |
Does the rubric reward or penalize students based on
skills unrelated to the outcome being measured? |
|
___ |
Have all students had an equal opportunity to learn the
content and skills addressed in the rubric? |
|
___ |
Is the rubric appropriate for the conditions under which
the task was completed? |
|
___ |
Is the rubric useful, feasible, manageable and practical? |
|
___ |
Will it provide the kind of information you need and can
use effectively? |
|
___ |
Does the rubric have a reasonable number of scales and
score points? |
Resource Links
-------------------
Questions concerning the Park University Faculty Development: Quick Tips website should be directed to
Dr. Jean Mandernach jean.mandernach@park.edu.
Reference citation:
Mandernach, B. J. (2003). insert appropriate page title. Retrieved insert date, from
Park University Faculty Development Quick Tips.
^ Back to the Top
---------------------------------
University Resources
|
