Writing Rubrics for Meaningful Assessment

Developing an Assessment Scale That is Instructive and Informative

Oct 31, 2009

Quality rubrics provide teachers and students with a comprehensive set of criteria that illustrate the quality of work that meets, exceeds, or falls below expectations.

Rubrics provide an objective scale with which teachers evaluate student work. By establishing criteria and defining the qualities that should be evident in an assignment ahead of time, teachers help students know exactly what is expected and provide a tool for them to check their own work before submitting it. However, writing a good rubric involves being specific enough to make the assignment clear, while remaining general enough to permit a creative demonstration of learning.

Defining Criteria for Evaluation of Student Performance

The first step in designing a rubric is to define the criteria that will be used to evaluate the assignment. Teachers should consider the assignment carefully and determine which aspects of the work should be evaluated. For example, for a persuasive essay, the criteria may include content, format, and mechanics; or for a poster presentation, the criteria may include content of presentation, quality of poster, and verbal presentation skills.

For each criteria category, clearly define the aspects of the project that are included. For example, for the persuasive essay, "mechanics" would include grammar, spelling, and punctuation; and for the poster assignment, "verbal presentation skills" might include making eye contact, speaking clearly and loudly enough, and engaging the audience in the presentation.

Keeping the criteria to 3-5 categories makes the rubric easier to manage for students, but sometimes assignments require more. If necessary, collapse related criteria into broader categories, such as combining format and mechanics for a lengthy written assignment, making sure to clearly delineate all aspects of the criteria in the category description. Using a chart form, list the criteria categories and their descriptions down the left side.

Defining the Qualities That Meet, Exceed, or Fall Below Expectations

The second step in designing a rubric is to define the levels of qualities that will warrant a particular numeric value. Again, consider the assignment carefully and determine what is an acceptable level of work. For each category, define the work that would meet, exceed, or fall below assignment expectations and assign a related numeric value.

Words like "numerous" and "few" (with a point range) allow teachers to use their professional judgment when evaluating student work. Qualities are written across from each criteria category on the chart.

Using a Rubric as an Instructional Tool

Rubrics become valuable instructional tools when they are shared with students ahead of time. By going over the criteria, and even providing examples of the type of quality that falls under each point range, students can clearly see what is expected and have a specific list of qualities they can check for before submitting their assignments.

With occasional assignments, have students participate in setting the criteria and defining the levels of quality so that they understand the relevance of the assignment to showing what they have learned. Students may also become more metacognitive in their approach to learning by using rubrics to evaluate their own work and handing in a completed rubric along with the assignment for teacher consideration.

Rubrics provide more than just a quick way to grade student work. When used properly, they become an instructional tool that helps more students understand and meet expectations, while the process of designing a rubric forces teachers to clearly connect projects and assignments with learning objectives and to define exactly what is expected. The result is better learning and higher quality work from students.

Burke, Kathleen. From Standards to Rubrics in Six Steps: Tools for Assessing Student Learning, K-8. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, 2006.

The copyright of the article Writing Rubrics for Meaningful Assessment in Teaching Strategies/Mentorship is owned by Barbara Abromitis. Permission to republish Writing Rubrics for Meaningful Assessment in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.