Rubrics: Useful Assessment Tools

What is a rubric?

A rubric is an assessment tool that clearly indicates achievement criteria across all the components of any kind of student work, from written to oral to visual. It can be used for marking assignments, class participation, or overall grades. There are two types of rubrics: holistic and analytical.

Holistic rubrics

Holistic rubrics group several different assessment criteria and classify them together under grade headings or achievement levels.

For a sample participation rubric, see the Appendix of this teaching tip. Our Responding to Writing Assignments teaching tip includes holistic rubrics specifically designed for writing assignments. See also Facione and Facione's (1994) "Holistic Critical Thinking Rubric [PDF]," useful in many disciplines. 

Analytic rubrics 

Analytic rubrics separate different assessment criteria and address them comprehensively. In a horizontal assessment rubric, the top axis includes values that can be expressed either numerically or by letter grade, or a scale from Exceptional to Poor (or Professional to Amateur, and so on). The side axis includes the assessment criteria for each component. Analytic rubrics can also permit different weightings for different components.

See the Teamwork VALUE Rubric [PDF], one of the many rubrics developed by the American Association of Colleges and Universities, or (AAC&U). 

How to make a rubric

1. Decide what criteria or essential elements must be present in the student’s work to ensure that it is high in quality. At this stage, you might even consider selecting samples of exemplary student work that can be shown to students when setting assignments.

2. Decide how many levels of achievement you will include on the rubric and how they will relate to your institution's definition of grades as well as your own grading scheme.

3. For each criterion, component, or essential element of quality, describe in detail what the performance at each achievement level looks like.

4. Leave space for additional, tailored comments or overall impressions and a final grade.

Developing rubrics interactively with your students

You can enhance students’ learning experience by involving them in the rubric development process. Either as a class or in small groups, students decide upon criteria for grading the assignment. It would be helpful to provide students with samples of exemplary work so they could identify the criteria with greater ease. In such an activity, the instructor functions as facilitator, guiding the students toward the final goal of a rubric that can be used on their assignment. This activity not only results in a greater learning experience, it also enables students to feel a greater sense of ownership and inclusion in the decision making process.

How to use rubrics effectively

Develop a different rubric for each assignment 

Although this takes time in the beginning, you’ll find that rubrics can be changed slightly or re-used later.  If you are seeking pre-existing rubrics, consider Rhodes (2009) for the AAC&U VALUE rubrics, cited below, or Facione and Facione (1994). Whether you develop your own or use an existing rubric, practice with any other graders in your course to achieve inter-rater reliability.

Be transparent

Give students a copy of the rubric when you assign the performance task. These are not meant to be surprise criteria. Hand the rubric back with the assignment.

Integrate rubrics into assignments

Require students to attach the rubric to the assignment when they hand it in. Some instructors ask students to self-assess or give peer feedback using the rubric prior to handing in the work. 

Leverage rubrics to manage your time

When you mark the assignment, circle or highlight the achieved level of performance for each criterion on the rubric. This is where you will save a great deal of time, as no comments are required.

Include any additional specific or overall comments that do not fit within the rubric’s criteria.

Be prepared to revise your rubrics

Decide upon a final grade for the assignment based on the rubric. If you find, as some do, that presented work meets criteria on the rubric but nevertheless seems to have exceeded or not met the overall qualities you’re seeking, revise the rubric accordingly for the next time you teach the course. If the work achieves highly in some areas of the rubric but not in others, decide in advance how the assignment grade is actually derived. Some use a formula, or multiplier, to give different weightings to various components; be explicit about this right on the rubric. 

Consider developing online rubrics 

If an assignment is being submitted to an electronic drop box you may be able to develop and use an online rubric. The scores from these rubrics are automatically entered in the online grade book in the course management system.

References

Facione, P. & Facione, N. (1994). The holistic critical thinking rubric [PDF]. Insight Assessment/California Academic Press.

Rhodes, T. (2009). Assessing outcomes and improving achievement: Tips and tools for using the rubrics. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges and Universities.

Resources

CTE teaching tips

• Responding to Writing Assignments: Managing the Paper Load

• Rubrics for Assessing Concept Maps

Other resources

• Huba, M. E., & Freed, J.E. (2000). Using rubrics to provide feedback to students. In Learner-centered assessment on college campuses (pp. 151-200). Boston: Allyn & Bacon. 

• Lewis, R., Berghoff, P., & Pheeney, P. (1999). Focusing students: Three approaches for learning through evaluation. Innovative Higher Education, 23(3), 181-196.

• Luft, J. A. (1999). Rubrics: Design and use in science teacher education. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 10(2), 107-121.

• Stevens, D. & Levi, A. (2013). Introduction to rubrics: An assessment tool to save grading time, convey effective feedback, and promote student learning (2nd ed.). Virginia: Sylus. 

• Stevens, D., & Levi, A. Introduction to rubrics companion site.

• iRubric: an online rubric design system for using, adapting, creating, and sharing rubrics. 

• Association of American Colleges & Universities VALUE rubrics

Appendix: sample holistic participation rubric