Forging Assessment Communities

Using Rubrics Effectively

Susan Wood, Assessment CoordinatorDoña Ana Community College

Assessment = Scholarship

“Your state university has been offering instruction in writing for decades, but is that university any better now than before at teaching people to write? Over the years, it has doubtless enlisted wonderful individual talents in that task, but does it now know more—corporately—about how to accomplish it? If it practiced a scholarship of teaching, it would (Marchese, 2000).”

Bridging Theory and Practice

Theory of Assessment Technology of Assessment(RUBRICS)

Assessment-friendly Communities

Steps to building Assessment-friendly Communities

Start with a learning challenge

Call for volunteers to address the challenge

Express individual educational values and expectations connected to the challenge

Identify/establish commonly held criteria to assess

Assessment Community Rubric

mastered emerging struggling

Call for volunteers

Diverse individuals agree upon challenge and step forward

A few individuals acknowledge challenge and step forward

No group emerges to deal with challenges in an organized way

Express values

Diverse individuals feel comfortable expressing educational values and are willing to listen to others

Individuals want to but are hesitant to express educational values and find it difficult to listen to others

Individuals are unable to express educational values and are unwilling to listen to others

Identify common criteria

The group agrees on a core set of commonly held criteria

The group struggles to agree on a core set of commonly held criteria

The group is unable to agree upon a core set of criteria

Three Examples: Using Rubrics -- Effectively? Example one: Creation of English Program

Rubric

Example two: First attempt to create and use a WAC Rubric

Example three: Second attempt to create and use a WAC Rubric

WAC Taskforce Accomplishments

A tool to help teachers design writing assignments

A tool to help teachers assess their writing assignments

A writing-across-the curriculum rubric to evaluate student-writing campus-wide

General Education Assessment Committee

CXC Subcommittee MXC Subcommittee

CTXC Subcommittee EXC Subcommittee

GEAC