R U B R I C S

Understanding the concept and implications

byFabiola Espinosa López

What is a Rubric? In a general way, Goodrich says a “Rubric is a scoring

tool that lists the criteria for a piece of work”. “It also articulates gradations of quality for each criterion, from excellent to poor.”

According to Craig “Rubrics are rating scales – as opposed to checklists - that are used with performance assessments”.

I say that a Rubric is a very complete tool for evaluation which tells the students the specific assessment is expected from them.

Types of RubricsAcoording to Craig, it exists two kinds of rubrics: The holistic rubric which requires the teacher to score

the overall process or product as a whole, without judging the component parts separately (Nitko,2001).

The analytic rubric which requires the teacher to score separate, individual parts of the product or performance first, then sums the individual scores to obtain a total score (moskal,200;Nitko,2001).

Examples of Rubrics Holistic Rubric Analytic Rubric

Demonstrates no understanding of the problem.

1

Demonstrates partial understanding of the problem.

3

Demonstrates complete understanding of the problem.

5

DescriptionScore

Communicates most of important information; shos support for decision

Communicates some importante information; not organized well enough to support decision

Communication of results is incomplete, unorganized, and difficult to follow

Communication of content

Proper analytical procedures used, but analysis incomplete

Attempts analysis of data, but innappropriate procedures

No attempt at summarizing collected data

Analyses

Appropiate technique used to select sample; minor errors in execution

Appropriate technique used to select sample; major errors in execution

Innapropiate sampling technique used

Technique

Accomplished3

Developing 2

Beginning1

Why use Rubrics?Acoording to Goodrich, there are five reasons to use

Rubrics:

1.- They are powerful tools for both teaching and assessment.

2.- Rubrics are useful because they help students to become more thoughtful judges of the quality of their own and other’s work.

3.- Rubrics reduce the amount of time teachers spend evaluating student work.

4.- Teachers appreciate rubrics because their “accordion” nature allows them to accomodate heretogeneous classes.

5.- Rubrics are easy to use and to explain.

Conclusions

Goodrich says that the main point to use Rubrics is to help students learn

more and produce better final products, so including self

assessments in grades is unnecessary and can compromise students’

honesty.

Bibliography

Goodrich Andrade, H. (1997) originally published in Educational Leadership. http://www.middleweb.com/rubricsHG.html

Mertler, Craig A. Designing scoring rubrics for your classroom. Practical Assessment, Research &Evaluation, 7(25). Retrieved August 5, 2010 from http://PAREonline.net/getvn.asp?v=7&n=25