Rubrics 101: Discover this Assessment Tool
As faculty work on tasks such as assessing student learning or evaluating proposals, they increasingly turn to rubrics to help them make decisions. Rubrics can serve many purposes in higher education, such as making curriculum planning easier and grading more efficient. Nonetheless, many faculty may still be asking: what is a "rubric" anyway?
The original rubrics were red-lettered headings in manuscripts (the name comes from Latin ruber, "red"). These manuscript headings functioned as an index or table of contents would today, letting readers know where they were in the text and, generally, what was going on. In today's assessment-focused educational environment, a rubric remains a way of measuring where one is and what is going on, but in terms of achieving some desired goal. Today, rubrics are a way of establishing and defining levels of achievement and determining when those levels have been reached.
A rubric consists of a simple grid containing aspects of a task or situation on one axis (for example, description of a problem; creativity in approaching and solving the problem; clarity of presentation) and levels of achievement on the other. At each point, or cell, of the grid is a specific description of the given level of achievement for each aspect. Here is an example:
Sample Rubric on a Fast Food Restaurant
Very good Acceptable Not Acceptable Variety of food Wide variety (8-10) of choices including low-fat, low-cal A fair number (4-7) of choices available Only a few (1-3) items available Taste and appearance of food Food looks just like in advertisements; hot, fresh, tasty Food is palatable and at least warm; acceptable taste and texture Food bears little resemblance to what it is said to be; cold, greasy, or off-tasting Service Very fast; line moved quickly; friendly staff Order taken and change given correctly Slow service, surly workers, orders gotten wrong Cleanliness Thoroughly clean floor, tabletops, counters Some crumbs, trash seen on tables or floors Many tables not clean; flies or insects visible Purpose of Rubrics
Rubrics such as this one can help evaluators to quantify their impressions if point values (say, 4, 2, and zero) are assigned to the descriptors on the horizontal axis in the example from above. Items can also be weighted, giving more value to, say, taste and appearance of food and less to variety of food. For example, the CTE rubrics on evaluating applications for Miller Faculty Fellowships are weighted to give greater emphasis to a proposal's significance, its intended student learning outcomes, a clearly articulated assessment plan, and sustainability of the project than to other criteria.
When used for grading, rubrics provide students with information and feedback they need to improve their performance. According to Mary Huba, professor of educational leadership and policy studies, who has written extensively on rubrics and their use, rubrics are a way to make public the criteria on which a student is to be judged. They explain what the standards of excellence are, and point out specifically how students need to improve. As a way to explain "the rules," to make clear what's going on, rubrics can promote, as well as measure, learning.
Benefits of Rubrics to Students and Instructors
Because rubrics force evaluators to spell out what they consider to be good, fair, or poor work, using rubrics tends to reveal the standards of a discipline, according to Huba. Used in a classroom setting, rubrics open up teacher-student communication, allow students to make their own assessments, and give students insights concerning areas where they need to improve. The comments in each cell of the rubric can include the consequences of various levels of achievement (for example, "Not Acceptable" work in the fast food restaurant example can easily lead to being fired). In some cases, according to Huba, students can participate in establishing grading criteria or rubrics, and tend to take this work very seriously. In making the criteria for success public and clear to students, rubrics can raise levels of student achievement.
Rubrics also can be used in programs or departments to describe desired student learning outcomes. In this context, they can make clear among and between departments what sorts of student learning are expected from a given class. For example, if levels of student achievement in a 100-level language class are clearly spelled out, instructors at the next level will have a better idea of what to expect from students. Used in this way, rubrics can minimize the differences in instructors' ratings of student work and can aid communication among instructors even in different departments.
What To Keep In Mind About Rubrics
Although they are quite useful, writing rubrics can be difficult, according to Huba. In addition, rubrics need ongoing evaluation, updating and refinement as they are used. Also keep in mind, they need to be used consistently and referred to often if they are to provide a common ground for students and teachers, or for colleagues at work on a problem.
Need Help?
The book "Learner-Centered Assessment on College Campuses," by Mary Huba and Ann Freed is a great resource with an extensive discussion of rubrics and examples of their use. You can find this book in the CTE Library at 3024 Morrill Hall.
