Performance Assessment Rubrics - Ten Tips to Evaluate Rubric Designs
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DO
NOT confuse a higher quality rubric with a higher number of criteria;
3-7 is an optimal amount.
DO NOT include as a central part of a rubric something that translates
into a quantifiable term.
DO NOT use the first two levels of the rubric to describe what
a student does wrong and the second two levels to describe what
she does right.
DO use the first level as a standard base, not as an incomplete
or failing level.
DO create levels of performance that advance in equal increments,
representing realistic increases in students' skill level.
DO align rubric language with everything else students are doing
in their educational life, creating a common language and standard.
DO align rubric criteria with national/state/school standards.
DO involve kids in deciding particular performance tasks.
DO make the rubric understandable to students.
DO use terminology that is understandable to an outside evaluator.
Developed
based on a conversation with Dennie Palmer Wolf—Director of the
Rethinking Accountability Initiative at the Annenberg Institute for
School Reform at Brown University.
To elaborate on the tips above, we have developed examples
of faulty rubrics. The trouble spots are explained illustrating
where they rubric went wrong.
