Types of Rubrics

What is a Rubric?

A rubric is not a form of assessment but are criteria that cover the essence of a performance that is judged with them. It defines expected performance, standards of quality, levels of accomplishment. It also articulates the gradation of quality for each criterion. It is a guide for assigning scores to alternative assessment products. 

What questions do rubrics answer?

1. By what criteria should the performance be judged? 
2. Where should you look and what should you look for to judge a  successful performance? 
3. What does the range in quality performance look like? 
4. How do you determine validly, reliably, and fairly what score should be given to a student and what that score means? 
5. How should the different levels of quality be described and distinguished from one another? 

Types of Rubric

1. General Rubric. This rubric contains criteria that can be used across similar performances or tasks.
Advantage: can use the same rubric across different tasks
Disadvantage: feedback may not be specific enough.

Example: Writing Task in Content Areas

2. Task-Specific Rubric. This type of rubric generally provides specific feedback along several dimensions. It can only be used for a single task

Example: Boat Designing

3. Holistic Rubric. This rubric does not list separate levels of performance for each criterion. It generally provides a single score based on an overall impression of a student’s performance on a task.

Example: Oral Recitation

4. Analytic Rubric. This rubric articulates levels of performance for each criterion. A separate score is given for each criterion considered important for the assessed performance.

Example: Oral Recitation

Steps in creating rubrics

Step 1: show examples of good and not so good work;

Step 2: identify qualities that define good work from the model;

Step 3: describe the best and worst level of quality; 

Step 4: using the agreed criteria and levels of quality, evaluate the models presented in step 1 together with students; 

Step 5: give the student their task and occasionally stop them for self and peer assessment; 

Step 6: always give students time to revise their work based on the feedback they get in step 5; and

Step 7: use the same rubric students used to assess their work

Tips in designing a rubric

• use clear, precise and concise language
• specify the levels of quality through the responses such as: “yes,” “yes but,” “no but,” and “no”

Example: Rubric for Evaluating a Scrapbook (Andrade, 2007)

The well-designed rubric includes:

• performance dimensions that are critical to successful task completion
• criteria that reflect all the important outcomes of the performance task
• a rating  scale that provides a usable easily interpreted score
• criteria that reflect concrete references, in a clear language understandable to students, parent, and other teachers