Writing Effective Rubrics

Andrea.T.735

Rubrics are ubiquitous grading tools in many classrooms and lecture halls. When used well, they can help to make grading fair and consistent by ensuring all learners are being assessed with the same criteria in the same way. However, not all rubrics are equal. A poorly designed rubric can muddy learners’ understanding of a task and impact the reliability and validity of an assessment. Here are five tips to make the rubrics you create more effective.

1. Write rubrics specific to each task. While it might be tempting to use a single, broad rubric for every assessment, adapting rubrics to the specific criteria of each task will help learners understand what skills, knowledge, or behaviors you are looking for and connect learning outcomes to the task or product. It will also help students to better understand the why behind their grades and what they need to do to improve.
2. Use clear, simple language. Rubrics tend to be written in “teachery” language, which can make them inaccessible to learners trying to understand what is expected of them. Using simple language that is clear to the learner and meets them at their level will make for a more effective rubric.
3. Choose the right criteria. It doesn’t take much for a rubric to get overwhelming. Limit criteria to what is most important to the assessment to keep the total number of criteria small. Each criterion should be tied to the desired outcomes of the assessment. To help make this happen, start by dividing the performance, product, and/or process into components that reflect the outcomes you want to assess. Then, use these components to help you determine your criteria. Ask yourself if you are assessing any extra, unintended, or irrelevant variables, or if any key variables are missing before calling a rubric complete.
4. Write thorough descriptors. Well-written descriptors describe observable attributes, characteristics, skills, or behaviors tied to each criterion, have enough detail to clearly differentiate levels, and indicate the degree to which the criteria were met. Consider what you want (or don’t want) to see and use that to help you write thorough descriptors. Using parallel language across the scale can also help to strengthen your descriptors (e.g., if one level includes a quantity, all levels should include a quantity).
5. Keep it positive. Wherever possible, focus your descriptors on the presence of the quantity or quality that you expect, rather than their absence. This makes the expectations for each level clearer and keeps assessments focused on what learners have done instead of what they missed.

Following these tips will make for stronger, more effective rubrics. What tips and tricks do you have for rubrics?