This document discusses using rubrics to inform and assess student learning. It defines types of rubrics and their importance in providing quality feedback. Rubrics should communicate criteria for judging student work and provide feedback for growth. The document provides guidelines for writing effective rubrics and examples of how rubrics can benefit teachers, students, and parents.
Using rubrics to inform and assess student learning final 29 october 2010
1. Using Rubrics to Inform and
Assess Student Learning
Vanguard Training for Balanced Assessment
2. Module Goals
Define types of rubrics
Determine what constitutes quality
feedback for students
Identify criteria and levels of
proficiency and their importance
Analyze student work using a rubric
and checklist
3. Enduring Understandings
(participants will understand
that…)
High quality rubrics are a vital part
of the assessment process
Effective rubrics inform the teacher
and student of criteria for judging
student work
Well-written rubrics provide quality
feedback essential to student
growth
4. Essential Questions
In what ways might the use of rubrics
improve the assessment process?
How are rubrics used to inform
teachers and students of varying
levels of understanding?
To what extent can rubrics provide
valuable feedback necessary for
improved student learning?
How should the different levels of
quality, proficiency, or understanding
be described and distinguished from
one another?
5. Strategic Goal:
Recognizing that the long range goal of the
VBCPS is the successful preparation and
graduation of every student, the near term
goals is that by 2015, 95% or more of VBCPS
students will graduate having mastered the
skills that they need to succeed as 21st
century learners, workers and citizens.
Compass to 2015
6. Strategic Objectives
1. All teachers will engage every student in
meaningful, authentic and rigorous work through
the use of innovative instructional practices and
supportive technologies that will motivate
students to be self-directed and inquisitive
learners.
2. VBCPS will develop and implement a balanced
assessment system that accurately reflects
student demonstration and mastery of VBCPS
outcomes for student success.
7. VBCPS Outcomes for Student Success:
Our primary focus is on teaching and assessing those
skills our students need to thrive as 21st century
learners, workers and citizens. All VBCPS students will
be:
Academically proficient;
Effective communicators and collaborators;
Globally aware, independent, responsible learners
and citizens; and
Critical and creative thinkers, innovators and
problems solvers.
9. Opening
•Review the piece of student work and checklist
provided
•How does the checklist inform the teacher of the
student’s progress?
•How does the checklist inform the student of
his/her progress?
•How does the checklist inform the parent of their
child’s progress?
•How will the teacher justify the grade to the
student and parents?
11. Identifying Clear Criteria for
Student Understanding
Why do we need clear criteria?
— Addresses the fact that understanding within open-
ended prompts and performance tasks is subjective
— Allows students to demonstrate varying degrees of
understanding
— Allows for consistency in grading
— Highlights most revealing and important aspects of the
work--not just those easy to see or score
— Lets students know up front what is required to be
successful
— Derives criteria from established goals (i.e. EU & EQs)
12. Using Criteria to Develop Rubrics
Rubrics are a way to communicate
to students what is considered
important and how a product/task
will be evaluated as well as their
degree of understanding /level of
performance.
13. Types of Rubrics
Analytic - divides a product or
performance into essential traits
or domains so that each can be
judged separately.
Holistic - gives a single score of
the entire product or performance
based on an overall impression.
14. A quality rubric has
language that is…
◦ specific
◦ measurable
◦ observable
◦ understandable
◦ matched to task and KUD’s
◦ provides directions
◦ positive
15. Guidelines for Writing Rubrics
Do not include numbers in your levels of
understanding (3 examples; 2 examples; 1
example; 0 examples)
Ensure that the language that separates the
levels of performance/understanding allows
for clear understanding of the differences
between the levels
Avoid negative language
Be careful translating rubric score into a
grade
Involve students in the process
Criteria should be based on KUD’s of the
unit-neatness and creativity should not be
included unless they are a KUD
16. What does this rubric tell you?
Analyze the rubric
Identify what the student should know,
understand, and be able to do
What does this rubric tell you the
teacher values in this task?
17. The Benefits of Using Rubrics
Provides clear goals for the learner
Grade assigned to student work is
defensible to stakeholders
Allows for fair and consistent grading
Provides opportunities for learners to
self-assess
Allows for varying degrees of
understanding to emerge
Supports self-directed learning
18. Revisit Student Sample and
Rubric
Review the piece of student work and
rubric provided
How does the rubric inform the teacher
of the student’s progress?
How does the rubric inform the student
of his/her progress?
How does the rubric inform the parent of
their child’s progress?
How will the teacher justify the grade to
the student and parents?
19. Designing a Rubric
Review the performance task that you
brought to the training.
Identify one piece of criteria that your
task will measure
Complete the Getting Started With
Rubrics activity
20. Quality Feedback…
Informs stakeholders of a student’s
level of proficiency
Supports learning because it reduces
the uncertainty
Provides students with the opportunity
to improve performance
Supports goal setting and individual
reflection
21. References
Understanding by Design; Grant
Wiggins and Jay McTighe
Assessment Strategies for Self-
Directed Learning; Arthur L. Costa and
Bena Kallick
Scoring Rubrics in the Classroom;
Judith Arthur and Jay McTighe
It is important for us to understand how the content of today’s session is reflected in the school division’s strategic plan.This graphic illustrates the interconnected approach of the strategic plan. As you can see, the students are at the center surrounded by supports of relationships, relevancy, rigor and resilience. The content of today’s session will mainly focus on the development of a Rigorous curriculum and the importance of creating authentic performance tasks that allow gifted students to meet curriculum goals while at the same time goals and benchmarks of the gifted program.
Provide participants with one of the student work samples and accompanying checklist (based on the subject they teach). Have participants answer the questions independently and then discuss as a group. Lead participants to realize that a checklist is not the best method for evaluating student work on performance based assessments
Due to the subjective nature of performance tasks, evaluation of student work is based on judgment guided by criteria.Clear criteria helps us to identify the degree of understanding that each student demonstrates, which keeps the judgment based process fair and consistentDon’t make the mistake of relying on criteria that is easy to see as opposed to important to the performance and its purpose. We do not want to give high scores to students simply because they included all components of a task rather than high quality work.Most importantly, remember that assessments and criteria should come directly from your established goals from Stage 1. We don’t want to include criteria that is not one of our KUD’s. For example, a common piece of criteria on rubrics is neatness or creativity. If these things are not part of the KUD’s established in stage 1, they should not be a part of the rubric.
Once you have established your criteria, you are ready to develop a rubric.You don’t need to use rubrics for yes/no or questions w/ right or wrong answers—checklists or a point system is fine for these types of assessments.Remember that rubrics are vital to tasks that can be subjective.Rubrics must be aligned with the units KUD’s!
Advantages of using Analytic rubrics is that they – provide more detailed feedbackAllow for more consistent scoring among all studentsEvaluate each criteria separately so students can see areas of strength and weaknessThe disadvantage of using analytic rubrics is that they are more time consuming to score.Advantages to using holistic rubrics are – They are quick scoringProvide an overview of student achievementAllow effective scoring of overlapping componentsThe disadvantages to holistic rubrics is that they – Do not provide detailed informationIt is sometimes difficult to provide one overall score because of multiple criteria
The rubric language is very important. If it isn’t clear to students they will not know what to do. If they can’t understand it, they won’t know what to do, if it doesn’t match the task and KUD’s they won’t know what to do!
While many teachers feel that the use of specific numbers within a rubric removes the subjectivity of grading, you need to consider that rubrics should encourage students to strive to achieve the highest possible level. Specific number for items can cause students to focus more on how many things they include rather than the quality of what they include.Your descriptors for each level need to be clear so that students understand the differences between each level – expert to noviceYou have to be extremely careful when assigning a letter/numeric grade to a task scored via a rubric. Simply dividing the points earned by possible points does not usually translate into a correct percentage score. Consider creating a range such as 17 – 20 pts = A; 14 – 16 = B; etc… Remember-the feedback provided by a rubric is more important than the grade itself!
Provide participants with the rubric on data analysis and have them respond to the slide questions. Discuss how a clear, well-written rubric should clearly identify what is important without knowing anything about the unit or the task.
Rubrics should be provided to students in advance of their work so students are clear of the expectations up front!
Provide participants with rubric that matches the student sample and checklist provided at beginning of training. Discuss the differences between the type of feedback provided by the checklist versus the rubric. Guide participants to understand that the rubric provides far better feedback!
Provide participants with Getting Started with Rubrics handout, Words and Phrases handout and Rubric for a Rubric handout.
Point out that stakeholders include teachers, students, and parents