Rubrics: The basics

Different conceptions may come to mind when one hears the word rubric. This article draws on the definition of the Great Schools Partnership:^[1]

A rubric is typically an evaluation tool or set of guidelines used to promote the consistent application of learning expectations, learning objectives, or learning standards in the classroom, or to measure their attainment against a consistent set of criteria. In instructional settings, rubrics clearly define academic expectations for students and help to ensure consistency in the evaluation of academic work from student to student, assignment to assignment, or course to course. Rubrics are also used as scoring instruments to determine grades or the degree to which learning standards have been demonstrated or attained by students. (para. 1)

Rubrics can support students’ learning in a variety of ways. As Brookhart,^[2] Stevens and Levi,^[3] and Suskie^[4] describe, rubrics can:

Communicate instructor’s expectations: Students will thus understand what to do.
Help focus on key criteria: Developing a rubric means having to articulate what learning (i.e., knowledge, skills, values) students must demonstrate to successfully complete an assignment.
Make providing feedback more efficient: Simply circling or checking off the appropriate categories is more efficient than writing (often repetitive) comments and still provides students with feedback. You can, of course, choose to add specific feedback comments where applicable.
Facilitate inter-rater reliability: Explicit assessment criteria can increase consistency among graders.
Put students in charge of their own learning: Students can use the assessment criteria for self-assessment of their work—to see if it meets the stated expectations—and revise their work as necessary prior to submission.

Well-designed rubrics can promote equitable pedagogical practices, for example:

Rubrics that are carefully aligned with learning outcomes and include student input limit the impact of unconscious bias in the qualitative assessment of learning (Inoue, 2019; Singer-Freeman & Bastone, 2016, 2021). Rubrics help evaluators apply similar standards across multiple individuals and provide a lasting record of assessments, allowing outcome audits across classes or instructors. Rubrics also focus evaluators’ attention on specific concepts, reducing the bias that occurs when evaluators assess nonessential elements of a piece of work.^[5]

Types of rubrics

Different types of rubrics exist. Among the most common are analytic rubrics and holistic rubrics, both of which are supported in myCourses.

Analytic Rubrics

Analytic rubrics break performance into multiple criteria, each assessed separately, contributing to an overall grade. The Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence at Penn State University^[6] (2007) suggests analytic rubrics are useful when “you want to see relative strengths and weaknesses … provide detailed feedback … assess complicated skills or performance [and] when you want students to self-assess their work” (p. 1). Additionally, in contexts with multiple graders, analytic rubrics can improve inter-rater reliability.

Here is an example of an analytic rubric for a Fake News Assignment. This rubric has been created based on an example holistic rubric, courtesy of Prof. E. Obukhova, McGill University.

Holistic Rubrics

Holistic rubrics assess students' learning on a given task as a whole. This kind of rubric allows instructors to assign a global score based on a variety of performance factors.

Here is an example of a holistic rubric for a Fake News Assignment, courtesy of Prof. E. Obukhova, McGill University. (See the complete assignment.)

A Exceptional work	The assignment demonstrates a nuanced and sophisticated understanding of NAFTA and its effects on a particular stakeholder. The fake news article is realistic, creative, and memorable. It innovatively uses four techniques for creating bias. The exposé is outstandingly clear, informative and engaging. The assignment demonstrates outstanding professionalism in the style, language, and formatting.
B Good work	The assignment demonstrates a well-developed understanding of NAFTA and its effects on a particular stakeholder. The fake news article is realistic. It effectively uses four techniques for creating bias. The exposé is clear and informative. The assignment demonstrates professionalism in the style, language, and formatting.
C Meets most expectations	The assignment demonstrates some understanding of NAFTA and its effects on a particular stakeholder. The fake news article is somewhat realistic. It somewhat effectively uses the four techniques for creating bias. The exposé is somewhat clear and informative. The assignment demonstrates some professionalism in the style, language, and formatting.
D Needs improvement	The assignment needs to show a deeper understanding of NAFTA and its effects on a particular stakeholder. The fake news article can be more realistic. The four techniques for creating bias can be used more effectively. The exposé needs to be more clear and informative. The report needs improvement in the style, language, and formatting.

Create rubrics

Rubrics have three basic components: (1) assessment criteria, (2) performance standards, and (3) descriptions of performance standards. Each of these components is defined below, along with recommendations for developing them.

♦ Assessment criteria describe the elements of learning being assessed.

Recommendations: As you work to develop criteria for assignments in your course:

Determine assessment criteria in alignment with the learning outcomes. To that end, define the criteria based on student learning (e.g., they will analyze, compare, evaluate) and not on the characteristics of the task (e.g., its length or format).
- Ensure criteria are distinct from each other; consolidate if there is overlap.

♥ Performance standards describe levels of performance.

Recommendation: To set these for your rubric:

Decide on the levels of performance and the number of levels. Three to five levels tend to be manageable. More than five levels can make it difficult to differentiate one level from another.

Example performance standards:

Outstanding/Competent/Developing/Weak/Lacks evidence
Excellent/Good/Fair
Mastered/Developing mastery/Needs improvement
Expert/Practitioner/Apprentice/Novice
Exceeds standard/Meets standard/Approaches standard/Below standard
A/B/C/D/F

♣ Descriptions of performance standards indicate how students will demonstrate achievement of the learning outcomes. In other words, performance should be described such that it can be observed.

Recommendation: Aim for descriptions that are:

Understandable: Are the descriptions written in a way that students, other graders, and you will consistently understand the expectations?
Distinct: Do the descriptions change enough from one level of performance to the next so that you can assign student work unambiguously to a level?
Centered on the target performance: Is each description appropriate for its standard of performance?
Parallel: Do descriptions at each level of the continuum address the same aspects of the criterion/learning outcome, just at different levels? (adapted from Brookhart,^[2] p. 28)

Symbol coding highlights how each component corresponds to the two types of rubrics.

Analytic rubrics

♦ Assessment criteria appear in the column on the left.
♥ Performance standards appear along the top row.
♣ Descriptions of performance standards appear in the boxes below each performance standard.

	♥ Exceptional work	♥ Good work	♥ Meets most expectations	♥ Needs improvement
♦ Understanding of NAFTA and its effects on a particular stakeholder	♣ The assignment demonstrates a nuanced and sophisticated understanding of NAFTA and its effects on a particular stakeholder.	♣ The assignment demonstrates a well-developed understanding of NAFTA and its effects on a particular stakeholder.	♣ The assignment demonstrates some understanding of NAFTA and its effects on a particular stakeholder.	♣ The assignment needs to show a deeper understanding of NAFTA and its effects on a particular stakeholder.

Holistic rubrics

♦ Assessment criteria and ♣ Descriptions of performance standards appear in the column on the right.
♥ Performance standards appear in the column on the left.

♥ A
Exceptional work

The assignment ♦ demonstrates a ♣ nuanced and sophisticated ♦ understanding of NAFTA and its effects on a particular stakeholder. The fake news article is ♦ realistic, creative, and memorable. It ♣ innovatively ♦ uses four techniques for creating bias. The exposé is ♣ outstandingly ♦ clear, informative and engaging. The assignment ♦ demonstrates ♣ outstanding ♦ professionalism in the style, language, and formatting.

♥ B
Good work

The assignment ♦ demonstrates a ♣ well-developed ♦ understanding of NAFTA and its effects on a particular stakeholder. The fake news article is ♦ realistic. It ♣ effectively ♦ uses four techniques for creating bias. The exposé is ♦ clear and informative. The assignment ♦ demonstrates professionalism in the style, language, and formatting.

It takes time to develop a rubric. To facilitate the task:

Watch this SALTISE/TLS video, which aims to help you design more effective rubrics by highlighting four fundamental questions to keep in mind as you consider criteria for your rubric.

Read Jones’^[7] two-page article Common rubric mistakes to watch out for (and some ways you might fix them).

Seek inspiration from examples:

See examples from McGill instructors of assessment tasks, along with the assessment criteria, that are designed to enhance students’ learning and motivation to learn.

Creativity Rubrics (Institute for Habits of Mind)
General Education Critical Thinking Rubric (Northeastern Illinois University)
Rubrics by assignment type (Carnegie Mellon University)
Rubric Bank (University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa)
Rubric Library (California State University, Fresno)
VALUE Rubrics (American Association of Colleges and Universities)

Use a Rubric Generator Tool.

Assess your own rubric using this Rubric for Rubrics.

See instructions for myCourses set-ups:

Promote learning

Design rubrics to promote learning

Though rubrics are sometimes perceived simply as checklists, they can be intentionally designed to promote learning. Descriptions of performance standards can focus on how students demonstrate they have achieved desired learning outcomes and not just on what the completed assignment should look like in terms of required components (e.g., introduction, thesis statement, examples to support claims).

When creating the rubric, consider what you would like students to be thinking about while they do the assignment. The following examples, which are discrete and do not comprise a single, complete rubric, illustrate how descriptions of performance standards can be written to promote learning through engagement with the assignment criteria.

Criterion	Rather than a performance descriptor like this …	Try a performance descriptor like this …	Because your students will reflect on …
Applies a relevant framework from the course	The assignment consistently applies a framework explored in the course.	From among the frameworks explored in the course, the one that is most important to the question you are addressing/to your hypothesis is systematically applied.	previously explored course content to decide on an appropriate framework.
Articulates a position	The student takes a stance.	Your position is thoroughly explained in the context of theories discussed in the course.	theories learned in the course.
Uses the introduction to engage the audience	The introduction includes x, y, and z.	Multiple strategies are seamlessly integrated into the introduction to engage readers.	what elements will be engaging.
Uses voice and style to engage the audience	Attention is paid to voice and style.	Voice and style consistently demonstrate that you are writing with a particular audience in mind.	which features of voice and style are suitable for their particular audience.

Recommended practices

Recommended implementation practices

Test your rubric on samples of student work before using it for actual assessment to be sure it addresses the desired learning and allows you to distinguish students among the different levels of performance.
Allow students to enhance their understanding of the assessment criteria by applying the rubric to exemplars (see the How? section), and give students time in class to ask questions about the assessment criteria and performance descriptors. Purposeful dialogue with students can help to codify tacit expertise and allow you to unwrap the meaning of written quality expectations.^[8] A shared understanding of criteria and expectations increases the likelihood that students will demonstrate the desired learning.
Include students in the co-creation of parts of or the entire rubric. This strategy engages students in learning and encourages them to view the criteria as more than a list of tasks to simply complete. Learn more about how to implement this strategy in this TLS resource document, Feedback strategies: Engaging students in dialogue – Collaborating on evaluation criteria (pp. 14-17).
After implementing a rubric, reflect on its efficacy so that you can fine-tune it if needed for future use.

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References

^[1]Great Schools Partnership. (2014). Assessment. Glossary of Education Reform.

^[2] ¹ ²Brookhart, S. (2013). How to create and use rubrics for formative assessment and grading. ASCD Publications.

^[3]Stevens, D., Levi, A., & Walvoord, B. (2012). Introduction to rubrics: An assessment tool to save grading time, convey effective feedback, and promote student learning (2^nd ed.). Stylus Publishing.

^[4]Suskie, L. (2018). Assessing student learning: A common sense guide (3rd ed.). John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

^[5]Henning, G. W., Baker, G. R., Jankowski, N. A., Lundquist, A. E., & Montenegro, E. (2022). (Eds.). Reframing assessment to center equity: Theories, models, and practices. Stylus Publishing.

^[6]Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence. (2007). The basics of rubrics. Penn State University.

^[7]Jones, S. (2015). Common rubric mistakes to watch out for (and some ways you might fix them). Fun with IDET (Instructional Design & Educational Technology).

^[8]Carless, D., & Boud, D. (2018). The development of student feedback literacy: Enabling uptake of feedback. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 43(8), 1315-1325.

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