Rubrics provide a powerful tool for grading and assessment that can also serve as a transparent and inspiring guide to learning. A rubric is a great tool for teachers, because it is a simple way to set up a grading criteria for assignments. Not only is this tool useful for teachers, it is helpful for students as well. Rubrics are a printed set of scoring guidelines (criteria) for evaluating work (a performance or a product) and for giving feedback. Generally, they are put in the form of a chart with an x and y axis of performance criteria and an evaluative range or scale. A rubric defines in writing what is expected of the student to get a particular grade on an assignment. A good rubric also describes levels of quality for each of the criteria. These levels of performance may be written as different ratings (e.g., Excellent, Good, Needs Improvement) or as numerical scores (e.g., 4, 3, 2, 1).
Rubrics are often used to grade student work but they can serve another, more important, role as well: Rubrics can teach as well as evaluate. When used as part of a formative, student-centered approach to assessment, rubrics have the potential to help students develop understanding and skill, as well as make dependable judgments about the quality of their own work. Students should be able to use rubrics in many of the same ways that teachers use them—to clarify the standards for a quality performance, and to guide ongoing feedback about progress toward those standards.
The operating principle behind rubrics is that you match the performance to the description, thus rubrics are as good or bad as the criteria selected and the descriptions of the levels of performance under each. Effective rubrics have appropriate criteria and well-written descriptions of performance.
