What Are Rubrics?
Heidi Goodrich, a rubrics expert, defines a rubric as "a scoring tool that lists the criteria for a piece of work or 'what counts.' "She has taught several courses on alternative assessment for teachers through The Education Cooperative in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Heidi Goodrich Andrade received her doctorate in education from Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1996.
Our rubric for essays, writing prompts, and key questions was developed by Boston Public Schools. This rubric tells students that their work will be rated on background information, thesis statement, supporting and concluding statements, understanding and thoroughness, language, sentence structure, proper paragraphs, citations, conventions, legibility and formatting. These ratings are indicated on a Task Description sheet.
Our rubric describes the levels of quality for each of the criteria mentioned above. The ratings are expressed on a point scale from one to four. One being the lowest possible score and four being the highest possible score. The points for each criteria are added and the average is indicated as the "Overall Rating" at the bottom of the Task Description sheet.
Why Use Rubrics?
According to Goodrich: | They help students and teachers define "quality."| When students use rubrics regularly to judge their own work, they begin to
accept more responsibility for the end product. It cuts down on the "am
I done yet?" questions. | Rubrics reduce the time teachers spend grading student work and makes it
easier for teachers to explain to students why they got the grade they did
and what they can do to improve. | Parents usually like the rubrics concept once they understand it, and they
find rubrics useful when helping with homework. As one teacher says:
"They know exactly what their child needs to do to be successful." | |