The Importance of Rubrics in Standards-Based Systems
For those of us who operate in a standards-based system, the answers to the questions, “What is a rubric?” and “Why use rubrics?” are neatly tied together. A rubric is an assessment or evaluation tool composed of an explicit set of criteria or components. That set of criteria is drawn from the standards, indicators, or targets the teacher, team, school, or district has selected for assessment.
Whether the language for the rubric is taken verbatim from those things or modified to make sense in the context of a particular assignment, there should be a solid connection between the stated assessment criteria and the assignment being used to determine proficiency levels with that assessment criteria.
That strong connection supports two of JumpRope’s Core Values: Clarity and Equity of Opportunity to Learn.
Clarity
We believe that students can achieve anything if they know what their learning goal is, how they are doing along the way, what they need to do next, and how they will be assessed.
Equity of Opportunity to Learn
We believe that all students deserve sufficient opportunity to acquire skills and knowledge.
Knowing what a rubric is and knowing these two JumpRope Core values naturally leads to the answer, “Why use…?” When teachers and schools are explicit in terms of the assessment criteria, and the tools used to assess are based directly on those criteria, students understand what they are trying to learn and demonstrate. This is clarity for students. Further, when those things are transparent to the teachers, they are more likely to provide sufficient opportunities for students to acquire the skills and knowledge needed to succeed on assessments. This is equity of opportunity to learn.
Rubrics give students a clear path to effective demonstration of learning, and they give teachers a clear path to a clean conscience. They not only help us provide more details for assessment but also encourage us to think about which components of an assignment signal the achievement we seek. That’s an invaluable tool to have at your disposal when you have something like 100 essays to read. I know that by the time I have read the 5th essay in a stack, I am already second-guessing my appraisal of the first four and wondering if I need to go back and re-read. Using a rubric to assess and grade helps eliminate that second-guessing.
How Analytic and Holistic Simplify Grading and Enhance Learning
Teachers can design and use different types of rubrics. The choice for which type depends on what is being assessed, and sometimes, it depends on the teacher’s preferences. The two primary categories are analytic and holistic.
An analytical rubric typically consists of a grid, with the assessment criteria indicated in the leftmost column and the levels of achievement indicated across the top row.
Sticking with the essay example from above, think of things like thesis statement, provision of evidence, writing development, and grammar and syntax in the leftmost column and terms such as exceeds expectations, meets expectations, approaching expectations, does not yet meet expectations, or the numbers 4, 3, 2, 1; or the letters A, B, C, D across the top. The cells within this rubric typically contain descriptors of what the specified criteria look like for each level of performance evident in the essay. With an analytic rubric, each piece of assessment criteria is given its own rating.
Analytic rubrics may be used developmentally for formative assessment as the process of, say, writing the essay unfolds. Such application of an analytic rubric allows the teacher to provide specific feedback to guide student learning as students work toward mastering challenging skills such as writing a thesis essay.
In contrast, a holistic rubric uses a single scale with all the assessment criteria being considered together.
In this case, the thesis statement, provision of evidence, writing development, and grammar and syntax are regarded as a single package. With a holistic rubric, the teacher assigns a single score based on an overall judgment of the student’s work.
The rater matches an entire piece of student work to a single description on the scale. Again, think exceeds expectations, meets expectations, approaching expectations, does not yet meet expectations; or the numbers 4, 3, 2, 1; or the letters A, B, C, D.
Finally, it’s worth mentioning that checklists, where only two performance levels are possible, can also be an effective, if less descriptive type of rubric. Checklists tend to be longer than other types of rubrics since the teacher is looking for each performance aspect in a student’s assignment. With a checklist, each criterion is either present or absent. Checklists can also be a very effective tool in providing formative feedback as students work on an extended writing piece or other such lengthy, multidimensional assignment.
The Pros and Cons of Checklists, Analytic, and Holistic Rubrics in Assessment
Of course, each of the types of rubrics discussed above has advantages and disadvantages. Since analytic rubrics are constructed based on specific task criteria, it’s easy to design them to match our targets, indicators, or standards. A teacher can devote specific rows to their chosen outcomes and articulate expectations for stages of proficiency relative to each outcome.
Letting each outcome stand alone enables the teacher to provide specific feedback and assign different weights to those outcomes. The downside to analytic is they take more time to create and use. Delineating the criteria in each cell is challenging, and grading each row is an investment. To read more about creating an effective analytic rubric, check out Building Effective Rubrics, a 2021 blog post.
Conversely, holistic are easier to create and less time-consuming to use. They still offer a path to providing effective feedback to students, but that feedback is not target-specific. Depending on how assessment standards are written, a holistic rubric might assess at the indicator or standard level.
Just Ahead: Examples and Best Practices for Using Different Types of Rubrics
Our next post will provide examples of each of the types of rubrics explored in this post and explore when you might choose to use them. In addition to Building Effective Rubrics, our 2021 series on rubrics also included a post on designing rubrics to serve as valid assessment tools (Validity) and a discussion on maximizing Transparency in Rubrics through their intentional design.
If you’d like to learn more about how JumpRope can help you build and create rubrics for student success, reach out today for a discussion.
