What is a Rubric?

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Public revelations of the standards used in judging student work

Guidelines students use to shape their work
Tool used by professors to give feedback to students to help them improve
Tool used by raters to judge work according to common standards

What are the key elements in a rubric?

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Levels of achievement
(e.g., exemplary, satisfactory, unsatisfactory)
Criteria that distinguish good work from poor work
Descriptions of criteria at each level of achievement

After Mary Huba, Assessing General Education Outcomes in Courses, AAC&U Network
for Academic Renewal Conference March 1-3,2007.

RUBRICS

Having clear standards and criteria can

Save time in the grading process
Allow you to make that process consistent and fair
Help you to explain to students what you expect
Show you what to teach
Help students participate in their own learning, because they

know where they are aiming

Help students evaluate their own work
Save you having to explain your criteria to students after they

have received their grade

Help team teachers grade student papers consistently
Help teachers of sequenced courses communicate with each

other about standards and criteria

Form the basis for departmental and institutional assessment.

Barbara E. Walvoord, Director, Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence, University of

Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556

The Elements of a Rubric

Task Description: Describe the task in enough detail to convey a clear general level of your
expectations.
Scale: Describe how well or poorly each dimension of the task has been performed. They can
be qualitative descriptors, numbers, or grades. A rubric that contains only the highest level of
performance is a scoring guide. Some commonly used labels are:

Sophisticated, competent, partly competent, not yet competent

Exemplary, proficient, marginal, unacceptable
Advanced, intermediate, intermediate novice
Distinguished, proficient, intermediate, novice
Accomplished, average, developing, beginning
A, B, C, D, unacceptable
20 18 16, 14 12 10, 8 6 4, 2 0

Dimensions: Divide the task into distinct dimensions as simply and completely as possible.
This is where you communicate what you care aboutand what you want your students to
attend to. Remember: more dimensions means more time spent grading.
Description of Dimensions: For each dimension, describe what constitutes minimum
performance for each scale. For a scoring guide, just describe the highest level of
performance.

Task

Scales

Dimensions
Descriptions
of Dimensions

Three-level rubric with parts labeled.

Paine, C. & Myers, W. (2007). Teaching with Writing. Unpublished manuscript