Using Rubrics for Student Assessment

Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT)

Designing an Effective and Innovative Course

June 12-14, 2006

Outline:

1. What are rubrics?

2. Why use rubrics?

3. Qualities of an effective rubrics

Acknowledgment

Heidi Goodrich Andrade, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Department of Educational & Counseling Psychology

University at Albany HAndrade@uamail.albany.edu

What are Rubrics?

• A way to combine assessment and learning

• Rubrics allow for both “formative” and “summative” assessment

• Rubrics can be used to:1) Define learning goals

2) Provide feedback to students

3) Assess/grade student work

All Rubrics Should Have

1. Multiple criteria/dimensions/categories

and

2. Gradations of quality

Why Rubrics?(courtesy of H. Andrade)

• They are easy to explain and use• They support learning by making expectations

and standards clear• They help students become thoughtful judges of

the quality of their own and others’ work• They reduce the time teachers spend evaluating

work while at the same time …• … providing students with more informative

feedback about strengths and areas in need of improvement

Which discussion rubric would you rather use and why?

What are the qualities of an effective rubric?

• They are instructional

• They are descriptive

• Created with student input

• They facilitate high-level thinking skills

• They are developmentally appropriate

Questions/Comments?