Role
of Rubrics in Higher Education: Fairness and Consistency of Students’ Grading
By
Khemraj Subedi
Associate Professor
M. Phil in Economics
PhD Scholar in Economics
Abstract
This paper
attempts to present rubrics as a guiding tool for mapping learning outcome of
students more objectively, consistently, reliably and validly. The rubrics aimed
at accurate and fair assessment, fostering understanding, and indicating a way
to proceed with subsequent learning/teaching to delineate consistent criteria
for grading. This integration of performance and feedback is called ongoing
assessment or formative assessment. Rubrics allow teachers; to summarize
student performance; to tabulate student accomplishment of learning goals; to
disaggregate student scores by specific criteria and skills; and, to identify
patterns of strengths and weaknesses of students’ work and of the assignments
themselves. They provide teachers a mechanism to score reliably, make valid
judgments, and rationalize the grades awarded. Therefore, rubrics provide
teachers with a greater understanding of their own teaching practice and
encourage teachers to become reflective practitioners.
Key
words: Learning outcomes, student grading, consistency, holistic rubrics,
analytic rubrics
Introduction
In education
terminology, rubric means "a scoring guide used to
evaluate the quality of students' constructed responses". Simply,
it is a set of criteria for grading assignments. Rubrics usually contain
evaluative criteria, quality definitions for those criteria at particular
levels of achievement, and a scoring strategy. They are often presented in table format and
can be used by teachers when marking, and by students when planning their work.
A scoring
rubric is an attempt to communicate expectations of quality around a task. In
many cases, scoring rubrics are used to delineate consistent criteria for
grading. Because the criteria are public, a scoring rubric allows teachers and
students alike to evaluate criteria, which can be complex and subjective. A
scoring rubric can also provide a basis for self-evaluation, reflection, and
peer review. It is aimed at accurate and fair assessment, fostering
understanding, and indicating a way to proceed with subsequent
learning/teaching. This integration of performance and feedback is called
ongoing assessment or formative assessment.
Effective rubrics have appropriate criteria and well-written descriptions of
performance.
Several common
features of scoring rubrics are:
·
They focus on measuring a stated objective (performance,
behavior, or quality).
·
They use a range to rate performance.
·
They contain specific performance characteristics arranged in
levels indicating either the developmental sophistication of the strategy used
or the degree to which a standard has been met.
.
Therefore, rubric encompasses mainly two
components: criteria and descriptions of levels of performance. The main point
about criteria is that they should be about learning outcomes, not aspects of
the task itself. The main point about descriptions of levels of performance is
that they should be descriptions, not evaluative statements. The
"evaluation" aspect of assessment is accomplished by matching student
work with the description, not by making immediate judgments. Finally, we can
make inference that using this kind of rubric helps teachers teach and students
learn in our specific classroom and academic institution context.
The word rubric comes from the Latin
word for red. The online Merriam-Webster
dictionary lists the first meaning of rubric as
"an authoritative rule" and the fourth meaning as "a guide
listing specific criteria for grading or scoring academic papers, projects, or
tests." How did the name for a color come to mean a rule or guide? At
least as far back as the middle Ages, the rules for the conduct of liturgical
services—as opposed to the actual spoken words of the liturgy—were often
printed in red, so the rules were "the red things" on the page.
Purpose of Rubrics
Rubrics are useful for
certain purposes and not for others in learning outcome mapping. The main purpose of rubrics is to
assess performances. For some performances, we observe the student in
the process of doing something, like using an electric drill or discussing an
issue. For other performances, we observe the product that is the result of the
student's work, like a finished bookshelf or a written report. It is just meant
to help us think of the types of performances you might assess with rubrics.
The main purpose of rubrics can be pointed out as:
Ø To help teachers teach,
Ø To help teachers to coordinate instruction,
Ø To help students learn,
Ø To help teachers grading learning outcome,
Rationale
of Rubrics
Rubrics are very much useful because they clarify for
students the qualities their work should have. This point is often expressed in
terms of students understanding the learning target and criteria for success.
For this reason, rubrics help teachers teach, they help coordinate instruction
and assessment, and they help students learn. To write or select rubrics, teachers need to focus on the
criteria by which learning will be assessed. This focus on what you intend
students to learn rather than what you
intend to teach actually helps
improve instruction. The common approach of "teaching things," as in”
Theory of Demand" or " Theory of Employment Interest and Money"
is clear on content but not so clear on outcomes. Without clarity on outcomes,
it's hard to know how much of various aspects of the content to teach. Rubrics
help with clarity of both content and outcomes.
In nutshell, good rubrics help teachers avoid confusing the task or
activity with the learning goal, and therefore confusing completion of the task
with learning. Rubrics help keep teachers focused on criteria, not tasks.
Focusing rubrics on learning and
not on tasks is the most important
concept in this context. It seems to be a difficult concept—or probably a more
accurate statement is that focusing on tasks is so easy and so seductive that
it becomes the path many busy teachers take. Penny-wise and pound-foolish, such
an approach saves time in the short run by sacrificing learning in the long
run.
Types of Rubrics
Rubrics are usually categorized by two different
aspects of their composition. One is whether the rubric treats the criteria one
at a time or together. The other is whether the rubric is general and could be
used with a family of similar tasks or is task-specific and only applicable to
one assessment.
Analytic
and Holistic Rubrics
Analytic
rubrics describe
work on each criterion separately. Holistic rubrics describe
the work by applying all the criteria at the same time and enabling an overall
judgment about the quality of the work. For most classroom purposes, analytic
rubrics are best. Focusing on the criteria one at a time is better for
instruction and better for formative assessment because students can see what
aspects of their work need what kind of attention. Focusing on the criteria one
at a time is good for any summative assessment (grading) that will also be used
to make decisions about the future for example, decisions about how to follow
up on a unit or decisions about how to teach something next year.
One classroom purpose for which holistic rubrics are better than
analytic rubrics is the situation in which students will not see the results of
a final summative assessment and you will not really use the information for
anything except a grade. Some high school final examinations fall into this
category. Grading with rubrics is faster when there is only one decision to
make, rather than a separate decision for each criterion. Analytic rubrics are
supposed to be good for most classroom purposes. True holistic rubrics are
still rubrics; that is, they are based on criteria for good work and on
observation of how the work meets those criteria.
General and Task-Specific Rubrics
General
rubrics use
criteria and descriptions of performance that generalize across
or can be used with, different tasks. The tasks all have to be instances of the
same learning outcome—for example, writing or mathematics problem solving. The
criteria point to aspects of the learning outcome and not to features of any
one specific task (for example, criteria list characteristics of good problem
solving and not features of the solution to a specific problem). The
descriptions of performance are general, so students learn general qualities
and not isolated, task-specific features (for example, the description might
say all relevant information was used to solve the problem, not that the
numbers of knives, forks, spoons, and guests were used to solve the
problem). Task-specific rubrics are
pretty well described by their name: They are rubrics that are specific to the
performance task with which they are used. Task-specific rubrics contain the
answers to a problem, or explain the reasoning students are supposed to use or
list facts and concepts students are supposed to mention.
Advantages and
Disadvantages of Different Types of Rubrics
|
Types of
Rubrics |
·
Definition |
Advantages |
Disadvantages |
|
Holistic or Analytical: one or Several judgments? |
|||
|
Analytic |
|
Ø Gives diagnostic
information to teacher. Ø Gives formative feedback
to students. Ø Easier to link to
instruction than holistic rubrics. Good for formative assessment; adaptable
for summative assessment; if you need an overall score for grading, you can
combine the scores. |
Ø Takes more time to score
than holistic rubrics. Ø Takes more time to
achieve inter-rater reliability than with holistic rubrics.
|
|
Holistic |
|
Ø Can share with students, explicitly linking
assessment and instruction. Ø Reuse same rubrics with several tasks or
assignments. Ø Supports learning by helping students see
"good work" as bigger than one task. Ø Supports student self-evaluation. Ø Students can help construct general rubrics.
|
Ø Lower reliability at first than with
task-specific rubrics. Ø Requires practice to apply well.
|
|
Description of Performance: General or Task-Specific? |
|||
|
General |
·
Description of work gives characteristics that apply to a whole
family of tasks (e.g., writing, problem solving). |
Ø
Can share with students, explicitly linking assessment and instruction. Ø
Reuse same rubrics with several tasks or assignments. Ø
Supports learning by helping students see "good work"
as bigger than one task. Ø
Supports student self-evaluation. Ø
Students can help construct general rubrics. |
Ø Lower reliability at first than with
task-specific rubrics. Ø Requires practice to apply well. |
|
Task
Specific |
·
Description of work refers to the specific content of a
particular task (e.g., gives an answer, specifies a conclusion). |
Ø
Teachers sometimes say using these makes scoring "easier." Ø
Requires less time to achieve inter-rater reliability. |
Ø Cannot share with students (would give away
answers). Ø Need to write new rubrics for each task. Ø For open-ended tasks, good answers not listed
in rubrics may be evaluated poorly. |
Guidelines to create Rubrics in
Assessing Students Learning Outcomes
·
Review
each of the program’s student learning outcomes.
Where in the program do students have opportunities
to demonstrate that they have achieved each of the outcomes? Capstone courses,
senior or upper level courses, research or internship experiences,
comprehensive exams, dissertation defenses, etc.?
·
Identify
student work.
Once
you have mapped the outcomes to the courses, exams, and other activities within
the program, what specific assignments or means of demonstrating skill can
serve as a source of student work that can be assessed in relation to the
learning outcome?
·
Establish
the criteria.
Under
this we need to seek answer of the questions like What are the performance
dimensions associated with the learning outcome? What are the critical
components of the student performance that you need to capture as evidence of
learning when assessing the work?
·
Identify
the scale.
Under
this we need to seek answer of the questions. What is the appropriate scale for
measuring each student’s performance on these dimensions?
o
Holistic
scales – provide an overall evaluation; appropriate for
assessment that does not require specific feedback;
o
Checklist
– appropriate for assessment criteria that can be addressed using a dichotomous
scale (e.g. Yes/No);
o
Rating
scales – provide feedback on the performance level;
appropriate for assessment that does not require specific description of each
performance level;
o
Analytic
scales – provides detailed description of each performance
level.
·
Determine
the range of performance levels and the program’s target.
The
target is the average performance or percentage of students who achieved a
certain score target that the program aspires to or considers to be a minimum
threshold for success in achieving the learning outcome.
o
The number of performance levels may
vary. Many people start with a 3-point scale (e.g. Exceeds Expectation/Meet
Expectation/Below Expectation), 4-point scale (e.g. Outstanding/Good/
Average/Poor), or 5-point scale (e.g.
Advanced/Proficient/Developing/Emerging/Beginning)
·
Pilot
the rubric. Is the rubric valid and reliable?
o
Share the rubric with colleagues,
o
Test the rubric on samples of student
work
o
If we are using multiple raters, hold a
session to discuss common definitions, standards, and expectations for quality.
Practice using the rubric on the same pieces of work and comparing ratings to
determine the consistency in judgments across raters.
·
Develop our sampling plan for selecting work
to be assessed with the rubric.
·
Aggregate
the rating scores across the entire sample.
Compare
the results to the program’s target for performance on that learning outcome.
After implementing the rubric, continue to review the findings. In addition to
proving a consistent method for assessing student work, rubrics can identify
opportunities for program improvement. Trends uncovered through aggregated
rubric scores can determine areas where students need additional instruction or
support, as well as inform changes in the curriculum or how content is taught.
Concluding
Remarks
Rubrics are
essentially useful for the process of both summative and formative assessments
of learners. They are excellent tools for grading and judgment evaluation of
learning and teaching processes when used as instructional rubrics. Scoring
rubrics are primarily grading tools that are effective in providing objective
and consistent assessment of student work. They clarify teacher expectations
and inform students on how to meet them in an easy-to-follow visual format.
They facilitate transparency in instruction by making objectives and criteria
explicit to students that are consistent with teaching goals. The feedback that
students receive through scoring rubrics can help them improve their
performance on subsequent work. Such transparency and feedback increase student
self-confidence, self-efficacy, self-awareness, and self-determination.
Instructional rubrics embody the clear shift from teacher-centered, summative
assessments to student-centered, formative assessments. They promote student
achievement by allowing both students and teachers to use evaluative judgments
and assessment results as means to further student learning. They help teachers
provide productive, targeted feedback, and prompt students’ active involvement
in making sense and engaging with feedback for ongoing improvement. They prompt
students to continuously self-evaluate their work against specific criteria
through reflection and action on feedback. Further, they demand students’
cognitive thinking and develop students’ disciplinary expertise and promote the
use of assessment for new learning. Thus, holistically designed instructional
rubrics scaffold the processes of self-assessment and self-regulated learning,
and enable students to achieve specific outcomes of an assessment task and
demonstrate what has been learned and achieved. Finally, rubrics also promote
the process of peer assessment and peer feedback by improving their ability to
judge and provide feedback to their own and their peers’ work, thus changing
students’ perspectives on their own abilities and potential. Rubrics allow
teachers to: (a) summarize student performance; (b) tabulate student
accomplishment of learning goals; (c) disaggregate student scores by specific
criteria and skills; and, (d) identify patterns of strengths
and weaknesses of students’ work and of the assignments themselves. Thus,
rubrics provide teachers with a greater understanding of their own teaching
practice and encourage teachers to become reflective practitioners.
References
·
Dornish, M. M.
and McLoughlin, A. (2006). Limitations of web-‐based rubric resources: Addressing the
Challenges. Practical Assessment, Research &
Evaluation 11 (3), 1-‐8.
·
Facione, P.
& Facione, N. (1994). The holistic critical thinking rubric. Insight
Assessment/California Academic Press.
·
Rhodes, T.
(2009). Assessing outcomes and improving achievement: Tips and tools
for using the rubrics. Washington, DC: Association of American
Colleges and Universities.
- Huba, M. E., & Freed, J.E. (2000). Using
rubrics to provide feedback to students. In Learner-centered assessment
on college campuses (pp. 151-200). Boston: Allyn &
Bacon.
- Lewis, R., Berghoff, P., & Pheeney, P.
(1999). Focusing students: Three approaches for learning through
evaluation. Innovative Higher Education, 23(3), 181-196.
- Luft, J. A. (1999). Rubrics: Design and use in science
teacher education. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 10(2),
107-121.
- Stevens, D. & Levi, A. (2013). Introduction to
rubrics: An assessment tool to save grading time, convey effective
feedback, and promote student learning (2nd ed.).
Virginia: Sylus.
·
Susan, M. B.(2018). “Appropriate Criteria: Key to Effective
Rubrics,” Frontiers in Education 3, no. 22
( https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2018.00022.)
- Phillip, D. (2017). “Assessment
Rubrics: Towards Clearer and More Replicable Design, Research and Practice,” Assessment
& Evaluation in Higher Education 42, no. 3 (2017):
347–360,
( https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2015.1111294.)
Annex 1
The
author has constructed a template or a model question along with specific
rubrics which is given hereunder.
Q1. The
market for potato has the following demand and supply schedule:[4+2+2+2]
|
Price /Kg in Rs. |
Quantity demand In KG |
Quantity supply In KG |
|
1 |
25 |
5 |
|
2 |
20 |
10 |
|
3 |
15 |
15 |
|
4 |
10 |
20 |
|
5 |
5 |
25 |
a)
Graph
the demand and supply curves from above data.
b)
What
is the equilibrium price and quantity demand in this potato market?
c)
If
the actual price in this market were above the equilibrium price, what would
its effect in quantity demand of potato?
d)
If
the actual price in this market were below the equilibrium price, what would
its effect in quantity demand of potato?
Notice to Examinee (students)
This
is to be informed to students that your answer sheets will be evaluated based
on the following dimension and criteria
|
Dimensions |
Grading |
||
|
Excellent |
Good |
Satisfactory |
|
|
Graph Labeling |
‐ All axes are
correctly labeled |
‐ Some axes are
labeled. ‐ |
‐There are no labels. |
|
Supply Curve |
Supply curve has the
correct |
Supply curve does not |
There is no supply
curve. |
|
Demand Curve |
Demand curve has the
correct |
Demand curve does not |
There is no demand
curve. |
|
Original |
Original equilibrium
is properly |
Original equilibrium
is not |
It is not clear where
the |
|
Shifts in the Curves |
‐ The correct curves
shift. |
‐ Incorrect curves
shift. |
‐ It is not clear at
all which |
|
Shifts in the Curves |
The curves shift in
the correct |
The curves shift but
in |
‐ It is not clear at
all which |
|
New Equilibrium |
New equilibrium is
properly |
New equilibrium is not |
It is not clear where
the |
|
Explanation |
‐ The description of
the graph is |
‐There is some
description |
There is no
explanation of |
Annex 2
The
author has constructed a template or model general rubrics for undergraduate
economics students which is given hereunder.
Annex 3
The
students involve in thesis writing and graduate project report writing can be
assessed with the help of following rubrics.
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