Links to Ideas about Performance Rubrics

Below Are Selected Sites Illustrating Performance Rubric Development and Use

• Rubrics: Holistic vs. Analytic Uses - In addition to a general discussion of characteristics of rubrics, Craig Mertler does a nice job of distinquishing between holistic and analytical rubric formats. For the performance rubric assignment in this class you are to use the analytic format. Take special note of Table 2. In the guidelines related to writing a performance item for our class, it mentions NOT to do what you see in the cells of this table. Table 2 is NOT a real rubric; it is a base model for creating one.

• Rubric Development Guidelines - In addition to the guidelines, the "Exploring the Environment Teacher Pages" gives example rubrics for assessing students in their performance in:
  • drawing conclusions,
  • cooperative learning,
  • product display

• Grading and Performance Rubrics - In additon to the general discussion, the "Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence" gives examples of rubrics related to assessing:
  • papers,
  • projects,
  • oral presentations,
  • class participation

• Oral Report Rubric - The Baltimore Public School developed a rating sheet (they call it a rubric) wherein the student and the instructor each rate the presentation given; as you can see it is more like a checklist but you could develop a scale system from the concept. Notice the "possible points" cells are blank. I would tend to think they should be filled in and each point would be "1" . . . but you as the teacher may disagree and some elements may be more highly valued by you (hence worth more points). Oh! Oh! If the possible points have a range (let's say 1, 2, 3) then what does one use to differentiate between them? Hmmm, on another issue. . . now that you have your ratings and the students' self ratings, what do you do with each?

• The Utility of Using GENERAL Performance Task Rubrics - Math Example - a general rubric is one that could be used across multiple performance cases. A good general rubric saves you time in rubric creation plus students will know your assessment on their work will be consistent. So, if the general assessment target is: "How well does the mathematics student solve problems?" presented here is a rubric that assesses the student's performance on most types of math problems by rating the solution on a scale of 1 to 4 in each of four areas:
  • Understanding,
  • Planning and Execution,
  • Communication,
  • Persistence
  When you look at the table, don't get confused . . . the best overall "score" or point total anyone could receive is 16 while the worst would be 4. It is also left up to the teacher to decide how to use this information. I could see some nice formative evaluation possibilites here.

• Evaluating One of Your Qwn Performance Task Rubrics You Are Using With Your Students - This article talks about how you as teacher might reflect on a performance rubric you are creating. It was distributed by ETS as part of their "Classroom Assessment for Student Learning" and posits that good performance tasks have the following five characteristics (also known as features, dimensions, or traits):
  • Content—The task elicits the correct performance from the student
  • Clarity—Students know exactly what to do.
  • Feasibility—The task is practical.
  • Fairness and Accuracy—Nothing in the task will give an inaccurate picture of student skill. All students have an equal chance to achieve.
  • Sampling—The task(s) adequately cover all dimensions of the learning target to be assessed.
  So, once you have developed (and even pilot tested) a performance rubric you as teacher can use this rubric to reflection on your own rubric. You do this by applying each of the five characteristics of a good performance rubric (as defined by ETS) rate yourself on your own rubric. On each of the five characteristics you would reach one of three conclusions: Good to Go . . . or . . . . Needs Refinement . . . or . . . . Major Revisions Needed.

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