Regardless of whether you have created a rubric from scratch, modified an existing one, or aga going to use a rubric developed by someone else, before and after you use the rubric you should evaluate it and determine if it is the most appropriate and effective rubric for the assessment.
Questions to ask when evaluating a rubric:
- Does the rubric relate to the outcome(s) being assessed?
- Does it cover important criteria of the performance?
- Is the criteria clear and distinct?
- Does the top end of the rubric reflect competence?
- Are all performance levels well-defined and distinct?
- Can the rubric be applied consistently by different assessors?
In addition to asking yourself these questions you can also use this Rubric for Rubrics to evaluate the quality of the rubric.
This rubric includes definitions of four levels of performance for each of six areas of evaluation criteria:
- clarity of criteria,
- distinction between levels,
- reliability of scoring or judgment,
- clarity of expectations/guidance to learners,
- support of metacognition (awareness of learning), and
- engagement of learners in rubric development/ use.
We suggest you use this rubric or the checklist for rubrics to evaluate the rubrics you have desinged before testing or formally using them for assessment with learentes.
