----

##  Scoring Rubrics Part I: What and When. ERIC/AE Digest.                       

Scoring rubrics have become a common method for evaluating student              work in both  K-12 and college classrooms. The purpose of this                  Digest is to describe the different types of scoring rubrics and                explain why scoring rubrics are useful. A companion Digest provides             a process for developing scoring rubrics and describes resources                that contain examples of the different types of scoring rubrics and             offer further guidance in the development process. WHAT IS A                  SCORING RUBRIC?Scoring rubrics are descriptive scoring schemes              that are developed by teachers or other evaluators to guide the                 analysis of the products or processes of students'                              efforts (Brookhart, 1999). Scoring rubrics are typically employed               when a judgment of quality is required and may be used to evaluate a            broad range of subjects and activities. One common use of scoring               rubrics is to guide the evaluation of writing samples. Judgments                concerning the quality of a given writing sample may vary depending             upon the criteria established by the individual evaluator. One                  evaluator may heavily weigh the evaluation process upon the                     linguistic structure, while another evaluator may be more interested            in the persuasiveness of the argument. A high-quality essay is                  likely to have a combination of these and other factors. Developing             a predefined scheme for the evaluation process reduces the                      subjectivity involved in evaluating an essay. 
Figure 1 displays a             scoring rubric that was developed to guide the evaluation of student            writing samples in a college classroom (based loosely on Leydens &              Thompson, 1997). This is an example of a holistic scoring rubric                with four score levels. Holistic rubrics will be discussed in detail            later in this document. As the example illustrates, each score                  category describes the characteristics of a response that would                 receive the respective score. By having a description of the                    characteristics of responses within each score category, the                    likelihood that two independent evaluators would assign the same                score to a given response is increased. This concept of examining               the extent to which two independent evaluators assign the same score            to a given response is referred to as "rater reliability." WHEN               ARE SCORING RUBRICS AN APPROPRIATE EVALUATION TECHNIQUE?Writing             samples are just one example of performances that may be evaluated              using scoring rubrics. Scoring rubrics have also been used to                   evaluate group activities, extended projects and oral                           presentations(e.g., Chicago Public Schools, 1999; Danielson, 1997a,             1997b; Schrock, 2000; Moskal, 2000). They are equally appropriate to            the English, mathematics and science classrooms (e.g., Chicago                  Public Schools, 1999; State of Colorado, 1999; Danielson, 1997a,                1997b; Danielson & Marquez, 1998; Schrock, 2000). Both pre-college              and college instructors use scoring rubrics for classroom evaluation            purposes (e.g., State of Colorado, 1999; Schrock, 2000; Moskal,                 2000; Knecht, Moskal & Pavelich, 2000). Where and when a scoring                rubric is used does not depend on the grade level or subject, but               rather on the purpose of the assessment. 
 Figure 1. Example of a              scoring rubric designed to evaluate college writing samples. 
Meets            Expectations for a First Draft of a Professional Report 
* The                 document can be easily followed. A combination of the following are             apparent in the document: effective transitions are used throughout,            a professional format is used, the graphics are descriptive and                 clearly support the document's purpose. 
* The document is clear               and concise and appropriate grammar is used                                     throughout. 
Adequate 
* The document can be easily followed. A               combination of the following are apparent in the document: basic                transitions are used, a structured format is used, some supporting              graphics are provided, but are not clearly explained. 
* The                   document contains minimal distractions that appear in a combination             of the following forms: flow in thought, graphical presentations,               grammar/mechanics. 
Needs Improvement 
* Organization of document             is difficult to follow due to a combination of the following:                   inadequate transitions, rambling format, insufficient or irrelevant             information, ambiguous graphics. 
* The document contains numerous             distractions that appear in a combination of the following forms:               flow in thought, graphical presentations,                                       grammar/mechanics. 
Inadequate 
* There appears to be no                      organization of the document's contents. 
* Sentences are difficult            to read and understand. 
Scoring rubrics are one of many                       alternatives available for evaluating student work. For example,                checklists may be used rather then scoring rubrics in the evaluation            of writing samples. Checklists are an appropriate choice for                    evaluation when the information that is sought is limited to the                determination of whether specific criteria have been met. Scoring               rubrics are based on descriptive scales and support the evaluation              of the extent to which criteria has been met. 
The assignment of               numerical weights to sub-skills within a process is another                     evaluation technique that may be used to determine the extent to                which given criteria has been met. Numerical values, however, do not            provide students with an indication as to how to improve their                  performance. A student who receives a "70" out of "100" may not know            how to improve his or her performance on the next assignment.                   Scoring rubrics respond to this concern by providing descriptions at            each level as to what is expected. These descriptions help students             understand the basis for their scores and what they need to do to               improve their future performances. 
Whether a scoring rubric is an             appropriate evaluation technique is dependent upon the purpose of               the assessment. Scoring rubrics provide at least two benefits in the            evaluation process. First, they support the examination of the                  extent to which the specified criteria has been reached. Second,                they provide feedback to students concerning how to improve their               performances. If these benefits are consistent with the purpose of              the assessment, than a scoring rubric is likely to be an appropriate            evaluation technique. WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF SCORING                 RUBRICS?Several different types of scoring rubrics are                      available. Which variation of the scoring rubric should be used in a            given evaluation is also dependent upon the purpose of the                      evaluation. This section describes the differences between analytic             and holistic scoring rubrics and between task-specific and general              scoring rubrics. 
Analytic versus Holistic 
In the initial phases             of developing a scoring rubric, the evaluator needs to determine the            evaluation criteria. For example, two factors that may be considered            in the evaluation of a writing sample are whether appropriate                   grammar is used and the extent to which the given argument is                   persuasive. An analytic scoring rubric, much like the checklist,                allows for the separate evaluation of each of these factors, Each               criterion is scored on a different descriptive scale (Brookhart,                1999). 
The rubric in Figure 1 could be extended to include a                  separate set of criteria for the evaluation of the persuasiveness of            the argument. This extension would result in an analytic scoring                rubric with two factors, quality of written expression and                      persuasiveness of the argument, each of which would receive a                   separate score. Occasionally, numerical weights are assigned to the             evaluation of each criterion. As discussed earlier, the benefit of              using a scoring rubric rather than weighted scores is that scoring              rubrics provide a description of what is expected at each score                 level. Students may use this information to improve their future                performance. 
Occasionally, it is not possible to separate an                  evaluation into independent factors. When there is an overlap                   between the criteria set for the evaluation of the different                    factors, a holistic scoring rubric may be preferable to an analytic             scoring rubric. In a holistic scoring rubric, the criteria are                  considered together on a single descriptive scale (Brookhart, 1999).            Holistic scoring rubrics support broader judgments concerning the               quality of the process or product. 
Choosing an analytic scoring               rubric does not eliminate the possibility of a holistic factor. A               holistic judgment may be built into an analytic scoring rubric as               one of the score categories. One difficulty with this approach is               that overlap between the criteria set for the holistic judgment and             the other evaluated factors cannot be avoided. When one of the                  purposes of the evaluation is to assign a grade, this overlap should            be carefully considered and controlled. The evaluator should                    determine whether the overlap results in certain criteria being                 weighted more than was originally intended. In other words, the                 evaluator needs to be careful that the student is not                           unintentionally penalized severely for a given mistake. 
General               versus Task-Specific 
Scoring rubrics may be designed for the                  evaluation of a specific task or the evaluation of a broader                    category of tasks. If the purpose of a given course is to develop a             student's oral communication skills, a general scoring rubric may be            developed and used to evaluate each of the oral presentations given             by that student. This approach would allow the students to use the              feedback they acquired from the last presentation to improve their              performance on the next presentation. 
If each oral presentation               focuses upon a different historical event and the purpose of the                assessment is to evaluate the students' knowledge of the given                  event, a general scoring rubric for evaluating a sequence of                    presentations may not be adequate. Historical events differ in both             influencing factors and outcomes. In order to evaluate the students'            factual and conceptual knowledge of these events, it may be                     necessary to develop separate scoring rubrics for each presentation.            A "task-specific" scoring rubric is designed to evaluate student                performances on a single assessment event. 
Scoring rubrics may be             designed to contain both general and task specific components. If               the purpose of a presentation is to evaluate students' oral                     presentation skills and their knowledge of the historical event that            is being discussed, an analytic rubric could be used that contains              both a general component and a task specific component. The oral                component of the rubric may consist of a general set of criteria                developed for the evaluation of oral presentations; the task                    specific component of the rubric may contain a set of criteria                  developed with the specific historical event in                                 mind. RESOURCESBrookhart, S. M. (1999). The Art and Science of            Classroom Assessment: The Missing Part of Pedagogy. ASHE-ERIC Higher            Education Report (Vol. 27, No.1). Washington, DC: The George                    Washington University,  Graduate School of Education and Human                  Development. 
Chicago Public Schools (1999). Rubric                            Bank. [Available online at:                                                     http://intranet.cps.k12.il.us/Assessments/Ideas_and_Rubrics/ Rubric             Bank/rubric_bank.html]. 
Danielson, C. (1997a). A Collection of                Performance Tasks and Rubrics: Middle School Mathematics. Larchmont,            NY: Eye on Education Inc. 
Danielson, C. (1997b). A Collection of              Performance Tasks and Rubrics: Upper Elementary School Mathematics.             Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education, Inc. 
Danielson, C. & Marquez,                E. (1998). A Collection of Performance Tasks and Rubrics: High                  School Mathematics. Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education,                            Inc. 
ERIC/AE (2000a). Search ERIC/AE draft abstracts. [Available              online at: http://ericae.net/sinprog.htm]. 
ERIC/AE (2000b).                   Scoring Rubrics - Definitions & Construction [Available online at:              http://ericae.net/faqs/rubrics/scoring_rubrics.htm]. 
Knecht, R.,              Moskal, B. & Pavelich, M. (2000). The Design Report Rubric:                     Measuring and Tracking Growth through Success, Paper to be presented            at the annual meeting of the American Society for Engineering                   Education. 
Leydens, J. & Thompson, D. (August, 1997), Writing                 Rubrics Design (EPICS) I, Internal Communication, Design (EPICS)                Program, Colorado School of Mines. 
Moskal, B. (2000). Assessment              Resource Page. [Available online at:                                            http://www.mines.edu/Academic/assess/Resource.htm]. 
Schrock,                  K. (2000). Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators. [Available online               at: http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/assess.html]. 
State              of Colorado (1998). The Rubric. [Available online at:                           http://www.cde.state.co.us/cdedepcom/asrubric.htm #writing]. 
-----            
This Digest originally appeared as part of Moskal, Barbara                    M. (2000).  Scoring Rubrics: What, When and How? Practical                      Assessment, Research & Evaluation,  7(3). [Available online:                    http://ericae.net/pare/getvn.asp?v=7&n=3]. 
This publication was               prepared with funding from the Office of Educational Research and               Improvement, U.S. Department of Education, under contract                       ED99CO0032. The opinions expressed in this report do not necessarily            reflect the positions or policies of OERI, or the U.S. Department of            Education.  Permission is granted to copy and distribute this                   ERIC/AE Digest.                                                              **Title:** Scoring Rubrics Part I: What and When. ERIC/AE Digest.                       **Note:** For a companion Digest on developing scoring rubrics, see TM 031                854. Originally appeared as part of "Scoring Rubrics: What, When and            How?" by Barbara M. Moskal, "Practical Assessment, Research, &                  Evaluation," 7 (3).                                                          **Document Type:** Information Analyses---ERIC Information Analysis Products (IAPs) (071); Information Analyses---ERIC Digests (Selected) in Full Text (073); **Available From:** For full text: http://ericae.net/pare/getvn.asp?v=7&n=3.                     **Descriptors:** Elementary Secondary Education,  Grading, Performance Based                     Assessment,  Scores, Scoring,  Scoring Rubrics,  Student Evaluation          **Identifiers:** ERIC Digests                                                                 
###
[Return to ERIC Digest Search Page]