She allows that rubrics may assist reliability measures in testing, but maintains their use hurts validity. Maybre takes a hard look at how rubrics affect teaching behaviors in composition classes. Several anecdotes of their negative effects are offered, and details are given concerning teachers training their students to conform to the rubric in their writing. Maybre concludes by maintaining that rubrics promote compliance to standards, but do not necessarily serve as valid indicators of writing skill. Finally, she eschews standardized testing as a positive means of accountability and points to Nebraska's discontinuing of state testing in 1997 as a shining example for other states to follow.
Collaborative teamwork is one of the catchall phrases for improving pedagogy.
However, this article seeks to examine the teacher's role in guiding collaborative teamwork within the classroom setting. Clear guidelines and strategies for attaining this goal are offered, with practical solutions for implementation. How to form teams and assist those teams in performing effectively make up the remainder of the bulk of the text. This article is particularly well suited to the educator needing to achieve effective grouping in the classroom. This article examines research on teamwork in a junior high setting when students are performing technological tasks.