After struggling with the issue of student assessment, the AmeriCorps Summerbridge National Program, in conjunction with TA provider Project STAR, researched, designed, and tested the use of rubrics for this purpose. Rubrics are an assessment tool that provides a standard description of the qualities of each level of student work, from lowest, which has a number one rating, to highest, a number six rating. It requires educators to agree on and be explicit about their expectations for students. Rubrics take the mystery out of grades, so students know how they are performing, what they need to work toward, and why they receive the grade they do. Each rubric is set up in a chart format, and is composed of dimensions and components in vertical columns.
Dimensions refer to distinct skills and are listed in individual categories.
For example, the five dimensions for the Writing Rubric are workmanship, mechanics, style, organization, and content. The components listed under the workmanship dimension in the illustration are presentation and completeness. One of the challenges in the use of rubrics is in reaching an agreement with all of the teachers involved of what the levels and descriptions constitute, since assessment is qualitative in nature. While it isn't completely essential to attend a training in the use of rubrics, it is advisable to have a dialog with others who are using the rubrics. Networking and sharing experiences will be valuable for implementing the assessment tool.