On Assessment, Imagination, and Agency: Using Rubrics to Inform and Negotiate the Honors Experience

Joan Digby's passionate article about the role of rubrics in outcomes assessment is well-timed and pertinent to contemporary issues in honors education. In her piece, Digby argues that outcomes assessment and the rubrics that often accompany it stifle imagination, creativity, and outside-the-box thinking that all honors educators hope to foster in our students. "My goal," Digby writes, "is not to score or measure students against preconceived expectations but to encourage the unexpected, the breakthrough response that is utterly new, different, and thus exciting" Digby's illustrations reveal her assumptions about assessment and rubrics today but the question is whether her assumption-that assessment and rubrics necessarily stifle the imagination essential to honors education-stands up to scrutiny. One can debate the merits of rubrics, but to argue that they stifle imagination or creativity is problematic As an educator, I have been drawn to rubrics at times and repelled at other times. After working with students at various levels for many years, I have come to learn the value of rubrics that are well-crafted. Poorly crafted rubrics are, as Digby says, nothing more than "little boxes far less colorful and ingenious than Rubik's Cube," but well-crafted rubrics can be instrumental in helping students learn and helping teachers assess their learning. A well-crafted rubric is difficult to create, and it might be easier to dismiss the entire notion of rubrics than to devote the time and effort necessary to create an effective one. However, honors education is never about doing things the easier way. If we challenge our students to view notions of society and their disciplines from a different perspective than ones that are familiar to them, then we must challenge ourselves to do likewise An effective rubric should not place students or their work into boxes but should be a working, fluid, and negotiable document that allows students to pursue success in a variety of ways; it should state what students need to accomplish without being prescriptive in how they get to that point. Because a good rubric is fluid, it can provide students with the power and flexibility to determine their own definitions and applications of abstract concepts. Let's take the example of a much-desired skill in honors programs: leadership. The leadership competency rubric for Minnesota State, Mankato Honors Program's electronic portfolio states that students need to "use personal theories and values of leadership within campus or community organizations" by the time they graduate. The rubric does not tell them which organization(s) to participate in, which personal theories and values to use, how to use these chosen theories and values, or how to articulate their application of theory into practice within their electronic portfolio. Students can fill that box in a variety of ways. The rubric tells students what they need to do, but our students create it and give life to it As a result, the rubric allows them to negotiate their best way to achieve the end result The goal is achievable in a variety of ways, but throughout the negotiation process honors faculty and staff advise students and provide feedback when needed or asked so that students know what is required of them; it would be unfair to ask students to explore the concept of leadership and then just let them go out on their own, hoping they come back with something effective. Because of the standards-driven pressures on the K-12 system, students are often not asked to engage in activities as open-ended as in college, especially in an honors program or college. In an honors section of First-Year Experience or Introduction to Honors course, the instant confusion when students are asked to "reflect" is almost palpable. Most first-year students, through no fault of their own, have no idea what that means. Reflection is a nebulous concept that often results in students' submitting written work closer to description than reflection. …