How Rubrics Make Evaluations and Assessment Better

Educators are using various tools in the classroom setting in order to assess and later evaluate their students as well as their academic performance. Rubrics which are nothing new for it has long been part of the curriculum of education and education leadership are actually established written standards and guidelines employed in various educational institutions. But what really are rubrics and how do they make evaluations and assessments better?

During our elementary days, we would submit beautiful and colorful artworks. We have come up with essays and other write-ups in high school. In our collegiate level, depending on our courses, we went through different projects with different submission deadlines in different subjects. However, one similarity that these have are the criteria or expectations that we have to meet in order to get smileys, a grade of 95 and A as a general weighted average. Rubrics operate on the same way. Or it is more appropriate to say that the 50% for content, 30% for completeness and neatness and 20% for creativity are the building blocks of rubrics that we are talking about.

Education and education leadership of schools require not only organization and unity but also a system in order to arrive at the desired end which is to bring about learning success to their each and every student. Through the rubrics' unique features like self-evaluation and reflection, students are made aware of the role they play in their very own learning experience. Learning after all is 90% student's perspiration and 10% teacher's inspiration. It is a performance appraisal system arranged in order of hierarchy that uses a range to rate performance while remaining anchored on the stipulated objectives. Rubrics are made up of criteria, descriptions that serve as indicators if the criteria are met and a grading scale with its corresponding value.

For you to have a clear picture, let us take the performance checklist of a nursing student as an example. Washing your hands is a basic ability that such student must possess and in assessing so leads us to 3 criteria: knowledge, skills and attitude. To make it short, let us just take the first one, knowledge. Under such are descriptions of that criterion like defining what hand washing is, stating the purpose of the said procedure, enumerating articles used in hand washing and so on and so forth. The presence of each indicator in itself builds up the idea of what knowledge in such must be all about. A scale, 4-point for example can be used to assess the mastery of the skill, 4 being very satisfactory, 3 satisfactory, 2 fair and so on. Once it is already processed, it can take the form of a feedback to a student and he can now assess how good or bad his performance was for that specific assignment. In that way, not only can assessments be made instantly, evaluations will also not be a problem since at that moment, the student is made aware of his strengths and weaknesses. The student will be spared to continue doing something he started wrong and the teacher will not spend all her time in the world in one student but more importantly she will be able to address other students who need a much closer attention and supervision.

That is how rubrics make evaluations and assessment better. Hence, rubrics do not only make on-the-spot assessments and accurate evaluations, they also help in molding and shaping the virtue of taking responsibility, consistency, achievement for excellence on the part of the students. Rubrics also encourage them to start and make things good the first time, all the time.

It is wonderful and amazing to see students working their way into making their academic experience enjoyable and full of wonderful memories. However it is always glorious and inspiring to witness them transform into quality students and it is all because of your own doing.

More On Rubrics As Tools Of Assessment

1. 10 Uses for Rubrics You Never Thought Of - They can be used for assessing all sorts of projects and activities, from grading class participation to time management skills. Read on to learn about how you can incorporate creative rubric-based projects into your classroom.
2. 5 Features of a Highly Effective Rubric - Rubrics are easy to make and very effective when used correctly. If you want to know what to do to make a good rubric, read over the following five qualities that every successful rubric has.
3. Exemplars
4. Holistic Critical Thinking Rubric
5. How Rubrics Make Elementary Teachers Day Easy!
6. How Rubrics Make Middle School and High School Teachers Day Easy!
7. How Rubrics Make Scoring Quick And Easy
8. How to Create an Outline for a Rubric
9. How to Make a Rubric in Less Than 5 Minutes - The best part about rubrics is that they're easy to make; you could make a rubric for almost any assignment in less than five minutes!
10. How to Tell If Your Rubric Works? - After grading just a few projects, you'll get an idea of whether the grades reflect the work or not.
11. Project Based Learning Checklists
12. Students Grading Themselves? - Rubrics Can Change Everything -
13. Teacher Rubric Makers - Fill out a form to create printable rubrics for yourself. Contains over twenty different rubrics each for a specific purpose.
14. The Pros and Cons of Using Rubrics - And not all rubrics are created equal; using a mediocre one--even if it is targeted at your project--might make the grading process more trouble than it's worth.
15. Why Use Rubrics In K-12 Education? - This article examines the use of the rubric in K-12 education. Discusses creating an implementing rubrics in the classroom. Highlights a brief review of performance assessment.