Authentic Assessments and Rubrics
Module Three

Carol Amberg - Course Designer
December - Module 3

Please e-mail me responses to the following:

Last month you designed a rubric to use on a task to be assigned in January.
This month, apply the following questions to your rubric to fine-tune it.

1. Does the rubric point to where judges should look and what they should look for?

2. Does the rubric summarize the qualitative differences in performance by presenting brief descriptors for each point on the scoring scale?

3. Does the top level of the rubric communicate what exemplary work looks like?

4. Is the rubric written in language that is understandable to both the judges and the student?

5. Do the criteria refer to the achievement, not merely the behavior, of students?
For example: in public speaking, the criteria should relate more to the effects of the speech, (Was it persuasive, informative, etc?) not just the behaviors of the speaker (tone of voice, posture, etc.)

6. Does the rubric make it possible for diverse, even unorthodox (but on-target) responses to get a high score?

7. Are the criteria and descriptors sufficiently concrete to guide the judges in assessment and the student in self-assessment and self-adjustment?

Good luck in revising your rubric. Remember, it takes using the rubric one or more times to know what else needs to be adjusted. Think of it as a work in progress until you have actually assessed a set of tasks with it. Further fine-tuning and revision may be indicated.

Additional Resources
provided by: Tara A. Demers - "4" Project

Brookhart, S. M. (1999). The art and science of classroom assessment: The missing part of pedagogy (pp. 48-53). Washington, D.C.: George Washington University.

Brooks, J. G., & Brooks, M. G. (1993). Assessing student learning in the context of teaching. In search of understanding: The case for constructivist classrooms (pp. 85-100). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Jensen, K. (1995). Effective rubric design. The Science Teacher, 62, 34-37.

LeBuffe, J. R. (1993). Performance assessment. The Science Teacher, 60, 46-48.

Marzano, R. J., Pickering, D., & McTighe, J. (1993). Assessing student outcomes: Performance assessment using the dimensions of learning model. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Stiggins, R. J. (1994). Performance assessment: An old friend rediscovered. Student-centered classroom assessment (pp. 159-204). New York: Macmillan College Publishing Company.

Wiggins, G. P. (1998). Scoring rubrics. Educative assessment: Designing assessments to inform and improve student performance (pp. 153-185). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Wiggins, G. P. (1993). Authenticity, context, and validity. Assessing students performance: Exploring academic achievement in the secondary school (pp. 206-255). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.