ASSESSMENTS AND RUBRICS

Assessments and Rubrics



Assessments and Rubrics

Purpose of Assessments and Rubrics

Rubric means authoritative rule. The word “rubric”, also signifies red color. Teachers, instructors and professors use consider rubric as a very helpful tool for the grading of the progress of students. The rubric for a course specifies the expectations that a teacher has after he or she has delivered the lecture and has given the assignment related to that lecture. In a nutshell it can be said, that rubric is a tool that identifies and enlists the expectations of the assignment.

Assessment of student learning is a major concern of educational stakeholders. Matching assessment techniques to desired outcomes is needed (Salvia & Ysseldyke, 2001).

Process of Creating Assessments and Rubrics

As it is mentioned above that rubric is the expectations about an assignment it does not mean that the teacher or professor just jot down all his desires and expectations. Rather it is a complete and systematic process. The process of the formation of the rubric involves following steps:

Step 1: Reflecting

Step 2: Listing

Step 3: Grouping and Labeling

Step 4: Application

The rubric for an assignment must reflect the curriculum and the contents that are the part of the syllabus. After take a look at the content of the curriculum the next step is to list down all the expectations that a teacher has about the assignment. All the expectations about the assignment should be grouped according to the flow of the syllabus and curriculum. This is done to avoid any sort of confusion that may occur in the minds of the students. This may also confuse the teacher at the time of the assessment of the performance of the student. Once the grouping is done about the possible expectations about the assignment the next step is related to the implementation of the rubric which is called as the application of the rubric (Tindal & Haladyna, 2002).

State's standardized Test

Since Adequate Yearly Progress in schools is determined by student achievement on standardized tests, aligning what is taught in the classroom with what will be measured on these tests has become paramount in curriculum planning and development. In many schools, test content has become the basis of the curriculum. The use of high-stakes test scores as measures of accountability has brought curriculum alignment to the forefront of educational development. Curriculum alignment is “the 'match' or overlap between the content and format of the test and the content and format of the curriculum” (Morris, 2003).



State Department of Education What Does the State Give As Reasons or Purposes for Your State Assessment

Curriculum is developed and presented so that, given their grade level, students within a school district receive the same content and skills over the course of a school year. The instructional timeline is flexible and at the discretion of the classroom teacher. A non-synchronous standardized curriculum may range from a quarterly sequence of content taught to no specific sequence (Robert et al, 2005).

Effective Use Norm-Referenced Tests

The main purpose of this test is to compare a student ...