In education terminology, rubric means "a scoring guide used to evaluate the quality of students' constructed responses". Rubrics usually contain evaluative criteria, quality definitions for those criteria at particular levels of achievement, and a scoring strategy. They are often presented in table format and can be used by teachers when marking, and by students when planning their work.
A scoring rubric is an attempt to communicate expectations of quality around a task. In many cases, scoring rubrics are used to delineate consistent criteria for grading. Because the criteria are public, a scoring rubric allows teachers and students alike to evaluate criteria, which can be complex and subjective. A scoring rubric can also provide a basis for self-evaluation, reflection, and peer review. It is aimed at accurate and fair assessment, fostering understanding, and indicating a way to proceed with subsequent learning/teaching. This integration of performance and feedback is called ongoing assessment or formative assessment.
Several common features of scoring rubrics can be distinguished, according to Bernie Dodge and Nancy Pickett:
Scoring rubrics include one or more dimensions on which performance is rated, definitions and examples that illustrate the attribute(s) being measured, and a rating scale for each dimension. Dimensions are generally referred to as criteria, the rating scale as levels, and definitions as descriptors.
Herman, Aschbacher, and Winters distinguish the following elements of a scoring rubric:
Since the 1980s, many scoring rubrics have been presented in a graphic format, typically as a grid. Studies of scoring rubric effectiveness now consider the efficiency of a grid over, say, a text-based list of criteria.
Scoring rubrics may help students become thoughtful evaluators of their own and others’ work and may reduce the amount of time teachers spend evaluating student work. Here is a seven-step method to creating and using a scoring rubric for writing assignments:
The traditional meanings of the word rubric stem from "a heading on a document (often written in red — from Latin, rubrica, red ochre, red ink), or a direction for conducting church services". In modern education circles, rubrics have recently come to refer to an assessment tool.
The first usage of the term in this new sense is from the mid-1990s, but scholarly articles from that time do not explain why the term was co-opted. Perhaps rubrics are seen to act, in both cases, as metadata added to text to indicate what constitutes a successful use of that text. It may also be that the color of the traditional red marking pen is the common link.
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