Guidelines for using a rubric

Follow these guidelines to properly administer and grade students’ work through rubrics.

Administer the rubric

Share the rubric with students before they complete the assignment. When students are made aware of rubrics prior to instruction and assessment, they know the level of performance expected and they are more likely to reach those standards.

Grading

In order to obtain meaningful and consistent scores/grades, follow these guidelines:

• The grader(s) should be trained in the proper use of the rubric
• Use multiple graders, if possible, to score student work in order to gain greater reliability.  
• If different graders are used, make every effort to ensure that they are as consistent as possible in their scoring by providing adequate training and examples.
• If working alone, or without examples, you can achieve a greater level of internal consistency by giving preliminary ratings to students’ wor
  • Through this approach, clusters of similar quality will soon develop.
  • Once clusters develop, you can more confidently assign a firm score using the rubric.  
  • After establishing a firm scoring scheme, re-grade all students’ work to assure greater internal consistency and fairness.