Shelf life of Rubrics

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In this article, Rick Incorvati and Michael Mattison from the University of Wittenberg discuss the pros and cons of rubrics and make suggestions about how to design them well. (The full article can be accessed on here, pages 22-26)

They discuss an almost over saturation of rubrics in their own context and make that case that students may face many different rubrics throughout the course of their education leading to a lack of clarity and confusion. The authors also make the point that in general rubrics have a fairly limited life span and as a consequence are not a particularly resilient form of assessment.

They do, however, make mention of a particularly successful rubric which was designed, in collaboration with six universities who all undertook a particular course of work in creative writing. Several lecturers from each establishment came together to agree on aspects which they felt appropriate to measure. They went on to design a five point scale for the rubric which was then embedded in the creative writing course. There was investment in both time and staff training to use the rubric and the students received them enthusiastically. There was great 'buy in,' as a number of lecturers had a vested interest in both the design and use which translated into taking the knowledge, skills and enthusiasm from the workshop back to individual departments. To further its use, the rubric was made available as a word document in order that other lecturers could adapt and stamp there mark on it.

However in following years, the rubric began to fall out of use. This is attributed to the 'lack of invention,' taking place. It was designed, brought to staff through training and workshops and enthusiastically used and distributed. Over time it began to feel a little static as it was not being developed or revised in any way. There was no money to engage with staff from other institutions.

The authors believe that in order for a rubric to have shelf life, it needs to be designed collaboratively, maintain flexibility in rubric design and invite ongoing feedback. It is important that the rubric is viewed as a live document able to be reformed and reshaped, that way it maintains relevance and reflects the changes, even subtle changes in the curriculum.

In my own context, we designed rubrics collaboratively and consulted with learners. As a department we broke down composition into what we felt were the important aspects of the process. It was important that we focussed on the process in order to help learners understand where they had got to in their learning and develop a language to convey the next steps. We then discussed what the steps within each process would look like. While summative assessment has its place within the big picture of pupil development, a strong understanding of the process is not unique to individual projects and this learning can be enhanced and developed as a pupil progresses.

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