Developing a Rubric
The information below has been provided by Donna Szpyrka and Ellyn B. Smith of Florida's Statewide Systemic Initiative.

Guidelines for Developing a Rubric

• Determine which concepts, skills, or performance standards you are assessing.
• List the concepts and rewrite them into statements which reflect both cognitive and performance components.
• Identify the most important concepts or skills being assessed in the task.
• On the basis of the purpose of the task, determine the number of points to be used for the rubric (example: 4-point scale or 6-point scale).
• Starting with the desired performance, determine the description for each score remembering to use the importance of each element of the task or performance to determine the score or level of the rubric.
• Compare student work to the rubric. Record the elements that caused you to assign a given rating to the work.
• Revise the rubric descriptions based on performance elements reflected by the student work that you did not capture in your draft rubric.
• Rethink your scale: Does a [ ]-point scale differentiate enough between types of student work to satisfy you?
• Adjust the scale if necessary. Reassess student work and score it against the developing rubric.

Some Sample Rubrics
Drawing Conclusions
Points:

• 4 Draws a conclusion that is supported by the data and gives supporting evidence for the conclusion.
• 2 Draws a conclusion that is supported by data, but fails to show any evidence for the conclusion.
• 1 Draws a conclusion that is not supported by data.
• 0 Fails to reach a conclusion.

Cooperative Learning
Points:

• 4 The student actively listens to and values the opinion of others.
• 3 The student actively listens to but it is not evident that he/she values the opinion of others.
• 2 The student listens to but does not value the opinion of others. OR The student values the opinion of others but does not listen to them.
• 0 The student does not listen to and does not value the opinion of others.

Product
Points:

• 6 The product shows evidence that the student reached valid conclusions based on data analysis and displayed the results of the analysis in appropriate formats.
• 4 The product shows evidence that the student reached valid conclusions based on data analysis but displayed the results of the analysis in inappropriate formats.
• 2 The product shows evidence that the student reached conclusions not based on data analysis and displayed the results of the analysis in appropriate formats. OR The product shows evidence that the student reached valid conclusions based on data analysis but lacked evidence of the analysis.
• 0 The product shows no evidence of analysis.

References

Szpyrka , D. & Smith, E. B. (1995). Developing a rubric. Florida's Statewide Systemic Initiative [Online]. Available: http://cfe.fit.edu/R3/rubric_development.html [1995, April 15].

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