Going From Concept to Reality
As described in EdGlossary, a rubric is an evaluation tool or set of guidelines used to promote the consistent application of learning expectations, learning objectives, or learning standards in the classroom, or to measure their attainment against a consistent set of criteria. In instructional settings, rubrics clearly define academic expectations for students and help to ensure consistency in the evaluation of academic work from student to student, assignment to assignment, or course to course. Rubrics are also used as scoring instruments to determine grades or the degree to which learning standards have been demonstrated or attained by students.
Given this, rubrics are the perfect tool for ensuring the consistent application of the North Star Skills across all grade levels and districts in the Santa Fe Trail BOCES. Participating districts share rubrics with and explain them to students before teachers begin assignments to ensure that learning expectations have been clearly communicated to and understood by students, and, by extension, parents or other adults involved in supporting a student’s education.
Our rubrics are designed to be simple, explicit, and easily understood. Rubrics may help students see connections between learning (what will be taught) and assessment (what will be evaluated) by making the feedback they receive from teachers clearer, more detailed, and more useful in terms of identifying and communicating what students have learned or what they may still need to learn. Educators may use rubrics midway through an assignment to help students assess what they still need to do or demonstrate before submitting a final product. Rubrics may also encourage students to reflect on their own learning progress and help teachers to tailor instruction, academic support, or future assignments to address distinct learning needs or learning gaps.
Since rubrics are used to establish a consistent set of learning expectations that all students need to demonstrate, they are used by school leaders and teachers as a way to maintain consistency and objectivity when teaching or assessing learning across grade levels, courses, or assignments. Common rubrics and assessments can also help schools, departments, and teaching teams refine their lessons and instructional practices to target specific learning areas in which their students tend to struggle.
