This document provides guidance on designing rubrics to assess student work. It discusses holistic vs. analytic rubrics and the steps to build a rubric, including defining criteria and performance levels. Key aspects are deciding top and bottom achievement levels, and then determining intermediate standards. Descriptive language in rubrics should focus on relative frequencies of errors or qualities rather than specific numbers. Rubrics should be based on learning objectives and understandable by others. A sample rubric is built to assess hamburgers on qualities of the bun, condiments, cooking, and toppings.

1. Assessment-Designing Rubrics
Global Standards for Education
Office of Overseas Programming &
Training Support (OPATS)

2. Holistic rubric
• Exceeds Expectations
What characteristics of a joke would exceed expectations?
• Meets Expectations
What characteristics of a joke would meet expectations?
• Does Not Meet Expectations
What characteristics of a joke would not meet expectations?
Rubrics allow us to evaluate a performance or complicated production
in a way that is valid, reliable, consistent, transparent, and fair.

3. Rubric or no rubric?
• A small paragraph about a city
• Fill in the blank exercise
• An oral presentation
• English singing competition
• A True/False quiz
• matching a picture to a word
• A project to make a travel brochure

4. A little bit of theory
If you assess HOLISTICALLY, success as a whole counts.
If you look at the essays ANALYTICALLY, you might assess
•demonstration of content knowledge
•use of sources or
• accuracy of information or
•structure, grammar, spelling and/or punctuation.
Giving a score for each which is totaled for an overall score.

5. Building a Rubric
• Ranges are typically: 1-3, 0-4, 0 (or 1)-5
– But a “good enough” rubric for most of your
assignments consists of--
– Exceeds / Meets / Does Not Meet Expectations
THREE STEPS IN CONSTRUCTING A RUBRIC
1. Decide what your criteria
2. Then your top and bottom levels
– Top will be near perfect achievement of the lesson’s instructional
objective.
– “The bottom” will failure (not a hamburger) or just above failure
1. With top and bottom set, it is easier to specify the middle.

6. Common Errors
• With descriptive language, avoid basing success on a specific
number of times the feature is produced. Instead think to--
(a)) relativerelative frequency of error/difficultiesfrequency of error/difficulties (e.g., rarely, often,
occasionally)
– for example, impact on comprehensibility (many, few, no--global or
local errors) or success of communication (ineffective, adequately
effective, highly effective), or mastery of content (excellent, adequate,
or inadequate)
(b) If you have to use a specific number. qualify it with
expressions like (up to, at least, no more than)
(c) NEVER explicitly demand production of a feature—
sometimes you can successfully communicate through another feature.

7. Rubric Do’s and Don’t’s
• NEVER write a that anyone else would have difficulty
understanding if you gave it too them to without guidance:
for example, “Demonstrates a good command of grammar.”
• When in doubt look to the Learning Objectives of your
lesson to determine REASONABLE rubric criteria.

8. Let’s Build a Rubric!

9. A Hamburger

10. The Hamburger Rubric
What are your minimum criteria for a good hamburger?
– Do you need to have bread?
– Does it need to be meat? Specifically beef?
– Does it need to be cooked?
– Even if it is cooked, does it need to be hot?

11. What is your i-d-e-a-l hamburger?
• Does it have cheese? What kind?
• What kind of bun? How toasted, if at all, is the bun?
• Which condiments (ketchup, mustard, relish)?
• How well is it cooked (rare, medium, well done)?
• Which toppings (tomatoes, onions, lettuce)?

12. Finding the rubric “middle”
• With “minimal” and “ideal” notions of a hamburger,
the rubric top and bottom are now set.
How do we find the intermediate standards?
• What topping could you substitute or remove and still have a good
hamburger? When would such deletions lead to a poor hamburger?
• When is being a little overcooked or undercooked still somewhat
tasty? When would it be so undercooked or overcooked that you
would need to be really hungry to eat it?
• Which buns are better or worse? What about bread?

13. Hamburger Assessment Rubric
We’ve quickly constructed a continuum
from great to lousy burgers, resulting in --
a hamburger assessment rubric!

14. Let’s Try It Out
1. How would you go about building a rubric for a poster to
raise awareness about environmental issues?
2. What main criteria will you look at?
3. How many levels will you need—and why?
4. What descriptive language will you use for each level?
We can make it easy.
• Figure out your criteria of achievement
• Then design an “Exceeds/Meets/Does/Not Meet” rubric.

15. Think about..
• What’s really important to making an effective poster?
• What’s not so important?
• What would be the qualities of an exceptional poster?
• Of a poor but still minimal poster (vs. no poster at all)
• Of an adequate poster (that is, “meets expectations”).