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Two concepts are imperative if one is to make any sense of the above definition. One must look closely at two words that are often used, but seldom clearly, universally understood.
| Assessment |
from the French word assire, meaning aside, to set beside and guide, it is the process of identifying what's right, what's wrong, and how to fix it.
for the purpose of depicting and “coaching” the growth of an individual—where they were when they began, to where they are able to develop or advance.
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| Evaluation |
from the French word evaluer, to value, it is the process of sorting, selecting, and labeling such as grading, ranking, etc.
for the purpose of depicting and reporting progress of the individual against external standards, norms and/or the performance of age mates.
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Too often these words have been used so carelessly that they have been perceived as synonyms, rather than two distinct processes. This has created much confusion and frustration for classroom teachers, parents, students, school leaders and politicians. This lack of clarity has resulted in the miscommunication of standardized, alternative and authentic assessment methods, tools, and data. With careful attention to those two processes and to the consumers and users of each, this guide will attempt to help classroom teachers design and use rubrics that promote student learning and achievement. While at the same time, these rubrics could provide accountability data to be used by those stakeholders outside of the classroom to improve the educational system.
A rubric is a tool that has the potential for helping a teacher formatively assess a student performance during the teaching/learning process by clearly establishing the standards and quality expectations. It assists in customizing the student feedback: what a student has done well; what weaknesses exist; and how or what might be done to correct or improve the performance. It assists students in the fair and honest opportunity for self assessment of their work and allows them the opportunity to set, monitor, and achieve their personal learning goals. It assists parents in understanding the tasks and the standards by which their child's growth and progress will be measured. Rubrics also provide the teacher and district leaders with the option to later summatively evaluate their students’ performances with a higher degree of consistency. Information obtained from the summative use of rubrics can be utilized to report student progress toward the agreed upon learning goals or outcomes.
For more information on Rubrics in the Classroom visit |
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