by Kristina Birnbrauer
PhD student, University of Florida

Rubrics are used to support and assess student learning. They serve as performance scorecards to identify and measure criteria for student assignments. Rubrics are especially useful when grading written assignments.

They can reduce teacher-student disagreement, provide structure to the evaluation process, reduce the overall time spent grading, and provide students with a holistic picture of strengths and weaknesses.

Best practices recommend that rubrics have three to five levels of achievement or gradation. Within each level, performance measures should be clearly communicated, along with the scores/percentages for fulfilling/not-fulfilling the assignment.

The following resources can be helpful to members of the University of Florida community:

University of Florida’s Handbook for Teaching Assistants

University of Florida Faculty Grading Policy

University of Florida Student Grading Policy

Other helpful resources include:

“Understanding Rubrics” by Heidi Goodrich Andrade

Walvoord, B.E. & Anderson, V.J. (1998). Effective grading: A tool for learning and assessment. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, Inc.

Kristina  Birnbraurer is a student in Mass Communication Teaching (MMC 6930). Her teaching presentation was on developing and using rubrics. She is a health communication researcher. Her research involves how individuals respond to health threats.