Rubric review

Let’s review why you would even take the time to write a rubric:

  • A rubric allows you to provide useful, meaningful feedback on performance; it is more than an audit or a grade.
  • It helps you compare the current standard of your work with the exemplary standard.
  • It also helps demystify what that exemplary standard is. Often you are stuck in the situation of guessing what your boss or teacher wants; with a rubric, you know exactly what they want, because it spelled out clearly.
  • A rubric gives specific information about higher levels of performance.
  • It is also a vehicle for ongoing discussion of what good work looks like. Deciding what you are not going to do is as important as deciding what you will do!
  • And, a rubric facilitates self assessment, and forces us to measure not what’s easiest to measure, but what’s most important to measure.

It is time to write your own rubric. Decide what rubrics you need. Take a moment to answer these questions:

  • Is there a core performance in the work of your organization that would benefit from being described specifically?
  • Are there key words to your mission, goal, strategies that inspire you to ask, “What would that look like if we succeeded?” Lofty words need to be made specific to help work toward an organization’s mission.
  • Is there something important that resists quantification?
  • Are there people in your organization who need constructive feedback?
  • Is there something your organization needs to talk about but you haven’t found a way to talk about it yet?
  • Is there an essential question to your work that needs a vehicle for ongoing discussion? For example, we asked ourselves what a rubric on “effective philanthropy” would look like for the Dodge Foundation, and one of our answers included technical assistance to our grantees, such as this assessment workshop.
  • Is there a job description that would benefit from being examined from multiple perspectives?
  • Are there things you do that have many parts where you’re not sure what parts matter more than others? Because rubrics are about priorities and figuring out what matters most.
  • Has something gone wrong recently that we can learn from?

 

Next: Important reminders about the rubric writing process.

Previous: See how others have written their rubrics.

 

For non-linear browsing of the online Assessment Workshop click on the links below:
Introduction | Are there any aspects of your work that you wish were better? | What do we mean by assessment? | What is exemplary feedback? | Planning backwards | The rubric: if you can describe it, you can measure it | Rubric practice | See how others have written their rubrics. | Rubric review | Important reminders about the rubric writing process. | Uh oh. Roadblocks. | Overcoming the obstacle of time. | QII and assessment exercises. | Overcoming the obstacle of change. | Assessment principles and concepts. One more time.