Using Rubrics to Guide Evaluation

A rubric is a scoring guide that describes the requirements for various levels of proficiency when
students respond to a learning task, open-ended question, or stated criteria. The purpose is to answer
the question, "What are the conditions of success and to what degree are those conditions met by the
student involved in the task?" Thus, a rubric enables teachers to clarify to students what is expected in a
learning experience and what to do to reach higher levels of achievement.

Characteristics of Rubrics

Effective Rubrics:

Reflect the most significant elements related to success in a learning task.

Enable students and teachers to accurately and consistently identify the level of
competency or stage of development.

Help teachers grade students' work more accurately and fairly.

Encourage students' self-evaluation and higher expectations.

Are shared with students prior to beginning the task so they know the
characteristics of quality work.

Provide more information than just a narrow checklist of skills and attributes.

Guidelines for Tasks and Scoring Rubrics for Gifted Students

The task and rubric should provide the opportunity and even demand that students
transform and apply knowledge, skills, and dispositions.

They must not just apply knowledge and skills as demonstrated or regurgitate
information from class or resources.

The task and the rubric should require more sophisticated and abstract thinking that
might be required of average or struggling learners. Does the task require the
student to move beyond a specific incidence, to see beyond concrete examples and
illustrations?
 ~Concepts, principles, and generalizations should reflect the highest level of
understanding and application possible for these students.

The product required should reflect greater complexity.

~ The product should reflect the use of more complex resources
~ It should reflect thinking about more complex issues.
~ It should reflect more complex issues.

The task and the rubric should call for integration of many ideas.

The task and the rubric should reflect the integration of concepts and skills across
disciplines.
~ It should also be multifaceted.

The task and the rubric should require gifted students to make greater leaps in their
thinking.
~ The products should reflect the students' success in making less obvious
connections between ideas.
~ The task should lead them to see relationships between concepts and across
disciplines.
~ The products should encourage the students to translate and transfer ideas from
one situation to another.

The tasks should present "fuzzier" problems with the process of solution open to
determination by the student.

The tasks should give students greater independence in planning, designing,

monitoring, and evaluation of the product.

Scoring rubrics should evaluate the student's ability to design, monitor, and
evaluate.

The tasks for gifted students should be more open-ended, allowing students more
freedom in formulation of the problem.
~ The tasks should provide more opportunity to develop criteria for appropriate
solution or resolution.
~ The tasks should give greater decision-making, planning and implementation
 freedom.
~ The tasks should encourage multiple approaches to the solution.

Rubrics to Use with Gifted Students

Rubric for Deductive Reasoning Evaluation

Creative Thinking Skills Evaluation Rubric

Goal Setting Evaluation

High Order Thinking Skills Evaluation Rubric

Divergent Thinking Evaluation Rubric

Adapted from http://www.adifferentplace.org/assessment.htm

Permission granted for use by Bruce Passman, State Director, Kansas State Department of Education 120 S.E. 10th Avenue,
Topeka, Kansas 66612