Checklists, Rating Scales, and Rubrics (Assessment) (2023)

Assessment strategies and tools:Checklists, rating scales and rubrics

Checklists, rating scales, and rubrics are tools that set specific criteria and allow teachers and students to gather information and make judgments about what students know and can do about outcomes. They offer systematic ways to collect data on specific behaviors, knowledge, and skills.

The quality of information acquired through the use of checklists, rating scales, and rubrics largely depends on the quality of the descriptors chosen for the assessment. Its benefit also depends on students' direct participation in evaluating and understanding the feedback provided.

The purpose of checklists, rating scales, and rubrics is to:

• provide tools for the systematic recording of observations
• provide tools for self-assessment
• provide sample criteria for students before collecting and evaluating data on their work
  record the development of specific skills, strategies, attitudes, and behaviors needed to demonstrate learning
• Clarify students' instructional needs by providing a record of current performance.

verification listoften provide a yes/no format regarding the demonstration of specific criteria by the student. This is similar to a light switch; the light is on or off. They can be used to record the observations of an individual, a group or an entire class.

rating scalesallow teachers to indicate the degree or frequency of behaviors, skills and strategies presented by the student. To continue the light switch analogy, a rating scale is like a dimmer switch that provides a variety of performance levels. Rating scales establish criteria and provide three or four response options to describe the quality or frequency of student work.

Teachers can use rating scales to record observations, and students can use them as self-assessment tools. Teach students to use descriptive words such asforever,usually,sometimesyNeverhelps them identify specific strengths and needs. Rating scales also provide information for students to set goals and improve performance. On a rating scale, the descriptive word is more important than the related number. The more precise and descriptive the words are for each point on the scale, the more reliable the tool.

Effective rating scales use descriptors with clearly understood measures, such as frequency. Scales based on subjective quality descriptors such asmarket,bomogreat, are less effective because the single adjective does not contain enough information about which criteria are indicated at each of these scale points.

headingsuse a set of criteria to evaluate a student's performance. They consist of a fixed measurement scale and a detailed description of the characteristics of each performance level. These descriptions focus on thequalityof the product or performance and not theamount🇧🇷 for example, no number of paragraphs, examples to support an idea, spelling errors. Rubrics are commonly used to assess student performance with the intent of including the result in a grade for reporting purposes. Rubrics can increase scoring consistency and reliability.

Rubrics use a specific set of criteria to assess student performance. They can be used to rate individuals or groups and, like rating scales, can be compared over time.

Development of rubrics and scoring criteria

Rubrics are increasingly recognized as a way to effectively assess student learning and communicate expectations directly, clearly, and concisely to students. The inclusion of rubrics in a teaching resource provides opportunities to consider what demonstrations of learning are like and to describe stages in the development and growth of knowledge, understanding, and skills. To be most effective, rubrics must allow students to see the progression of mastery in developing understanding and skills.

Rubrics should be constructed with student input whenever possible. A good place to start is to define what quality work looks like based on learning outcomes. Performance examples should be used to demonstrate to students what excellent or acceptable performance looks like. This provides a collection of quality work for students to use as reference points. Once the standard is set, it's easy to define what exemplary levels and sub-performance levels look like. The best rubrics have three to five descriptive levels to allow for discrimination in evaluating the product or task. Rubrics can be used for summative purposes to measure grades by assigning a score to each of the various levels.

Start by developing criteria to describe the Acceptable level. Then use Bloom's taxonomy to identify the differentiating criteria as you move up the scale. Criteria should not go beyond the original task performance, but rather reflect the higher order thinking skills that students can demonstrate within the parameters of the initial task.

When developing grading criteria and quality levels for a rubric, keep the following guidelines in mind.

• Level 4 is thestandard of excellencelevel. Descriptions must indicate that all aspects of the work exceed grade-level expectations and show exemplary performance or understanding. This is a "Wow!"
• Level 3 is theMoving closer to the standard of excellencelevel. Descriptions should indicate some aspects of the job that exceed grade-level expectations and demonstrate strong performance or understanding. This is a "Yes!"
• Level 2 is theMeets acceptable standard🇧🇷 This level should indicate the minimum acceptable competencies to meet grade level expectations. Performance and understanding is emerging or developing, but there are some bugs and mastery is not complete. This is a "On the right track, but...".
• Level 1It still does not meet the acceptable standard.This level indicates what is not appropriate for grade level expectations and indicates that the student makes serious errors, omissions, or misunderstandings. This is a "No, but...". The teacher needs to make decisions about the appropriate intervention to help the student improve.

Creating rubrics with students

Learning increases when students are actively involved in the assessment process. Students do better when they know the purpose, see role models, and know how their performance compares to learning outcomes.

Learning outcomes become clearer when students help describe the criteria used to assess performance. Use brainstorming and discussion to help students analyze what each level looks like. Use learner-friendly language and encourage learners to identify descriptors that are meaningful to them. For example, a Grade3 class might describe quality levels with sentences like the following.

• Super!
• Go beyond
• meets the brand
• Needs more work.

Use work samples to help students practice and analyze specific criteria to develop a list of critical items. They can also use samples to practice assigning performance levels and comparing criteria from one level to another.

While rubrics are often used as learning assessment tools, they can also be used as learning assessment tools. Students can benefit from using rubrics as they become more proficient at judging the quality of their work and examining their own progress.
Example:

• Involve students in the assessment process by having them participate in creating a rubric. This process facilitates a deeper understanding of expected results and associated evaluation criteria.
• Once a rubric is created, students can use it to guide their learning. The criteria described in a rubric serve to focus students' thinking about their work and facilitate the definition of learning objectives for a given performance assessment. Through self-assessment or peer assessment, students can use a rubric to assess work completed to date and use it to guide their planning for "next steps" in learning.