Teaching With Rubrics: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Abstract
This article gives a brief overview of the structure and purposes of rubrics; reviews the benefits of using rubrics as both teaching and grading tools; warns against approaches that limit the effectiveness of rubrics; and urges instructors to take simple steps toward ensuring the validity, reliability, and fairness of their rubrics. Tips for using rubrics with undergraduate and graduate students are also included.
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Even examples in prior work on using rubrics suffer from nonparallel grammatical structure.
“This is not uncommon: even examples in prior work on using rubrics suffer from this problem (e.g., Andrade [2005]).”
From Peer and self assessment in massive online classes (2013) · cites this paper as Andrade [2005]
Cites
Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards through Classroom Assessment
Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (2010) · Phi Delta Kappan · doi:10.1177/003172171009200119 · Cited by 4,231 · see citing works
The Role of Assessment in a Learning Culture
Shepard, L. A. (2000) · Educational Researcher · doi:10.3102/0013189x029007004 · Cited by 2,161 · cited 2× · see citing works
“" ( Shepard 2000 , 10 ) , and they tend to use the feed”
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Cited by
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A review of rubric use in higher education
Reddy, Y. M., & Andrade, H. (2010) · Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education · doi:10.1080/02602930902862859 · Cited by 917 · see citing works
Self-citationPeer and self assessment in massive online classes
Kulkarni, C., Wei, K. P., Le, H., Chia, D., Papadopoulos, K., Cheng, J., Koller, D., & Klemmer, S. R. (2013) · ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction · doi:10.1145/2505057 · Cited by 390 · see citing works
A critical review of the arguments against the use of rubrics
Panadero, E., & Jonsson, A. (2020) · Educational Research Review · doi:10.1016/j.edurev.2020.100329 · Cited by 191 · see citing works
Mind the gap! Students’ use of exemplars and detailed rubrics as formative assessment
Lipnevich, A. A., McCallen, L. N., Miles, K. P., & Smith, J. K. (2014) · Instructional Science · doi:10.1007/s11251-013-9299-9 · Cited by 116 · see citing works
Fairness as a multifaceted quality in classroom assessment
Tierney, R. D. (2014) · Studies in Educational Evaluation · doi:10.1016/j.stueduc.2013.12.003 · Cited by 88 · see citing works
Sabel, J. L., Dauer, J. T., & Forbes, C. T. (2017) · CBE—Life Sciences Education · doi:10.1187/cbe.16-10-0298 · Cited by 48 · see citing works
“Further, students may need instruction on how to properly use and understand rubrics (Andrade, 2005), but little work has focused on the type of instruction that would effectively enhance students’ use of rubrics or answer keys for self-regulated learning.”
Ramon-Casas, M., Nuño, N., Pons, F., & Cunillera, T. (2019) · Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education · doi:10.1080/02602938.2018.1525337 · Cited by 27 · see citing works
- Authors
- Andrade, H. G.
- Corresponding author
- Andrade, Heidi Goodrich
- Venue
- College Teaching
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2005-01
- Volume
- 53
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 27-31
- ISSN
- 1930-8299 (ISSN-L)
- 8756-7555
- OpenAlex
- W2081474181
- Cited by
- 436
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 21 · 2025: 32 · 2024: 29 · 2023: 34 · 2022: 34 · 2021: 26 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 35 · 2018: 17 · 2017: 22 · 2016: 28 · 2015: 33 · 2014: 36 · 2013: 25 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 23.94
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- College Teaching (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Student Assessment and Feedback
- Social Sciences › Education › Evaluation of Teaching Practices
- Social Sciences › Education › Educational Assessment and Pedagogy
- Keywords
- rubrics, grading, assessment validity, assessment reliability, grading fairness, undergraduate students, graduate students
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