PLAGIARISM FREE "A" WORK COURSE ASSESSMENT

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5 Task-Specific Rubrics and Scoring Schemes for Special Purposes

For me and for others who work with teachers and rubrics (Arter & Chappuis, 2006; Arter & McTighe, 2001; Chappuis, 2009), the advantages that come with using rubrics to support student learning are so significant that we more or less recommend you always use general rubrics, except in special cases. In this chapter we explore those special cases. Don’t be fooled, however, into thinking that means you should use task‑ specific rubrics if general rubrics are more appropriate.

When to use task-specific rubrics

The special purposes for which task‑specific rubrics are useful are related to grad‑ ing. In particular, task‑specific rubrics are useful for grading student work intended to assess recall and comprehension of a body of knowledge—remembering and under‑ standing facts and concepts.

Task‑specific rubrics are easier than general rubrics to use reliably without a lot of practice. It requires less inference to match a description of a right answer than to make a more abstract judgment to match a description of performance quality. There are a few grading purposes that capitalize on this one positive feature of task‑specific rubrics. When you are grading test questions for a final exam or any kind of test where students will see only their grade and have no opportunity for feedback, revision, or further

Brookhart, S. M. (2013). How to create and use rubrics for formative assessment and grading. Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development. Created from amridge on 2022-02-20 05:07:25.

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learning, task‑specific rubrics for individual test questions make for quick, reliable grad‑ ing. Figure 5.1 gives an example of a task‑specific rubric for a 4th grade mathematics problem that requires students to solve a multistep problem and explain their reasoning.

figure 5.1 A Mathematics Problem Scored with a task-Specific Rubric

The Problem

An amusement park has games, rides, and shows.

•  The total number of games, rides, and shows is 70. •  There are 34 rides. •  There are two times as many games as shows.

How many games are there? ______________________

How many shows are there? ______________________

Use numbers, words, or drawings to show how you got your answer.

If you need more room for your work, use the space below.

Task-Specific Scoring Rubric

Extended 24 games and 12 shows with correct explanation or work

Sample Correct Response: 70−34=36 so there are 36 shows and games. The number of games is twice the number of shows; there must be 24 games and 12 shows.

continued

Brookhart, S. M. (2013). How to create and use rubrics for formative assessment and grading. Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development. Created from amridge on 2022-02-20 05:07:25.

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58 | How to Create and Use Rubrics

figure 5.1 A Mathematics Problem Scored with a task-Specific Rubric (continued )

Satisfactory Has subtraction error but has games and shows in correct ratio (2:1) OR Has 12 games and 24 shows with work OR Has 24 games and 12 shows with no work

Partial Finds 36, and has ratio of 2 to 1 (but not 24 to 12) and sum of games and shows is less than 36 OR Has 36 games and 18 shows with or without work OR Has 72 games and 36 shows with or without work OR Shows a process that reflects understanding of the question, but does not find the correct ratio

Minimal Finds 36 by subtraction or adding on to 34 to get 70 OR Number of games plus number of shows is 36 OR Has games and shows in a two to one ratio but nothing else correct

Incorrect Incorrect response

Source: National Assessment of Educational Progress released items: 2011, grade 4, block M8, question #19. Available: http://nces. ed.gov/nationsreportcard/itmrlsx/ 

Grading essay or other multipoint test questions with task-specific rubrics

Task‑specific scoring guides can be true rubrics, with criteria and descriptions of performance at each level of quality. The example in Figure 5.1 shows how task‑specific rubrics would be useful for scoring a constructed‑response test item in which students have to solve a problem and then explain their reasoning. In this case, there are five score levels. You could use task‑specific rubrics with any number of levels of multipoint scoring. Once you get beyond right/wrong (1/0) scoring, you need some sort of scoring scheme to allocate the points. Even a simple Completely Correct/Partially Correct/

Brookhart, S. M. (2013). How to create and use rubrics for formative assessment and grading. Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development. Created from amridge on 2022-02-20 05:07:25.

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Incorrect (2‑1‑0 or 3‑2‑1) scoring scheme needs descriptive information so you know how to decide what level a student’s response exemplifies.

Brief essay questions on tests often use multipoint scoring as well. Figure 5.2 pres‑ ents an example of an essay question and a task‑specific rubric a teacher would use to score it.

figure 5.2 A Science essay test Question Scored with a task-Specific Rubric

Question Lightning and thunder happen at the same time, but you see the lightning before you hear the thunder.  Explain why this is so. ________________________________________________________________________

Task-Specific Scoring Rubric

Complete Student responds that although the thunder and lightning occur at the same time, light travels faster  than sound so the light gets to your eye before the sound reaches your ear.

Partial Student response addresses speed and uses terminology such as thunder for sound and lightning for  light, or makes a general statement about speed but does not tell which is faster.

Unsatisfactory/Incorrect Student response does not relate the speeds at which light and sound travel.

Source: National Assessment of Educational Progress released items: 2005, grade 4, block S13, question #10. Available: http://nces. ed.gov/nationsreportcard/itmrlsx/ 

As you look at the examples in Figures 5.1 and 5.2, you are probably noticing an important point—namely, that they are holistic (as opposed to analytic) rubrics. The criteria for good work are all considered together. In the mathematics problem‑solving example, identifying the operations required for the problem, selecting and using the right numbers, calculating correctly, and communicating the explanation by showing all work are all assessed at once. In the science essay example, identifying the issue as one of relative speed of travel and communicating that clearly are assessed together. This approach is appropriate for questions on a test, where the score for individual questions will be combined with scores for other questions to make a total test score. The advan‑ tage of analytic rubrics, which allow students to receive feedback on the criteria indi‑ vidually and use it for improvement, makes little difference in this case.

Brookhart, S. M. (2013). How to create and use rubrics for formative assessment and grading. Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development. Created from amridge on 2022-02-20 05:07:25.

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Writing task-specific rubrics

Writing task‑specific rubrics for multipoint test questions differs from writing general rubrics for you and students to use together for both formative and summative assessment. The first and most obvious difference is that for task‑specific rubrics, you write directly for a task. Remember that for general rubrics, you don’t write directly for a task. Instead, you use criteria that describe the learning that would be demonstrated in any one of a whole class of tasks.

Second, writing task‑specific rubrics differs from writing general rubrics because you can use teacher language. Students do not use task‑specific rubrics. Therefore, you can use adult vocabulary, bulleted lists, sample answers, and any combination of notes that makes clear to you what you should be looking for at each level of perfor‑ mance. One thing to be careful of, however, is to leave room for multiple good answers if the questions have multiple good answers. For example, sometimes there are several ways to explain mathematical reasoning. Some essay questions ask students to draw a conclusion and support it, and there might be several tenable answers. Make sure your task‑specific rubrics give appropriate points to all answers that merit them, not just to the answer that you would have written if you were the student.

Third, you write task‑specific rubrics at the same time that you write the test question. Typically you will have a test blueprint and will know how many points are required. Therefore, the decision about the number of performance levels is usually more or less made for you. Solve the problem or write an answer that is complete and correct and, in your view, would deserve full points. Describe that answer and then write descriptions of answers that would qualify for fewer and fewer points, until you get to “no answer” or “totally incorrect answer” or something like that for the lowest point value. In most cases, the lowest point value for a task‑specific rubric for a classroom test question will be zero, consistent with the questions scored right/wrong (where a wrong answer is worth zero points).

Grading essay or other multipoint test questions with point-based scoring schemes

Sometimes essay test questions or other multipoint test questions are used to assess whether students can recall a concept and explain it in their own words. Other

Brookhart, S. M. (2013). How to create and use rubrics for formative assessment and grading. Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development. Created from amridge on 2022-02-20 05:07:25.

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multipoint test questions can assess student understanding of a body of knowledge; for example, a question might ask students to list and explain steps in a scientific process.

I hope these are not the only, or even the main, type of constructed‑response test questions you pose for your students (Brookhart, 2010). However, for questions like this, a point‑based scoring scheme works well—often better than task‑specific rubrics would. There are at least two reasons this is so. One, in a point‑based scoring scheme, points can be allocated to the various facts and concepts in the body of knowledge you intend to assess in a manner that weights knowledge of the various elements according to their importance. Two, a point‑based scoring scheme enumerates the elements—the facts and concepts. Thus if recalling specific information is what the question intends to assess, this enumeration allows you to check for each one. Figure 5.3 shows an example of a point‑based scoring scheme for an elementary social studies test question.

figure 5.3 A Social Studies test Question Scored with a Point Scheme

Question Fill in the chart below with the name of each of the three branches of government and the main pur- pose of each branch.

Branch of Government Main Purpose

________________________________________________________________________

Point-Based Scoring Rubric Total possible points = 6 1 point each for naming the executive, legislative, and judicial branches 1 point each for listing the main purpose, at minimum:

•  Executive branch—Enforces laws •  Legislative branch—Makes laws •  Judicial branch—Interprets laws

Brookhart, S. M. (2013). How to create and use rubrics for formative assessment and grading. Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development. Created from amridge on 2022-02-20 05:07:25.

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62 | How to Create and Use Rubrics

Writing point-based scoring schemes

To write point‑based scoring schemes, identify the major facts and concepts and any other elements of the body of knowledge you are trying to assess. List them.

Look at the elements in your list and decide whether they all contribute to the answer in the same proportion—that is, with the same weight—or if some elements (facts, concepts, explanations, and so on) are more important than others. Allocate points accordingly. If the point‑based scoring scheme is for one question on a test, make sure that the number of points for the question gives it the weight it should contribute to the total test score. If not, adjust either the question or the point scheme until it does.

In some cases, your point‑based scoring scheme will specify that each fact, concept, explanation, or other element of the body of knowledge you are testing must be present in the students’ answers. The example in Figure 5.3 uses this kind of point‑based scoring scheme.

In other cases, you might specify the points that will be earned for up to some number of a larger number of possible elements. For example, say you have just taught a unit on the causes of the Civil War. Therefore, an essay question asking students to identify and briefly explain causes of the Civil War would require recall and comprehension. A point‑based scoring scheme might say students would receive one point each for identifying up to

four from a longer list of possible causes, and one point each for correct explanations, up to a possible eight points for the question. Notice that this differs from effective performance‑level descriptions in rubrics, where counting things is discouraged except in special cases. This kind of “counting” can work in point‑based scoring schemes for questions that are about recall of facts and concepts, because enumerating facts and concepts is precisely what you are trying to assess.

Summing up

Task‑specific rubrics serve a purpose—namely, grading. A book about rubrics wouldn’t be complete without discussing task‑specific rubrics, and that has been the pur‑ pose of this chapter. This chapter also considered point‑based scoring schemes that are

Self-ReflectIon

Can you envision a use for task-specific rubrics or

point-based scoring schemes in your classroom?

How does this use fit with the discussion of task-

specific rubrics and point-based scoring schemes

in this chapter?

Brookhart, S. M. (2013). How to create and use rubrics for formative assessment and grading. Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development. Created from amridge on 2022-02-20 05:07:25.

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Task-Specific Rubrics and Scoring Schemes for Special Purposes | 63

not rubrics, again for the sake of completeness. Task‑specific rubrics and point‑based scoring schemes are two methods you should have in your scoring repertoire, even if they aren’t the most important ones.

General rubrics are much more flexible and serve at least two purposes: learning and grading. And general rubrics can be used with students, which is why I consider them more important than task‑specific rubrics. A special case of using general rubrics occurs when schools and teachers adopt standards‑based grading policies based on demonstrating proficiency levels and coordinate all their rubrics. This situation requires consensus from all the teachers in a grade or department that teach the same standards. If the consensus exists, however, then assessment is simplified in some ways. Chapter 6 discusses proficiency‑based rubrics that assist in standards‑based grading.

Brookhart, S. M. (2013). How to create and use rubrics for formative assessment and grading. Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development. Created from amridge on 2022-02-20 05:07:25.

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