Rules of Thumb - Grading Scales, Rubrics and Assessment Design

This is from Mike Palmquist's work this year:

Rules of Thumb - Grading Scales, Rubrics and Assessment Design

1.     Keep it simple.  Holistic grading can work well.  Rubrics should be self-evident, even to someone who isn’t in class.

2.    Use a scale with enough room for improvement. Using a 4 point scale may not be discriminating enough to show progress.

a.    Marzano begins with a 4 point scale, but then includes either half points (ie 2.5) or third points (ie 2.33 and 2.67) to signify more marginal progress.

b.    The AP Writing Rubric uses a 9 point scale.

3.    Make it easy to calculate progress.  Use an identifiable scale (See 1 and 2) that produces a number.  Electronic records make this very easy. Don’t use teacher comments to show progress.

4.    Use the same article or prompt for both pre-test and post-test.  If by chance you use a slightly more difficult assessment for the post-test, scores could drop as a false indicator of a lack of progress.