™                Teach to the Standards...Not to the Test.

The definition of the word rubric is: 

• a heading of a part of a book underlined in a color (as red) different from the rest

• name, title, title of a statute

• an authoritative rule

In education, we love to reinvent the wheel and then create a buzzword for it. In educational jargon, the word rubric has taken on a whole new meaning. Most of us think of a rubric as a chart with Performance levels across the top in columns and Objectives or standards in the rows going down the side. We have a nice template you can use if this is all you want to use rubrics for at this point (nothing wrong with that, it's a place to start.)

    Creating rubrics for classroom instruction and assessment is really a process. If you involve your students in the process you are on your way to developing what is called authentic assessment. See some of the links above to find sites that explain the process of rubric development.

    Some links to performance assessment resources:

• http://www.teachermentors.com/RSOD%20Site/PerfAssmt/P.AssmtLinks.html

• http://mathforum.org/~sarah/Discussion.Sessions/biblio.assessment.html

• http://carla.acad.umn.edu/MLPA-miniguide/performance.html

Assessment and Equity: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/methods/assment/as800.htm

Creating your own rubrics:

• http://intranet.cps.k12.il.us/Assessments/Ideas_and_Rubrics/ideas_and_rubrics.html

• Understanding rubrics: http://www.middleweb.com/rubricsHG.html

• http://stone.web.brevard.k12.fl.us/html/comprubric.html

• Learn database applications to collect data in your classroom:

    http://www.teach-nology.com/tutorials/databases/learn/