The Words We Use:  A Glossary of Terms for Early Childhood Education Standards and Assessment RUBRICS » Definition » Related Terms (Not Synonyms) » Explanatory Comments » Web Sources Definition Descriptive scales for organizing and interpreting data gathered from observations of children's performance on a learning task and/or of children's developmental status. Rubrics describe levels of performance of children's work or a particular area of knowledge by defining varying levels of quality or mastery, and providing indicators of each level. Related Terms (Not Synonyms) Analytic scoring; Protocol Explanatory Comments The term is typically defined as it applies to a system used to judge the quality of a child's work rather than general characteristics of learners. Rubrics promote learning by giving clear performance targets based upon agreed-upon learning goals. Rubrics are used to make subjective judgments about a child's work or developmental status more objective through clearly articulated criteria for performance or expected knowledge. The scoring values show gradation in quality, with descriptions or illustrations of examples of performances at each of the score point values, for each of the levels of performance (from poor or weak through a strong response). Rubrics can be used by primary-age children to understand next steps in their learning or how to improve their work. Web Sources Andrade, H.G. (2000). Using rubrics to promote thinking and learning. Educational Leadership, 57 (5). Retrieved May 19, 2003, from http://www.ascd.org/readingroom/edlead/0002/andrade.html Coalition of Essential Schools National Web. Defining assessment. Retrieved May 19, 2003, from http://www.essentialschools.org/cs/resources/view/ces_res/124 Scholastic. Teacher's timely topics-Rubrics. Retrieved May 19, 2003, from http://teacher.scholastic.com/professional/assessment/roomforubrics.htm Western Michigan University. The Evaluation Center. Teacher evaluation kit. Complete glossary. Retrieved May 19, 2003, from http://www.wmich.edu/evalctr/ess/glossary/glossary.htm#Scoring%Rubric » Back to List of Terms

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document last updated 8/21/2009