How educators define rubric
is unlike the general dictionary meaning

Rubrics are a staple of educational practice, yet teachers who use educational rubrics often don't realize the term is meaningless to the general population.

Don't use the term rubric unless you define rubric for your students and their parents in words that have meaning for them.

My first educational rubric encounter

The first time I heard the word rubric used by an educator, I was taking a graduate course in assessment for online instruction. I'd already completed two masters in education fields and never heard the term used in that context.

I knew that in the middle ages before the invention of digital cameras, copyists put initial red letters called rubrics on a manuscript chapter to make the pages look more inviting.

My collegiate dictionary confirmed my understanding of the term. I couldn't imagine what fancy, colored initials on book chapters had to do with grading papers.

My professor had a string of letters after her name, so I asked her to define rubric. She didn't answer me. So I did what I often have to do when translating technical information: I found examples of the term in use and figured out what it meant in context.

Aside: You teach your students to do that kind of reading comprehension activity, don't you? I hope so. It's a pretty important skill.

Rubric is a red letter term

It turns out that educators, who are big on red ink, picked up the term rubric so folks outside the Sacred Groves of Academe would think they were doing something esoteric.

I had been using assessment rubrics in my classes for years and didn't know it. I just thought I was using a grading guide. What a dummy I was!

You can define rubric as a checklist or a matrix that provides guidance for learners.

Some rubrics are designed primarily as self-assessment tools for students.

Others are designed as grading guides for teachers. This is the way the term was being used by my education professor.

Unlike the medieval page decorations, which added beauty and joy to their setting, assessment rubrics attempt to drain all the subjectivity and quirkiness from grading — and they aren't particularly good at that.

While writing rubrics do help teachers grade papers somewhat evenhandedly, they are not really objective.

The rubrics also don’t eliminate the need to write personal comments. You still need to respond to the student in a one-to-one way.

Alternative terminology

Instead of trying to define rubric for students and parents, use synonyms for the term that describe how that particular rubric is used. For example, you could use terms like:

• Grading form

• Evaluation guide

• Checklist

• Progress record

as more meaningful substitutes for the term rubric.

Vocabulary lesson from rubrics

When you mention the term rubric to your students, you might slip in a little vocabulary lesson.

You cannot define rubric two different ways and expect all students to understand that a single word can be used differently in different contexts. However, all students must know that concept or they won't be able to apply the rules of grammar and punctuation.

Rubric is a perfect example of how a single word can have different meanings in different contexts. Because educational and typographic rubrics are both visual, you can literally show the different meanings.

Students with learning difficulties need everything made explicit. Hints don't work for them.

Incidentally, I've found some bright and well-read students who were not conscious of the fact that one word can be used differently in different contexts.

Teaching in ways that help struggling learners will help all students learn.