A rubric is a set of scoring guidelines for evaluating student work. Rubrics answer the questions: By what criteria should performance be judged? Where should we look and what should we look for to judge performance success? What does the range in the quality of performance look like?
Rubrics are scoring tools that provide clear expectations for student work while offering a framework for grading based on specific criteria and levels of achievement. This framework reduces time spent grading, increases grading transparency, and supports objectivity and consistency in evaluation.
Position the rubric as a tool for learning, reflection, and self-assessment—not just grading. Create adaptable templates you can adjust for multiple assignments.
Rubrics are best for assignments or projects that require evaluation on multiple dimensions. Creating a rubric makes the instructor’s standards explicit to both students and other teaching staff for the class, showing students how to meet expectations.
Here we are providing a sample set of rubrics designed by faculty at Carnegie Mellon and other institutions.
Rubrics are a set of criteria to evaluate performance on an assignment or assessment. Rubrics can communicate expectations regarding the quality of work to students and provide a standardized framework for instructors to assess work. Rubrics can be used for both formative and summative assessment.
A rubric is an assessment tool often shaped like a matrix, which describes levels of achievement in a specific area of performance, understanding, or behavior. There are two main types of rubrics:
Ultimately, such special headings or comments came to be called rubrics, a term that traces back to ruber, the Latin word for "red." While the printing sense remains in use today, rubric also has an extended sense referring to any class or category under which something is organized.