Simply put a rubric is a scoring system that is part of a performance assessment. A well constructed rubric can be of an immense aid it determining. A good rubric is one that will allow the teacher to pinpoint exactly where a student needs help with a particular concept. For any rubric to be valid it must be constructed in such a manner that it applies equally to all students being scored or evaluated and the task that it is assessing be one in which the child is actually performing a task, as opposed to making a simple choice (such as making a choice from a multiple-choice or true-false test).

Rubric replace the use of subjective evaluations with a valid set of scoring guidelines which (if done right) will provide a fair and sound judgment system. A valid math rubric is one where if applied by two or more separate teachers to a student’s work, the same or similar score will be generated. How much the scores agree will determine the validity of both the rubric and the performance assessment of the student. Consistency of outcome is critical for a scoring system to be valid and meaningful.
A good elementary school math rubric needs to allow teachers to define degrees of excellence and aid students in achieving it. How a rubric is constructed will automatically tell students what makes up an excellent performance, and at the same time, what it is they need to do to achieve excellence. A key component to a well designed rubric is its ability to instantly convey to parents both the classroom goals and their child’s result in achieving these objectives. Here is an example of a simple but effective Problem Solving elementary school math problem solving rubric:

• 4 pts- Student demonstrates a plan that would lead to the correct solution without errors
• 3pts- Most of the work was correct but there were minor omissions or errors in procedure
• 2pts- The procedure was only partially correct but there was a major flaw or omission which lead to the wrong answer
• 1pt- Wrong procedure or process used
• 0pt- No attempt made to solve the problem

Well constructed rubrics will not only provide teachers with a fair and unbiased rating tool they also will maintain a reliable consistency of data and documentation of the methods used to make important decisions about a student’s learning modality.

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