Consider including students in creating rubrics 

If you are a fan of rubrics or are required to use them for student assessment, consider including students as co-creators in your rubric creation. Rubrics are helpful to instructors and students. They help instructors save time in grading and providing feedback. They give increased consistency in feedback from student to student and help faculty members clarify their assignment expectations and needed teaching methods (Cornell University, 2022). For students, rubrics clarify expectations and structure of assignments; allow for self-assessment; provide a guide for what students should be getting out of their learning; give them an understanding about the learning process; and help organize feedback for future assignment drafts.  

However, despite these benefits, rubrics can also restrict learning and potentially contribute to inequitable teaching practices. Poorly designed rubrics include those with ineffective scales; generic or generalized criteria; and vague or negative language (Tierney & Simon, 2004). For students who fall in the “developing” area of a rubric, negative and vague language such as “unacceptable, marginal, proficient, distinguished, not yet competent, partly competent, competent and/or sophisticated” can make them feel “wrong” instead of making them understand that they are learning (Dineen & McCartin, 2019). 

The practice of rubrics can increase equity in grading (Feldman, 2019; Ragupathi & Lee, 2020) but also can perpetuate inequities in higher education. The use of rubrics can lend itself to overly standardizing or norming expectations (norming to dominant expectations); a focus on faculty vs. student needs and perspectives (reinforcing higher-education hierarchies); a false security of objectivity in evaluation (falsely assuring nonbiased grading); assumptions of word and concept definitions such as “adequate,” “appropriate,” “academic,” “many,” “clear” and “competent” (ignoring diverse perspectives, first-generation-student understanding and implicit expectations); and narrow options for demonstrating student learning (limiting student strengths, expression and contributions of lived experience).  

Using students as rubric co-creators combines the helpful structure and explicit expectations of a rubric with the responsive and equitable inclusion of student voice and expertise. Specific to rubric co-creation, one study reported that teachers and students who co-created rubrics valued the experience; gained insight into one another’s perspectives and needs; had clarity of assignment expectations; were motivated to complete assignments; and increased their educational agency beyond the specific rubric experience (Kilgore, et al., 2021). In general, student-faculty rubric co-creation provides students with an in-depth view of future assignments and how they will be assessed. It encourages self-assessment using student language and examples. And asking for student input early in the semester (in a rubric co-creation exercise) engages students in an educational partnership, setting the tone for the course’s community of learning. Regarding equity, rubric co-creation shifts the focus of the rubric from faculty summative assessment to student-focused formative assessment. It also welcomes conversations between students and faculty members addressing bias in grading, dominant norms and implicit expectations in higher education and the numerous ways and forms that learning is expressed.

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• University of Colorado Step by Step Guide to Including Students in Rubric Creation: Video and application examples of including students in rubric formation.  
• Illinois State: How to Create Rubrics With Students: This PowerPoint helps outline a co-creation activity that you can use with your students. Though designed for K-12, it is straightforward and can apply to higher education.  
• North Carolina State University: Rubric Best Practices, Examples, and Templates: This resource is about basic rubric creation and best practices. A wonderful place to start for those who are new to rubric creation.
• Visit the Well for more great ideas and resources for Strong Instructional Practices in your higher-education classroom.