research paper rubric (university)

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Whenever we give feedback, it inevitably reflects our priorities and expectations about the assignment. In other words, we're using a rubric to choose which elements (e.g., right/wrong answer, work shown, thesis analysis, style, etc.) receive more or less feedback and what counts as a "good thesis" or a "less good thesis." When we evaluate student work, that is, we always have a rubric. The question is how consciously we’re applying it, whether we’re transparent with students about what it is, whether it’s aligned with what students are learning in our course, and whether we’re applying it consistently. The more we’re doing all of the following, the more consistent and equitable our feedback and grading will be:

Being conscious of your rubric ideally means having one written out, with explicit criteria and concrete features that describe more/less successful versions of each criterion. If you don't have a rubric written out, you can use this assignment prompt decoder for TFs & TAs to determine which elements and criteria should be the focus of your rubric.

Being transparent with students about your rubric means sharing it with them ahead of time and making sure they understand it. This assignment prompt decoder for students is designed to facilitate this discussion between students and instructors.

Aligning your rubric with your course means articulating the relationship between “this” assignment and the ones that scaffold up and build from it, which ideally involves giving students the chance to practice different elements of the assignment and get formative feedback before they’re asked to submit material that will be graded. For more ideas and advice on how this looks, see the " Formative Assignments " page at Gen Ed Writes.

Applying your rubric consistently means using a stable vocabulary when making your comments and keeping your feedback focused on the criteria in your rubric.

How to Build a Rubric

Rubrics and assignment prompts are two sides of a coin. If you’ve already created a prompt, you should have all of the information you need to make a rubric. Of course, it doesn’t always work out that way, and that itself turns out to be an advantage of making rubrics: it’s a great way to test whether your prompt is in fact communicating to students everything they need to know about the assignment they’ll be doing.

So what do students need to know? In general, assignment prompts boil down to a small number of common elements :

• Evidence and Analysis
• Style and Conventions
• Specific Guidelines
• Advice on Process

If an assignment prompt is clearly addressing each of these elements, then students know what they’re doing, why they’re doing it, and when/how/for whom they’re doing it. From the standpoint of a rubric, we can see how these elements correspond to the criteria for feedback:

All of these criteria can be weighed and given feedback, and they’re all things that students can be taught and given opportunities to practice. That makes them good criteria for a rubric, and that in turn is why they belong in every assignment prompt.

Which leaves “purpose” and “advice on process.” These elements are, in a sense, the heart and engine of any assignment, but their role in a rubric will differ from assignment to assignment. Here are a couple of ways to think about each.

On the one hand, “purpose” is the rationale for how the other elements are working in an assignment, and so feedback on them adds up to feedback on the skills students are learning vis-a-vis the overall purpose. In that sense, separately grading whether students have achieved an assignment’s “purpose” can be tricky.

On the other hand, metacognitive components such as journals or cover letters or artist statements are a great way for students to tie work on their assignment to the broader (often future-oriented) reasons why they’ve been doing the assignment. Making this kind of component a small part of the overall grade, e.g., 5% and/or part of “specific guidelines,” can allow it to be a nudge toward a meaningful self-reflection for students on what they’ve been learning and how it might build toward other assignments or experiences.

Advice on process

As with “purpose,” “advice on process” often amounts to helping students break down an assignment into the elements they’ll get feedback on. In that sense, feedback on those steps is often more informal or aimed at giving students practice with skills or components that will be parts of the bigger assignment.

For those reasons, though, the kind of feedback we give students on smaller steps has its own (even if ungraded) rubric. For example, if a prompt asks students to  propose a research question as part of the bigger project, they might get feedback on whether it can be answered by evidence, or whether it has a feasible scope, or who the audience for its findings might be. All of those criteria, in turn, could—and ideally would—later be part of the rubric for the graded project itself. Or perhaps students are submitting earlier, smaller components of an assignment for separate grades; or are expected to submit separate components all together at the end as a portfolio, perhaps together with a cover letter or artist statement .

Using Rubrics Effectively

In the same way that rubrics can facilitate the design phase of assignment, they can also facilitate the teaching and feedback phases, including of course grading. Here are a few ways this can work in a course:

Discuss the rubric ahead of time with your teaching team. Getting on the same page about what students will be doing and how different parts of the assignment fit together is, in effect, laying out what needs to happen in class and in section, both in terms of what students need to learn and practice, and how the coming days or weeks should be sequenced.

Share the rubric with your students ahead of time. For the same reason it's ideal for course heads to discuss rubrics with their teaching team, it’s ideal for the teaching team to discuss the rubric with students. Not only does the rubric lay out the different skills students will learn during an assignment and which skills are more or less important for that assignment,  it means that the formative feedback they get along the way is more legible as getting practice on elements of the “bigger assignment.” To be sure, this can’t always happen. Rubrics aren’t always up and running at the beginning of an assignment, and sometimes they emerge more inductively during the feedback and grading process, as instructors take stock of what students have actually submitted. In both cases, later is better than never—there’s no need to make the perfect the enemy of the good. Circulating a rubric at the time you return student work can still be a valuable tool to help students see the relationship between the learning objectives and goals of the assignment and the feedback and grade they’ve received.

Discuss the rubric with your teaching team during the grading process. If your assignment has a rubric, it’s important to make sure that everyone who will be grading is able to use the rubric consistently. Most rubrics aren’t exhaustive—see the note above on rubrics that are “too specific”—and a great way to see how different graders are handling “real-life” scenarios for an assignment is to have the entire team grade a few samples (including examples that seem more representative of an “A” or a “B”) and compare everyone’s approaches. We suggest scheduling a grade-norming session for your teaching staff.

• Designing Your Course
• In the Classroom
• When/Why/How: Some General Principles of Responding to Student Work
• Consistency and Equity in Grading
• Assessing Class Participation
• Assessing Non-Traditional Assignments
• Beyond “the Grade”: Alternative Approaches to Assessment
• Getting Feedback
• Equitable & Inclusive Teaching
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Resource library.

• AACU VALUE Rubrics

Using rubrics

A rubric is a type of scoring guide that assesses and articulates specific components and expectations for an assignment. Rubrics can be used for a variety of assignments: research papers, group projects, portfolios, and presentations.  

Why use rubrics? 

Rubrics help instructors: 

• Assess assignments consistently from student-to-student. 
• Save time in grading, both short-term and long-term. 
• Give timely, effective feedback and promote student learning in a sustainable way. 
• Clarify expectations and components of an assignment for both students and course teaching assistants (TAs). 
• Refine teaching methods by evaluating rubric results. 

Rubrics help students: 

• Understand expectations and components of an assignment. 
• Become more aware of their learning process and progress. 
• Improve work through timely and detailed feedback. 

Considerations for using rubrics 

When developing rubrics consider the following:

• Although it takes time to build a rubric, time will be saved in the long run as grading and providing feedback on student work will become more streamlined.  
• A rubric can be a fillable pdf that can easily be emailed to students. 
• They can be used for oral presentations. 
• They are a great tool to evaluate teamwork and individual contribution to group tasks. 
• Rubrics facilitate peer-review by setting evaluation standards. Have students use the rubric to provide peer assessment on various drafts. 
• Students can use them for self-assessment to improve personal performance and learning. Encourage students to use the rubrics to assess their own work. 
• Motivate students to improve their work by using rubric feedback to resubmit their work incorporating the feedback. 

Getting Started with Rubrics 

• Start small by creating one rubric for one assignment in a semester.  
• Ask colleagues if they have developed rubrics for similar assignments or adapt rubrics that are available online. For example, the  AACU has rubrics  for topics such as written and oral communication, critical thinking, and creative thinking. RubiStar helps you to develop your rubric based on templates.  
• Examine an assignment for your course. Outline the elements or critical attributes to be evaluated (these attributes must be objectively measurable). 
• Create an evaluative range for performance quality under each element; for instance, “excellent,” “good,” “unsatisfactory.” 
• Avoid using subjective or vague criteria such as “interesting” or “creative.” Instead, outline objective indicators that would fall under these categories. 
• The criteria must clearly differentiate one performance level from another. 
• Assign a numerical scale to each level. 
• Give a draft of the rubric to your colleagues and/or TAs for feedback. 
• Train students to use your rubric and solicit feedback. This will help you judge whether the rubric is clear to them and will identify any weaknesses. 
• Rework the rubric based on the feedback. 

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Grading with rubrics

Rubrics help students know how they will be assessed and make grading easier for the instructor. 

Introduction

When you’re two-thirds of the way through 35 essays on why the Supreme Court’s decision in the case of McCulloch v. Maryland is important for an understanding of the development of American federalism, it takes a strong spirit not to want to poke your eyes out with a steak knife rather than read one more. — John Tierney in Why Teachers Secretly Hate Grading Papers

Do you enjoy spending countless hours marking assignments late into the wee hours of the morning? How about responding to endless emails from your students about assignments – questions that you have responded to multiple times in class. If the answer to both is no, then I would like to introduce you to your new best friend – the grading rubric. Once developed, the rubric will save hours of your life, as well as providing for your students in crystal clarity the purpose of their assignments.

What is a grading rubric?

A rubric is a set of criteria required for an assignment accompanied by various levels of performance. As the instructor, you simply select the comments on the rubric that match the submission (adding your own comments at your discretion). Rubrics are also useful for self and peer-assessment.

Rubrics help your students know how they will be assessed. They also make grading easier for the instructor. Rubrics are useful for assessing essays, projects, and tests or quizzes with a written component. Check out these  examples  from Carnegie Mellon.

There are two main types of rubrics: holistic and analytical.

Holistic Rubrics

Holistic rubrics evaluate the overall quality of an assignment.  They are quick, efficient, and fair, and they allow for the assessment of higher-order thinking in which any number of responses may be offered by the student. The shortcomings of holistic rubrics include a lack of specific feedback for the student (unless you include these in your comments). Holistic rubrics generally serve better as summative rather than formative feedback.

Analytical rubrics

Analytical rubrics include a set of criteria on the left side of a grid with levels of performance along the top row (see the example below). Typically the corresponding cells include a description of each criteria at each level of performance. When grading assignments, the instructor checks off each of the appropriate criteria and may choose to include brief written comments below. Analytical rubrics can effectively provide specific feedback that highlights strengths and struggles. The drawbacks of an analytical rubric include the time needed to develop the rubrics, specifically the time and thought that is required to write well-defined and clear criterion. This time is arguably well-spent as the goals and outcomes of the assignment will be explicit for both instructor and student. In the long term, analytical rubrics are a time saver – time invested into their development is quickly paid off during the marking process.

See below for templates of holistic and analytical rubrics:

Template for Holistic Rubrics

Template for analytic rubrics.

Nilson, L. (2016).  Teaching at its best : A research-based resource for college instructors  4th ed. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Mertler, Craig A. (2001). Designing scoring rubrics for your classroom.  Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation , 7(25). Retrieved from   https://scholarworks.umass.edu/pare/vol7/iss1/25/  

Benefits of rubrics

Rubrics are helpful for instructors and students on many levels. Rubrics are good for students because:

• Students know what is expected.
• Students see that learning is about gaining specific knowledge, skills, and attitudes.
• Students may self-assess to reflect on their learning.

Rubrics are good for instructors because:

• Teachers and students are clear on what is being assessed.
• Teachers may consistently assess student work without having to re-write similar comments.
• Teachers with high marking loads save considerable time.

The rubric  design  process is also beneficial. Designing a rubric enables the instructor to take a close look at the purpose of the assignment. The process allows the instructor to enhance or more clearly articulate the purpose and intended learning outcomes of the assignment for the students.

How to design a rubric

• Decide what criteria or essential elements must be present in the student’s work to ensure that it is high in quality. At this stage, you might even consider selecting samples of exemplary student work that can be shown to students when setting assignments.
• Decide how many levels of achievement you will include on the rubric and how they will relate to your institution’s definition of grades as well as your own grading scheme.
• For each criterion, component, or essential element of quality, describe in detail what the performance at each achievement level looks like.
• Leave space for additional, tailored comments or overall impressions and a final grade.

Develop a different rubric for each assignment 

Although this takes time in the beginning, you’ll find that rubrics can be changed slightly or re-used later.  If you are seeking pre-existing rubrics, consider Rhodes (2009) for the AAC&U VALUE rubrics, cited below, or Facione and Facione (1994). Whether you develop your own or use an existing rubric, practice with any other graders in your course to achieve inter-rater reliability.

Be transparent

Give students a copy of the rubric when you assign the performance task. These are not meant to be surprise criteria. Hand the rubric back with the assignment.

Integrate rubrics into assignments

Require students to attach the rubric to the assignment when they hand it in. Some instructors ask students to self-assess or give peer feedback using the rubric prior to handing in the work. 

Leverage rubrics to manage your time

When you mark the assignment, circle or highlight the achieved level of performance for each criterion on the rubric. This is where you will save a great deal of time, as no comments are required. Include any additional specific or overall comments that do not fit within the rubric’s criteria.

Be prepared to revise your rubrics

Decide upon a final grade for the assignment based on the rubric. If you find, as some do, that presented work meets criteria on the rubric but nevertheless seems to have exceeded or not met the overall qualities you’re seeking, revise the rubric accordingly for the next time you teach the course. If the work achieves highly in some areas of the rubric but not in others, decide in advance how the assignment grade is actually derived. Some use a formula, or multiplier, to give different weightings to various components; be explicit about this right on the rubric. 

Consider developing online rubrics

If an assignment is being submitted to an electronic drop box you may be able to develop and use an online rubric. The scores from these rubrics are automatically entered in the online grade book in the course management system.

*Creative commons source:  Rubrics: Useful assessment tools. Centre for Teaching Excellence, University of Waterloo.

Rubric examples

Developing Rubrics  A storehouse of examples and resources for developing rubrics.

The Center for Teaching and Learning (Humber College). (n.d.).  Teaching methods: Developing rubrics.  Retrieved from:  http://www.humber.ca/centreforteachingandlearning/instructional-strategies/teaching-methods/course-development-tools/creating-assignment-rubrics.html

Guide to Rating Critical & Integrative Thinking , Washington State University, Fall 2006, Center for Teaching, Learning, & Technology. Retrieved from:   http://www.cpcc.edu/learningcollege/learning-outcomes/rubrics/WST_Rubric.pdf

Grading and Performance Rubrics

Examples  of rubrics from various disciplines (scroll down the web page to find them) Eberly Center: Teaching Excellence & Educational Innovation (Carnegie Mellon). (n.d.).  Grading and performance rubrics.  Retrieved from:  http:// www.cmu.edu/teaching/designteach/teach/rubrics.html

Reliable Rubrics  A creative commons bank of rubrics from a variety of disciplines.

Rubric template

Sample rubric for a research paper.

Adapted from  Written Report Assessment Template , Compiled from the following sources: Project Literary among Youth, 2002,  http://www.kidsplay.org/100w/rubric.html . Kansas State University, 2005. Rubric for Research Paper

Resources and references

Centre for Teaching Excellence (University of Waterloo). (n.d.).  Rubrics: Useful assessment tools . Retrieved from  https:// uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/teaching-resources/teaching- tips/assessing-student-work/grading-and-feedback/rubrics-useful-assessment-tools

Davis, B. (2009).  Tools for teaching  (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Eberly Center: Teaching Excellence & Educational Innovation (Carnegie Mellon). (n.d.).  Grading and  performance rubrics.  Retrieved from:  http ://www.cmu.edu/teaching/designteach/teach/rubrics.html

Guide to Rating Critical & Integrative Thinking, Washington State University, Fall 2006, Center for Teaching, Learning, & Technology. Retrieved from:  https://public.wsu.edu/~hughesc/CIT_Rubric_2006.pdf

Mertler, Craig A. (2001). Designing scoring rubrics for your classroom.  Practical Assessment, Research &  Evaluation , 7(25). Retrieved from  http://PAREonline.net/getvn.asp?v=7&n=25

Magna Campus Video and Supplemental Materials Resource

How Can Rubrics Make Grading Easier and Faster?

Alternatively:

• Log on to  UM Learn
• Under  My Courses , select  All Roles  under  Role , and  All  under  Term .
• Scroll down to  Development Courses  and select  The Centre – Magna Campus Resources
• Select  Magna Campus  >  Open Menu  >  Seminar Libraries  >  20 Minute Mentors
• In the search box, type in “rubrics”

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Creating and using rubrics for assessment, in this section, tools and ideas for creating your rubrics.

Many of these rubrics grew out of a long-term commitment to building alternative assessments in our Instructional Design , and Math Specialist  and Teaching and Assessing Writing online courses.

What's New?

Video Conferencing Rubric

Our Top Five Rubrics

• Online Discussion
• Video Project
• Middle School/High School Group Work
• Elementary Teamwork

Quick Links to Rubrics

• Discussion, Teamwork, and Group Work Rubrics  
• ePortfolio and Web Page Rubrics  
• Concept Map and Graphic Organizer Rubric  
• Video and Multimedia Project Rubrics  
• Math and Science Rubrics  
• Virtual Simulations and Games Rubric  
• Research Process Rubrics  
• Writing Rubrics  
• Rubrics for Primary Grades  
• Presentation Rubrics  

Tools for Creating Your Rubrics

Presentation rubrics.

Video Conferencing Rubric Maggie Rouman's rubric assesses real-time sessions to foster community, present topics, and enhance learning.  

Podcast Rubric Ann Bell's rubric helps students assess what makes a good podcast. 

PowerPoint Rubric 10 performance categories

Oral Presentation Rubric  (Word doc)

VoiceThread Participation Rubric  (pdf) Michelle Pacansky-Brock's general formative assessment is used when students view a mini video lecture/presentation. Contributions are rated on originality, comprehension, and clarity.

Oral Presentation Checklist 4Teachers.org provides an online tool to customize the checklist for your grade level

Effective Project Presentations Buck Institute for Education (BIE) rubric for high school presentations

Poster Rubric

Speaking and Writing Rubrics  bilingual education (English and Spanish) Spanish Partial-Immersion Program Rubrics for Writing and Speaking in English and Spanish for Grades 1-5

Social Media Project Rubrics

Wiki Rubric Criteria for assessing individual and group Wiki contributions.

Blog Rubric Assess individual blog entries, including comments on peers' blogs.

Twitter Rubric Assess learning during social networking instructional assignments.

Discussion, Teamwork, and Group Work Rubrics

Online Discussion Board Rubric Criteria for assessing the ability to share perspectives, refine thoughts through the writing process, and participate in a meaningful discussion Primary Grade Self-Evaluation Teamwork Rubric  (PDF) Features of a sandwich to graphically show the criteria

Upper Elementary Teamwork Rubric Karen Franker's rubric includes six defined criteria for assessing the team and individual responsibility

Middle School/High School Collaboration Rubric Six defined criteria for collaboration with strong performance descriptors

ePortfolio and Web Page Rubrics

These rubrics are related to our Instructional Design courses.

e-Portfolio Rubric Electronic portfolio rubric created by Joan Vandervelde includes 7 categories with 4 levels of achievement

Web Page Rubric Joan Vandervelde's rubric details 9 categories for evaluating a web page

CyberFair Peer Review Student Web Page Rubric Online feedback form for CyberFair Project.

Concept Map and Graphic Organizer Rubric

Graphic Organizer and Mind Map Rubric   Concept map diagram rubric to assess a visual storyboard of a final project or to chart a flow of work and ideas by Karen Franker

Storyboard Rubric Concept map and/or storyboard specification of instructional sequencing and messaging details.

Video and Multimedia Project Rubrics

These rubrics are related to our Elearning and Online Teaching course and flipped classroom  course.

Video Project Rubric   Joan Vandervelde lists criteria for video production and editing

Multimedia Project Rubric   Rubric developed by Caroline McCullen, Jamie McKenzie, and Terrie Gray

Virtual Simulations and Games Rubric

Assessing Student Learning in Virtual Simulations and Serious Games A grading rubric created by Ann Bell with 6 performance criteria

Research Process Rubrics

Research Process Rubric - Elementary Karen Franker's rubric to assess planning, gathering, organizing and citing information in grades 3-5

Research Process Rubric - Middle School Karen Franker's rubric assesses performance with the research process

Rubric for Research Process   Joyce Valenza's rubric assesses 5 research performance areas for high school students

Research Process Reflection Joyce Valenza's Question Brainstormer encourages students to ask focus questions and reflect on the research process

Academic Research Writing and APA Formatting Rubric Kay Lehmann's rubric for high school or college level

Writing Rubrics

These rubrics are related to our Teaching and Assessing Writing courses .

Student-Friendly Writing Rubric

Samples of Student Writing, Scored With a 6+1 Trait Rubric An extensive archive of assessment materials associated with the  6-Traits assessment  approach.

NWREL's Six Traits of Writing Rubric English and Spanish versions of the 6-Traits of Writing Rubric and other rubrics for listening, public speaking, and reading

Writing Rubrics K-12 - Opinion/Argument, Narrative, and Informative/Explanatory

Research Paper Rubric   (Word doc)

Rubric for Scoring Effective Writing  (Word doc)

Persuasive Essay Rubric  (Word document)

Reflective Writing Rubric  (PDF)

Reflection Paper Rubric (PDF)

Historical Fiction Essay Rubric  (pdf) Blake Green's history class rubric.

Rubrics for Middle School Includes invention report, book talk, persuasive essay,  and autobiographical event essay

Autobiographical Rubric (PDF)

Math and Science Rubrics

These rubrics are related to our Math Specialist courses .

Math Rubrics 4 levels of math understanding with performance criteria

NCTM Math Standard Rubric  (pdf) Performance criteria for problem-solving reasoning and proof communication connections representation

Science Rubric  (pdf) Performance criteria for the use of scientific tools, science reasoning and strategies, science concepts and use of data and communication Scientific Report Rubric Easy to modify for any kind of high school research report

Physics Project Rubric A good example of a performance rubric tuned a specific project. Easy to adapt to other subjects.

Rubrics for Primary Grades

Kindergarten Rubrics Assess literacy development

Kindergarten Rubrics Evaluates communication, fine muscle development, emergent reading and writing, large muscle development, math development, creative arts, personal development, and work habits, play, and social skills.

Primary Grade Self-Evaluation Teamwork Rubric  (PDF) Features a sandwich to graphically show when all criteria are met

Third Grade Venn Diagram Rubric

These tools are explored in our e-learning course .

Rubistar Choose a topic and create a new rubric based on a template. Save and edit your rubric online.

Rubric Template Insert the task and criteria into this template.

Rubric Template  (Word doc) Word document template to download and modify to meet authentic assessment needs (University of West Florida).

Quick Rubric

iRubric  develop rubrics and access them from anywhere

Single-Point Rubric  (Word doc)

Rubric Generator Build your own grading rubrics online by filling out a form. You can include a graphic and print the rubric.

Readings about Authentic Assessment Helpful background information about rubric design and implementation in the classroom.

Examples of Rubrics

Here are some rubric examples from different colleges and universities, as well as the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU) VALUE rubrics. We would also like to include examples from Syracuse University faculty and staff. If you would be willing to share your rubric with us, please click  here.

• Art and Design Rubric (Rhode Island University)
• Theater Arts Writing Rubric (California State University)

Class Participation

• Holistic Participation Rubric (University of Virginia)
• Large Lecture Courses with TAs (Carnegie Mellon University)

Doctoral Program Milestones

• Qualifying Examination (Syracuse University)
• Comprehensive Core Examination (Portland State University)
• Dissertation Proposal (Portland State University)
• Dissertation (Portland State University)

Experiential Learning

• Key Competencies in Community-Engaged Learning and Teaching (Campus Compact)
• Global Learning and Intercultural Knowledge (International Cross-Cultural Experiential Learning Evaluation Toolkit)

Humanities and Social Science

• Anthropology Paper (Carnegie Mellon University)
• Economics Paper (University of Kentucky)
• History Paper (Carnegie Mellon University)
• Literary Analysis (Minnesota State University)
• Philosophy Paper (Carnegie Mellon University)
• Psychology Paper (Loyola Marymount University)
• Sociology Paper (University of California)

Media and Design

• Media and Design Elements Rubric (Samford University)

Natural Science

• Physics Paper (Illinois State University)
• Chemistry Paper (Utah State University)
• Biology Research Report (Loyola Marymount University)

Online Learning

• Discussion Forums (Simmons College)

Syracuse University’s Shared Competencies

Ethics, Integrity, and Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion rubric (*pdf)

Critical and Creative Thinking rubric (*pdf)

Scientific Inquiry and Research Skills rubric (*pdf)

Civic and Global Responsibility rubric (*pdf)

Communication Skills rubric (*pdf)

Information Literacy and Technological Agility rubric (*pdf)

• Journal Reflection (The State University of New Jersey)
• Reflection Writing Rubric  and  Research Project Writing (Carnegie Mellon University)
• Research Paper Rubric (Cornell College)
• Assessment Rubric for Student Reflections

AACU VALUE Rubrics

VALUE (Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education) is a national assessment initiative on college student learning sponsored by AACU as part of its Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) initiative.

Intellectual and Practical Skills

• Inquiry and Analysis (*pdf)
• Critical Thinking (*pdf)
• Creative Thinking (*pdf)
• Written Communication (*pdf)
• Oral Communication (*pdf)
• Reading (*pdf)
• Quantitative Literacy (*pdf)
• Information Literacy (*pdf)
• Teamwork (*pdf)
• Problem Solving (*pdf)

Personal and Social Responsibility

• Civic Engagement (*pdf)
• Intercultural Knowledge and Competence (*pdf)
• Ethical Reasoning (*pdf)
• Foundations and Skills for Lifelong Learning (*pdf)
• Global Learning (*pdf)

Integrative and Applied Learning

• Integrative Learning (*pdf)

Assessing Institution-Wide Diversity

• Self-Assessment Rubric For the Institutionalization of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Higher Education

Responding, Evaluating, Grading

Rubric for a Research Proposal

Matthew Pearson - Writing Across the Curriculum

UW-Madison WAC Sourcebook 2020 Copyright © by Matthew Pearson - Writing Across the Curriculum. All Rights Reserved.

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Evaluating Sources

Ask a librarian, source evaluation rubric.

This rubric can help you determine if a source is a "good" source; one that is reliable to use in your research or paper. It can help you weed out "bad" sources and defend your "good" sources to your instructor.

• C.R.A.A.P.O Source Evaluation Rubric NOTE: You may need to download the PDF to fill in the form fields electronically.

How to use this Rubric:

• Enter information about the source at the top of the page, i.e. title, url, author, dates
• For each line, starting with Currency, read each box from left to right and choose the one that matches your source the best
• Enter the column number, 1-4 that corresponds to the box that matches your source the best in the right hand column
• Once every line has a number, tally the numbers in the right hand column and write the score at the bottom of the page

The score you tally is out of 24 total points. You must determine what is the lowest score you will accept.

An acceptable score for a source to be used in a research paper for college is between 20 to 24.

The C.R.A.A.P. Test was created by Sarah Blakeslee (University of California at Chico, Meriam Library). With her permission, this content was based off her  original text  with some modification.

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Harvard and Caltech Will Require Test Scores for Admission

The universities are the latest highly selective schools to end their policies that made submitting SAT or ACT scores optional.

By Anemona Hartocollis and Stephanie Saul

Harvard will reinstate standardized testing as a requirement of admission, the university announced Thursday, becoming the latest in a series of highly competitive universities to reverse their test-optional policies.

Students applying to enter Harvard in fall 2025 and beyond will be required to submit SAT or ACT scores, though the university said a few other test scores will be accepted in “exceptional cases,” including Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate tests. The university had previously said it was going to keep its test-optional policy through the entering class of fall 2026.

Within hours of Harvard’s announcement, Caltech, a science and engineering institute, also said it was reinstating its testing requirements for students applying for admission in fall 2025.

The schools had been among nearly 2,000 colleges across the country that dropped test score requirements over the last few years, a trend that escalated during the pandemic when it was harder for students to get to test sites.

Dropping test score requirements was widely viewed as a tool to help diversify admissions, by encouraging poor and underrepresented students who had potential but did not score well on the tests to apply. But supporters of the tests have said without scores, it became harder to identify promising students who outperformed in their environments.

In explaining its decision to accelerate the return to testing, Harvard cited a study by Opportunity Insights , which found that test scores were a better predictor of academic success in college than high school grades and that they can help admissions officers identify highly talented students from low income groups who might otherwise had gone unnoticed.

“Standardized tests are a means for all students, regardless of their background and life experience, to provide information that is predictive of success in college and beyond,” Hopi Hoekstra, dean of the faculty of arts and sciences, said in a statement announcing the move.

“In short, more information, especially such strongly predictive information, is valuable for identifying talent from across the socioeconomic range,” she added.

Caltech, in Pasadena, Calif., said that reinstating testing requirements reaffirmed the school’s “commitment as a community of scientists and engineers to using all relevant data in its decision-making processes.”

Harvard and Caltech join a growing number of schools, notable for their selectivity, that have since reversed their policies, including Brown, Yale, Dartmouth, M.I.T., Georgetown, Purdue and the University of Texas at Austin.

For Harvard, the move comes at a time of transition, and perhaps a return to more conservative policies.

Last June, the Supreme Court struck down race-conscious college admissions in cases involving Harvard and the University of North Carolina, raising fears that with the demise of affirmative action, those schools would become less diverse.

And in January, Harvard’s first Black president, Claudine Gay, resigned under pressure from critics who said she had not acted strongly enough to combat antisemitism on campus after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel, and under mounting accusations of plagiarism in her academic work, which she stood by.

The provost, Alan Garber, was named interim president, while the dean of the law school, John Manning, became interim provost, the university’s second-highest administrative position. Mr. Manning is considered a strong potential candidate to replace Dr. Gay. His background stands out for his conservative associations, having clerked for the former Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia.

In the current climate on campus, a return to test scores could be seen as a return to tradition. It also may address concerns of many parents that the college admissions process, especially in elite institutions, is inscrutable and disconnected from merit.

Applications to Harvard were down by 5 percent this year, while those at many of its peer universities went up, suggesting that the recent turmoil may have dented its reputation. But it still received a staggering number of undergraduate applications — 54,008 — and admitted only 3.6 percent. Requiring test scores could make sorting through applications more manageable.

Critics of standardized tests have long raised concerns that the tests helped fuel inequality because some wealthier students raised their scores through high-priced tutoring. But recent studies have found that test scores help predict college grades, chances of graduation and post-college success, and that test scores are more reliable than high school grades, partly because of grade inflation in recent years .

But Robert Schaeffer, director of public education at FairTest, an organization that opposes standardized testing, said Thursday that the Opportunity Insights analysis had been criticized by other researchers. “Those scholars say that when you eliminate the role of wealth, test scores are not better than high school G.P.A.,” he said, adding that it is not clear whether that pattern is true among the admissions pool at super selective colleges such as Harvard.

Mr. Schaeffer said that at least 1,850 universities remain test optional, including Michigan, Vanderbilt, Wisconsin and Syracuse, which have recently extended their policies. “The vast majority of colleges will not require test scores.” An exception, he said, could be the University of North Carolina system, which is considering a plan to require tests, but only for those students with a G.P.A. below 2.8.

Acknowledging the concerns of critics, Harvard said that it would reassess the new policy regularly. The school said that test scores would be considered along with other information about an applicant’s experience, skills, talents, contributions to communities and references. They will also be looked at in the context of how other students are doing at the same high school.

“Admissions officers understand that not all students attend well-resourced schools, and those who come from modest economic backgrounds or first-generation college families may have had fewer opportunities to prepare for standardized tests,” William R. Fitzsimmons, Harvard’s dean of admissions and financial aid, said in a statement.

Harvard said that in the interest of selecting a diverse student body, it has enhanced financial aid and stepped up recruitment of underserved students by joining a consortium of 30 public and private universities that recruits students from rural communities.

An earlier version of this article misstated Robert Schaeffer’s position. He is the director of public education at FairTest, not the director.

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Anemona Hartocollis is a national reporter for The Times, covering higher education. More about Anemona Hartocollis

Stephanie Saul reports on colleges and universities, with a recent focus on the dramatic changes in college admissions and the debate around diversity, equity and inclusion in higher education. More about Stephanie Saul