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To describe the development of a rubric for identifying diversity in children’s literature to inform literature selection for classroom instruction. Drawing on research literature and data collection reporting the need for increased awareness of the use of diverse children’s literature in elementary and middle school classrooms, we designed and field-tested a rubric for use in identifying diversity in children’s literature. Using constant comparative methods to identify themes in the data, we continually refined the categories in a rubric designed to guide the selection of diverse children’s literature. Content analysis of children’s literature for diverse elements informed the development of the rubric categories. The results of this study produced a field-tested rubric that can be utilized by classroom teachers and researchers to guide their literature selections with the goal of representing increased diversity. Findings demonstrated that a rubric with four clearly defined categories was more user-friendly to classroom teachers, and that applying the rubric when discussing children’s literature led to conversation and collaboration among colleagues. This study demonstrated that the rubric can be applied to literature selections with classroom teachers and can be used to stimulate conversation about diversity in children’s literature as it applies to the classroom context. This chapter’s rubric provides a useful tool for classroom teachers. Teachers can use this tool to assist them in selecting diverse children’s literature for their classrooms. Administrators and literacy coaches can use this rubric as a way to stimulate conversation surrounding diverse children’s literature.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a new standard of assignment rubrics to minimize various interpretations and confusing expectations of the assignment outcome among all stakeholders and enhance the assignment rubrics to function not only as a grading tool but also as an assignment guiding tool for self-managed learning among open and distance learning (ODL) learners.

The paper looks into the problems and issues related to assignment rubrics such as various interpretation, confusing expectations and the need to have appropriate descriptions in the rubrics in order to reflect proper learning outcome among the assignment stakeholders. To solve these issues, the paper explores the new and improved requirements which were imposed to support the new assignment rubrics for courses in the university via a self-guided manual known as Rubrics Formulation Guide.

Based on the feedback received from university’s lecturers, who also functioned as moderators, it was indicated that the time taken to moderate the assignment rubrics had drastically reduced and in terms of grading, the clarity of the assignment performance expectations among the learners showed improvement, whereby as compared to the previous semester, there was significant drop for the application of remarking of assignments among May 2014 semester learners.

The paper includes implications of developing innovative rubrics that enhance common understanding and consistent expectation of what the final outcome of the assignment should be.

This paper fulfills the purpose of expanding the potential of assignment rubrics which is to guide and grade.

The purpose of this paper is to design a rubric instrument for assessing oral presentation performance in higher education and to test its validity with an expert group.

This study, using mixed methods, focusses on: designing a rubric by identifying assessment instruments in previous presentation research and implementing essential design characteristics in a preliminary developed rubric; and testing the validity of the constructed instrument with an expert group of higher educational professionals (n=38).

The result of this study is a validated rubric instrument consisting of 11 presentation criteria, their related levels in performance, and a five-point scoring scale. These adopted criteria correspond to the widely accepted main criteria for presentations, in both literature and educational practice, regarding aspects as content of the presentation, structure of the presentation, interaction with the audience and presentation delivery.

Implications for the use of the rubric instrument in educational practice refer to the extent to which the identified criteria should be adapted to the requirements of presenting in a certain domain and whether the amount and complexity of the information in the rubric, as criteria, levels and scales, can be used in an adequate manner within formative assessment processes.

This instrument offers the opportunity to formatively assess students’ oral presentation performance, since rubrics explicate criteria and expectations. Furthermore, such an instrument also facilitates feedback and self-assessment processes. Finally, the rubric, resulting from this study, could be used in future quasi-experimental studies to measure students’ development in presentation performance in a pre-and post-test situation.

This paper seeks to discuss the characteristics that describe a rubric. It aims to propose a systematic method for developing curriculum wide rubrics and to discuss their potential utility for program quality assessment.

Implementation of rubrics is a recent phenomenon in higher education. Prior research and theoretical issues related to rubric design and development are discussed. The proposed method for rubric development is illustrated by deriving generic analytic scoring rubrics for two assessment methods, namely projects and cases in a Master's level business program in India. Aspects related to the validity of the rubrics developed are investigated and results of reliability study conducted using intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) are reported.

Upon testing, the rubrics were found to be reliable and valid grading tools. Results of inter‐rater and intra‐rater reliability analyses illustrated that the rubrics supported standardization of the manner in which cases and projects could be evaluated in different business courses.

Whereas previous studies on rubric construction have largely concentrated on task specific rubrics, this study focuses on development of curriculum wide rubrics that can be employed for assessment of students' learning at both course and program level.

To date there has not been any published work on issues of assessment of student learning through project and case analysis rubrics within diverse courses in a business program. The method detailed in the study can guide the development of generic rubrics for alternative assessment methods employed in business programs as well as in other disciplines.

K-20 accreditation is contingent on having policies and procedures that provide evidence of quality assurance (QA) and quality improvement (QI), viewed here as the first of two conflicting paradigms, requiring concurrent expressions of excellence and need. Standardized summative assessments using the traditional tabular rubric design (typically writing assessments) serve the QA purpose well while leaving QI difficult to achieve. This is the second-related pair of conflicting paradigms – formative vs summative assessment. The purpose of this study is to illuminate these conflicts, present a sample illustrative solution and suggest that both institutions and accreditation agencies implement policies resolving these conflicts.

This viewpoint is based in part on an analysis of the content of many rubrics, with several selected for presentation herein. For K-12 settings, the AdvancED accreditation standards (used in 70 countries) and a multistate writing rubric are discussed. For postsecondary, a segment of the VALUE rubrics, used by a large number of postsecondary institutions across the USA, is presented. Examples of potential solutions for both levels are presented to clarify the problem and identify policy implications.

This specific aspect of the QA/QI challenge is a solvable problem, and a solution is proposed with the potential to improve learning in the USA and other countries.

Institutional personnel struggle with the conflicts often not realizing the source of their struggle. In this viewpoint, a new rubric format is suggested with the hope of initiating policy change discussions.

This chapter details a cultural relevance of text project in-service K-12 teachers engage in during their graduate literacy methods class. Through this project, teachers, who work with emergent bilinguals, learn how to select culturally relevant texts using a rubric. They read their selection with a student and reflect on the experience. Four important conclusions came from an analysis of the projects teachers carried out. Teachers found that their students made connections and were more engaged when reading culturally relevant books. Participants found the rubric helpful in identifying what they should look for in a culturally relevant text. In addition, through this project, the teachers discovered that their libraries tended to lack culturally relevant literature. Finally, participant teachers learned more about their emergent bilingual students through the process of finding and reading culturally relevant stories. While this project was carried out by a limited number of teachers in urban environments, it has implications for teachers of emergent bilingual students in other contexts.

The recognition of practice in online instruction is still subject to interpretation and different approaches as a result of the rapid changes in technology and its effect on society. The purpose of this paper is to address these differences through a synthesis that can be easily accessed and consulted by educators in the field of e-learning.

This paper reviews different examples of rubrics and instruments in higher education to propose a more comprehensive rubric that constitutes a synthesis of how some institutions in HE approach best practice in this field.

The proposed comprehensive rubric emanating from the synthesis of different approaches supports the development, remixing, sharing and integration of online modules and courses by providing a single reference point with as wide a range as possible of potential pedagogical tools, facilities and approaches to e-learning.

It is not within the scope of this paper to review quality assurance processes and administrative components, but to propose a rubric for course design and self-review of faculty and higher education institutions for a better alignment with what is regarded as current standard best practice.

Instructional designers in e-learning have a new comprehensive rubric that can consult at design stage.

Different approaches towards what is called “good practice” are brought together and analysed to provide a synthesis and a single source that can be consulted by practitioners in the field of e-learning.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the way(s) in which the introduction of systematic outcomes assessment throughout a university has begun to transform its academic culture.

The college is incrementally introducing system‐supported evaluation of student work. It began with general education, working with interdisciplinary faculty committees to define common learning outcomes with shared rubrics, and using these in all courses designated as general education. The use of this approach is now expanding into the majors and specific programs.

The paper finds that the process by which general education and program outcomes and rubrics have been defined has already led to a change of focus – with more clear emphasis on what students should demonstrate – and a shared sense of ownership in the learning outcomes and rubrics.

Concordia University (Saint Paul) is one of the first colleges to methodically introduce this system‐supported approach across the institution.

The purpose of this paper is to report the results of an assessment study of undergraduate students' achievement of information literacy learning outcomes in a first‐year research and writing course.

The object of the assessment was a group of bibliographies compiled by the students. The librarian and other faculty members created a scoring rubric based on course learning objectives and the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. The rubric was used to score the bibliographies to determine the students' levels of mastery of the objectives, their use of library‐licensed vs freely available web sources, and differences among the classroom learning environments.

The paper finds that students' academic work is a useful gauge of their achievement of information literacy‐based learning outcomes. A rubric is a valuable assessment tool that provides a reliable and objective method for analysis and comparison.

Research in assessment offers libraries the opportunity to measure their contribution to the educational missions of their institutions. As there is no “one size fits all” in assessment, it is important to explore and publish a variety of assessment approaches to expand this area of knowledge.

The results of this study led to certain changes in the library's delivery of instruction. Dissemination of the results may also prompt more widespread acceptance of the role of information literacy in higher education. Other libraries may find additional applications for this assessment approach.

This paper contributes to the base of empirical research about library instruction, information literacy, and assessment using the ACRL Standards. Although other information literacy rubrics exist, there is a shortage of publications that report the results of their application to student academic work.

The purpose of this paper is to measure reliability and validity of the Scoring Rubric for Information Literacy (Van Helvoort, 2010).

Percentages of agreement and Intraclass Correlation were used to describe interrater reliability. For the determination of construct validity factor analysis and reliability analysis were used. Criterion validity was calculated with Pearson correlations.

In the described case, the Scoring Rubric for Information Literacy appears to be a reliable and valid instrument for the assessment of information literate performance.

Reliability and validity are prerequisites to recommend a rubric for application. The results confirm that this Scoring Rubric for Information Literacy can be used in courses in higher education, not only for assessment purposes but also to foster learning.