Make grading criteria transparent and available
Learn what assessment criteria and standards are and why making them available to students makes grading more equitable, learning-focused, and transparent. You’ll also find tips on how to develop meaningful assessment criteria and a recommendation for assigning grades at Concordia.
What are assessment criteria?
Assessment criteria are the assignment expectations: they describe the elements of learning (i.e., knowledge, skills, values) that are being assessed and the standard the learner is expected to meet (Sadler, 1987). In other words, the assessment criteria describe the qualities and level of competence/achievement a completed assignment should display and against which student work will be measured (Brookhart, 2018).
Assessment criteria serve to communicate effectively to students what they should be learning, what you deem important, and the basis on which you will assess their work (Wiliam, 2018).
Additionally, assessment criteria allow you to determine if and to what degree students are meeting the learning outcomes. A focus on learning distinguishes the criteria from the components, specifications or instructions of an assignment. It can be helpful, then, when developing the assessment criteria to use it to help you and your students distinguish what they need to do from what they need to show they have learned.
Determine your assessment criteria and standards
What are you looking for when you grade an assignment? Will all criteria be weighted equally? What separates an A from a B, or an excellent assignment from a good one? These are the questions to ask yourself when drafting meaningful assessment criteria. Read on for more recommendations for developing criteria that guides students’ learning.
What do you look for when grading an assignment?
Your assessment criteria should be aligned with the learning outcomes you are evaluating with the assessment. For example, if a learning outcome is that students can communicate their findings to an audience of peers, then possible assessment criteria include:
- Shows a thorough understanding of the findings with presentation data
- Uses tables and figures effectively to present the findings
Writing meaningful criteria can be tricky because you need to find the right balance between capturing the assessable element of the task without listing specific analytic details that narrow its interpretation (Weir & Charlton, 2020).
As you draft the criteria, check that these are:
- learning-focused, meaning that students’ learning is being assessed and not procedures and methods (unless these are desired learning outcomes)
- observable, that is, they describe evidence that can be identified in students’ work
- explicit, in that they are precise and clearly inform students of how their learning is being assessed
For example, the criterion listed above “Uses tables and figures effectively to present the findings” explicitly states what will be assessed and is focused on students’ learning through their findings, which are observable in the tables and figures.
Once you’ve drafted a list of criteria, check that it is:
- complete, so that each learning outcome measured with the assignment is addressed by a criterion
- distinctive, in other words, there is no overlap between two or more criteria
- appropriate, that the criteria align with the course learning outcomes
The recommended number of criteria is 3-5 but this is not a strict rule (Brookhart, 2018).
Watch the video
Design more effective rubrics: Tips for developing assessment criteria explains practical tips on how to write meaningful assessment criteria (what learning students need to demonstrate) that is distinguishable from specifications or instructions of an assignment (what they need to do).
Will all criteria be weighted equally?
Depending on what you deem more important for learning, you may want to assign different weighting to each criterion. For example, if the learning outcome is to interpret distinct scholarly positions, then the use of supporting evidence will likely be valued with a greater weight (i.e., worth more points) than the mechanics of writing.
What separates an A from a B, or an excellent assignment from a good one?
Standards are the level of achievement the learner needs to meet, so it’s important that students have a clear understanding of what these entail. One way to do so is to create a rubric, which can save you time later when grading and make the process more transparent for students. A good tip for setting the standards is to begin with the highest level of achievement, that is, establish what excellence looks like for this assignment and then reflect on what common shortcomings look like.
Making assessment criteria available and transparent
Providing this information to students is not “teaching-to-the-test,” but rather helps clarify what learning students are expected to demonstrate and leaves them the space to figure out how they will meet these expectations. Removing the guesswork around what the expectations are in this way can improve students’ well-being by reducing their stress levels (Winkelmes, 2019). Additionally, making the assessment available to students before the task is due and being transparent about how it will be graded works to ensure that all students have a shared understanding of your expectations (Winkelmes, 2019).
Making the criteria available to students when the task is assigned allows you to:
- Assess students’ learning consistently, transparently and fairly
- Make the feedback process more efficient
- Evaluate the appropriateness of your assessment strategies
- Promote equity by ensuring all students have a shared understanding of expectations
Having access to the assessment criteria also benefits students as it:
- Provides them with a learning target
- Encourages self-assessment (i.e., they can check their work against the criteria before submission)
- Helps them make sense of feedback
- Shifts the focus on learning
Watch the video
In this ~4-minute video, Teaching Consultant, Alicia Cundell, reviews tips for consistent and transparent grading.
Download the assignment template and use it to inform your students. As an added bonus, being transparent in this way should reduce the number of questions you’ll need to field from students!
Assigning grades
When it comes time to assign a grade to the assessment, be sure to refer to your department’s grading scale. The grading scale, or “grading norms,” is a number or grade value applied to various levels of performance, ideally with descriptors for instructors and students to align their expectations.
There is no Concordia-wide grading scale, please check with your department.
References
Brookhart, S. M. (2018). Appropriate criteria: Key to effective rubrics. Frontiers in Education (3). https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2018.00022
Sadler, D. R. (1987). Specifying and promulgating achievement standards. Oxford Review of Education, 13(2), 191–209. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1050133
Weir, K. & Charlton, N. (2020). Perspectives on rubric design and construction. In P. Granger & K. Weir (Eds.), Facilitating Student Learning and Engagement in Higher Education through Assessment Rubrics. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au/server/api/core/bitstreams/bb25fffd-6a2d-4c33-a28f-2852207be99e/content
Wiliam, D. (2018). Feedback: At the heart of – but definitely not all of – formative assessment. In A. A. Lipnevich & J. K. Smith (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Instructional Feedback (pp. 3-28). Cambridge University Press.
Winkelmes, M. A. (2019). Transparent design in higher education teaching and leadership. Routledge. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003448396-3/works-mary-ann-winkelmes