Unified Rubric

There are a number of ways to set out rubrics. There are analytic rubrics, single point rubrics, developmental rubrics and more. Each of these kinds of rubrics has strengths and weaknesses. This article explains a rubric structure that we believe provides the best aspects of each kind of rubric into a single form. We call this, the unified rubric.

At first glance, the unified rubric looks like a combination of an analytc rubric and a holistic rubric.

The rows of the unified rubric correspond to the main areas of the problem space. For example, if the rubric relates to a car buying guide, then the areas (and rows) may be:

Features
Safety
Reliability

The names of the areas appear in the left most column of the rubric.

The right column lists a series of considerations for each area. An area (or row) may have multiple considerations. Extending the car buying guide example, the considerations for the safety area may be:

Air bag locations
Sensors

Each consideration also has scoring guidance. The scoring guidance may utilise different schemes or terminology, but needs to be consistent accross considerations. Example scoring schemes may be 'poor', 'weak' and good' or alternatively a number from 1 to 10. The scoring guidance provides example characteristics and behaviours for each score or a subset of scores of the range. For a scoring scheme of 'poor', 'weak' and 'good', characteristics would be expected for each score. Alternatively, for a scoring scheme of 1 to 10, characteristics would only be expected for a subset of values spread across the range sucg as 1, 4, 7 and 10. Here is an example scoring guidance for the 'Air bag locations' consideration:

Poor: No air bags are provided.
Weak: Two air bags are provided - one each for the front two occupantnts.
Good: More than two air bags are provided.

The scoring guidance ensures rubric assessments are conducted consistently.

Here's an example of the car buying guide in unified rubric form:

Area	Consideration
Features	Seats Poor Seats are not adjustable. Weak Seats can be adjusted manually. Good Seats have electronic, memory based adjustments. Locking Poor The car requires the use of a physical key to unlock it. Weak The car has keyless entry. Good The car has keyless entry and keyless ignition.
Safety	Air bag locations Poor No air bags are provided. Weak Two air bags are provided - one each for the front two occupantnts. Good More than two air bags are provided. Sensors Poor No sensors are provided. Weak Reversing sensors are provided. Good Reversing sensors are provided Forward looking sensors provide automatic breaking.
Reliability	Break downs Poor The car often breaks down. Weak There are anecdotal reports of the car breaking down. Good Independent reviews indicate the car never breks down. Service costs Poor The average service costs in excess of $1000. Weak The average service costs between $500 and $1000. Good The average service costs less than $500.

This example shows shows a significant amount of information is communicated even in rather simple simple rubrics. Whilst this leads to increased robustness, it also makes them cumbersome to read. To solve this, the guidance can be presented within containers that are initially collapsed, but can be expanded by the reader when necessary. There's no down side to this because the guidance generally only needs to be read whilst making and reviewing assessments against the rubric.

Here's the same example unified rubric, but this time with the guidance in collapsable containers to reduce the initial verbosity:

Area	Consideration
Features	Seats show guidance Poor Seats are not adjustable. Weak Seats can be adjusted manually. Good Seats have electronic, memory based adjustments. Locking show guidance Poor The car requires the use of a physical key to unlock it. Weak The car has keyless entry. Good The car has keyless entry and keyless ignition.
Safety	Air bag locations show guidance Poor No air bags are provided. Weak Two air bags are provided - one each for the front two occupantnts. Good More than two air bags are provided. Sensors show guidance Poor No sensors are provided. Weak Reversing sensors are provided. Good Reversing sensors are provided Forward looking sensors provide automatic breaking.
Reliability	Break downs show guidance Poor The car often breaks down. Weak There are anecdotal reports of the car breaking down. Good Independent reviews indicate the car never breks down. Service costs show guidance Poor The average service costs in excess of $1000. Weak The average service costs between $500 and $1000. Good The average service costs less than $500.

With the guidance sections collapsed, the rubric is much more compact and easier to read. However, the rubric still contains all the information necessary to interpret it unambiguously and ensure assessments are made consistently.

To see a unified rubric presented in an interactive manner, visit App Platform Development Experience.

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