Evaluation Rubrics for Student Projects

Kim Farris-Berg and Edward J. Dirkswager wrote in Trusting Teachers with School Success: What Happens When Teachers Call the Shots:

Some teacher-powered schools offer self-directed, project-based learning environments. Teachers who design and run these schools develop rubrics to measure students’ academic and non-academic achievement for each project. The rubrics score students’ academic learning as well as their skills in public presentation, writing, problem solving, time management, analysis, team work, information retention, self advocacy, community interaction, and critical thinking. Students assess themselves (teachers report they are usually harder on themselves than teachers would be), and are also assessed by two teachers and a community member.

“A project assessment is like a thesis defense,” Gigi Dobosenksi at EdVisions Off Campus School said. “Students must communicate why they should earn credit for their work and what level of mastery they attained.” Karen Locke at EOC added, “It’s not about scope and sequence. Instead, we ask if students reach the goals they set out for themselves. We also consider how much they grow as individuals during every project, and project-to-project.”

Monessa Newell at Avalon School said, “They are learning to advocate for themselves and their own work.”

Download the PDF for a sample project rubric from Avalon School in St. Paul, Minnesota or click on this link for one from TAGOS Leadership Academy in Janesville, Wisconsin.

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Designing assessment of student learning