Scoring Rubrics

*Mertler's article discusses how to design scoring rubrics for classroom use. In the article, Mertler states, "It is important to note that one type of rubric is not inherently better than the other" (p.3). In your educational experiences, do you feel that your teachers have implemented both analytic and holistic rubrics? If so, do you feel they've used the two equally?*

In my educational experiences, my instructors have used both holistic and analytic rubrics for grading. I do, however, feel that the instructor's preference has changed in my years in school. When I was in middle and high school, my teachers most often implemented an analytic rubric when grading our assignments. They would score individual parts of the assignment and then sum up these scores to create a total score. Although Mertler states, "an individual's work should be examined a separate time for each of the specific performance tasks or scoring criteria," I doubt many of my teachers took the time to do this (p. 3). Regardless, I feel that the main focus of this type of grading was to produce adequate feedback for us, as students. By assigning either qualitative levels for specific criteria, these teachers were hoping to give students a more significant degree of feedback on their work.

Since I've been in college, most of my professors have used holistic scoring rubrics. These professors are usually scoring the overall product as a whole, without judging the components separately. I believe they most often use this style of rubric because most of our assignments are summative in nature and their focus is on the overall quality, and understanding of specific content. This style of scoring is also much faster for the professor considering they do not have to read hundreds of assignments multiple times to formulate each student's score. Also, they seem to be less concerned with providing descriptive feedback to students. Due to this and the time restraints put on them, this is probably why professors are more likely to choose the holistic rubric over the analytic one.