Because art teachers measure student skills using independent judgment, they need another method to grade student work. Performance-based assessment has been shown to be much more effective in evaluating student performance. Art teachers have always been ahead of the game with performance-based assessments by using portfolios.

To make their judgment more consistent and fair, art teachers need to create rubrics for grading. To make a rubric, a teacher first needs to know exactly what constitutes "A" work. Rubrics can improve student work by letting students know exactly what's expected of them.

Rubrics provide feedback to students about their work in specific areas of a project. You can also allow students to revise their projects  based on your feedback on their rubrics. It is important to use clear and measureable language with rubrics. For example, the level of quality called, "creative project" must be defined. What exactly is creative?

Rubrics have a column for the criteria for your lesson- the aspect of the assignment you want graded. The rows are generally the level of quality with the assignment from excellent to poor. Students may assess their own work with rubrics.

The hardest part is creating your rubric. Once you do, you've made grading much easier and save time in the long run- especially if you reuse them for other classes.

Creating and Scoring Rubrics

Assessment Resources (Archive)
Creating Your Own Rubrics
Developing Classroom Performance Assts. and Scoring Rubrics
Guidelines for Rubric Development
Understanding Scoring Rubrics: A Guide for Teachers
Websites with Assessment Materials by ArtsWork

Pertinent Links

The Art of Negotiable Contracting for Assessment
Creating Rubrics by Teachervision
How to Create a Rubric From Scratch [PDF]
Kathy Schrock's Guide For Educators- Rubric information
Rubrics - a page of resources by Shambles.net
Sample Rubrics by Rubistar
Scoring Rubrics- A Harvard article
Teacher Created Rubrics- This page includes cooperative learning rubrics, writing rubrics, art rubrics, and more.
Understanding Rubrics

Rubric Templates & Generators

Generic Rubric Template
General Rubric Generator- Wade through the ads for the generator at the bottom of the page.
Incredible Art Department Lesson Plan Rubric Templates
Rubric Builder
Rubistar- the most used rubric creator on the web
teAchnology- A page of links to rubric makers

Art Rubric Samples

Art Lesson Plan Rubric from California State University
Authentic Assessment Toolbox- with photography and fine arts rubrics
Chip's T3 Rubric, digital art rubric
Digital Arts Rubric
Goshen College's Art Rubric and here
Incredible Art Department Rubrics
Rubric for Grading Art
Rubrics by TUSD
Rubrician.com- They have several visual arts rubrics there
Rubrics for Teachers
Visual Art Assessment Examples
Visual Art Rubrics from the Alaska Department of Education
Visual Arts Rubric from the Rhode Island Visual Arts Prof. Learning Community [PDF]
Visual Arts Rubrics from Kamehameha Middle School