Rubrics

Reading Alfie Kohn's article on rubrics was extremely thought provoking. Before responding, I would address my one criticism, which is that he doesn't devote any time to suggesting a replacement or solution. While it can be frustrating not to have the information at hand, a brief search of his other articles finds several answers to this question, summarized by the following except from this article about grades:

Replacing letter and number grades with narrative assessments or conferences — qualitative summaries of student progress offered in writing or as part of a conversation — is not a utopian fantasy.  It has already been done successfully in many elementary and middle schools and even in some high schools, both public and private (Kohn, 1999c). 

With that settled, I agree with a lot of what Kohn says- but I think the title and framework of the article are misleading. Doing a bit more digging, Kohn is very clearly opposed to grading in general. Attacking the rubric can sometimes be confusing because he is not revealing his larger goal. For instance, during the first part of the article I found myself asking, "doesn't this only apply to standardized rubrics? Does any of this make sense with a teacher-designed rubric?" When he finally addresses the point, it becomes a little clearer that the problem is not rubrics, but rather the systematic grouping of students in general.Viewed through this lens, the article makes perfect sense:

• Grades are bad. 
• Rubrics serve to encourage and legitimate grades. 
• Rubrics are bad.

One of the major problems is whether or not a teacher can do anything about it. I agree in a broad, philosophical sense that the institutionalization of grading should not be a barrier to reform. But isn't it? While justification to parents and efficiency may be lousy reasons to use rubrics, can a teacher in today's high-stakes environment risk doing otherwise? On a more practical level, can a music teacher who sees hundreds of students truly provide a meaningful narrative assessment of each individual?

The answer may be yes. It would certainly be a better way of communicating a student's progress in the arts. In fact, music classes are a perfect place to see how grades make things more difficult. A high school BOCJ teacher must develop a grading system that judges all students on the same criteria. But should all students be judged using the same criteria? How do you simultaneously push the top performers in an ensemble, making the accountable for growth, but also encourage the beginners to improve and try as hard as possible? Will a rubric allow you to qualitatively assess a student's ability? What if there are three students, one with perfect chops who can't improvise a note, one who just started trombone last week but can follow the harmonic changes effortlessly, and one who can't seem to play a note in time during rehearsal but has successfully written and arranged pieces for the entire band? Do these three students receive a similar low grade, hitting parts of a rubric but not others? If these students are judged/ranked based on their strengths, will they ever understand the importance of developing their weaknesses? If you judge on effort, will they ever leave their comfort zones?

That was a ton of questions. And I don't have a single answer. I tend to agree with Kohn that conferences and narrative assessments would solve most of these problems. In teacher evaluation, we currently have teachers set goals and then judge their effectiveness by their ability to meet those goals. My feelings about the practicality and effectiveness of this with teachers are another story altogether, but if the profession has decided this is good enough for teachers, why wouldn't it be good enough for students? Why couldn't students conference with their music teachers to set goals and discover their strengths and weaknesses? Why couldn't music class become each individual student's arena to become the best, most well-rounded musician possible? Time may be a constraint, but it also may not be. After all, a great BOCJ teacher knows these things about their students anyway. How many class periods of the entire ensemble setting goals while the teacher conferenced would it take to hit every member of the band? And what a great opportunity this would be to learn about your student's goals! 

From there, assessment could be a simple, honest conversation with a student about what the teacher sees, what could be improved, what worked well in meeting the goals, what didn't, and what techniques they will focus on moving forward to continue progressing.

I'll admit that it puzzles me how one deals with a student who does not put forth any effort in this system. Assuming there are no grades, he or she will simply wind up with a portfolio of narrative assessments that say there has been little progress and little effort. This would function similarly to administration (or colleges) as a grade, but how does one make sure that student learns something? How do you make sure this doesn't happen? Is it any less preventable than a student who gets F's? Do F's provide more or less motivation to students? Does the motivation even matter if alternative assessment is deemed better for the majority, who aren't failing? What does everybody think?

Pictured: Failing.