Hi,

I was wondering if anyone successfully implemented rubrics in an organization to assess learners. I know the tool is widely used in a lot of schools, but I can't find any documentation/research on the use of rubrics in a corporate setting.

Can someone share their experiences or direct me to some sources?

Thanks!

Assuming you mean the criteria by which one is evaluated, yes - they're used all the time. It's generally called performance management in the corporate world. Rubrics need to come from working with the stakeholders - you need to work with them to look at business goals and identify the expected on-the-job performance that will help realize those goals.

Thanks Laura, yes I mean the criteria by which one is evaluated.

One of my co-workers (formerly a teacher) came up with idea of rubrics and I wasn't familiar with them, performance management makes a lot more sense.

Thanks!

Rubrics are no more performance management materials than beating someone over the head with a stick. Sure you can do it, but is it the most effective method?

Rubrics came about as a result of instructors designing measurements for the seemingly unmeasurable. It's easy to grade a math or spelling quiz, but how the heck do you grade an essay paper objectively?

We've all had that issue - we take a paper, give it to one teacher, who grades it a C, then give it to another teacher who grades it an A. Rubric's are a method of creating a 'yardstick' by which you can grade.

When a teacher creates a writing assignment (I'm going to stick with this, as it is the most common application for a rubric) they then come up with a scale score, say 1 to 5. 1 is the poorest, 5 is the best. They then create or locate an example for each number (or letter, or heiroglyphic as one teacher I know uses). That example of a typical one, two, three, four and five are the rubrics by which the papers will be measured.

(For those playing along at home, you begin to see why this may not be the best performance management tool.)

As you don't need to take a math quiz and compare it to other math quizzes in order to determine a score, you shouldn't need to compare employees to other or model employees to determine a proper performance "score." This is just asking for trouble.

And it flys in the face of current theory - job specs are supposed to be inherently measurable. If you have poor job specs I can see why a Rubric might be attractive. If you have a well written and thought out job spec, then you do not need a rubrik as it is measurable in and of itself.

I completely agree. My problem is that "the powers that be" have decided that rubrics are the way to go. I don't see the added benefits--as in: I don't think you can assess the assignments with rubrics objectively (we are assessing our learners during a 6 month curriculum (blended solution), the idea is to use rubrics just for assignments (e.g., reports, business plans, case studies etc).

Although I do see the benefit in assessing some one against the "model" Dealer (I'm working for a retail organization), I don't see how rubrics can do it objectively. We currently have 4 levels (beginning (level 1) -- developing (level 2) -- accomplished (level 3) -- exemplary (level 4). Where level 3 is the level we are striving for (i.e., we can hand you the keys to a store tomorrow) and level 4 is you are going above and beyond, please come back and facilitate during the next go around.

I don't have a lot of experiences with assessments, but I'm trying to figure out what other methods are out there and see if I can maybe marry them to the rubric approach so that in the end it all makes more sense.

Thanks for your thoughts!