Rubric Scoring Options

Rubrics can be scored in two ways:

• Raw Scores
• Scaled Scores

Raw Scoring

In raw scoring, the maximum number of points a Rubric could be worth is calculated as Number-of-Categories * Highest-Value.  

For example, if there are 4 Criteria (i.e. rows) and the highest value is four, then the maximum value for the Rubric - the maximum possible score - will be 4 * 4 or 16.    

A student's score then becomes how many points do they get out of the 16 available, or  "Actual Points"/16.

Here's how this works overall:

• An Assignment is created by selecting a Rubric as it's "Grading Type".
• The Maximum possible score for the Rubric is used as the "Maximum Score" for the Assignment
• The student is graded and earns up to the maximum points available (the "Maximum Score" for the Rubric.
• The computation is  "Actual Points Received" / Maximum Possible Score.    This is treated as a percentage:   ("Actual Points Received" / Maximum Possible Score) * 100.
• The % of points that they earned is their grade for the Assignment.

The problem with this type of scoring is that the % if earned points is generally quite a low number, percentage wise.  

For example, if a student earns 12 out of 16 points, they only score 75%.

Scaled Scoring

In scaled scoring, instead of using the raw percentage of points earned as the score for the Assignment, the raw percentage is first calculated and then converted - scaled - to a different and generally higher score.

Here's how it works:  First, the "scale" is created in the Rubric:

• A set of "Grades" are created.   Each "Grade" has a name or label (e.g. "Advanced"), a starting low average Row score and a "thru" or high Average Row score.
• Each range of low to high average row scores is mapped to a percentage.
• The "percentage" is used as the actual grade for the Assignments using the rubric.
• The Assignment has a "maximum possible points" that is completely separate from the Rubric.   A student's final score for the Assignment is the selected percentage of the Maximum Possible Score for the Assignment.   

In the example used above, if a student's average row score was 3.7, the grade of "Advanced" would be selected, and the grade converted to a percentage of 75%.  

The student then gets 75% of the maximum possible score (which, in this case, is not that great a grade).

In scaled scoring, the teacher (or the Rubric designer) determines what the "scale" is going to be.  

In raw scoring, the grade is the grade, there is no "conversion" step.