The quality of teacher-developed rubrics for assessing student performance in the classroom

Accountability efforts under the No Child Left Behind of 2001 have led many in the field of education to place a great emphasis on student assessment. However, this focus has centered primarily on large scale assessment with little emphasis given to the quality of assessment teachers develop. Classroom assessment experts agree that assessment and accountability efforts must include a better understanding of teachers' competencies in measurement.; This study investigated the quality of teacher develop rubrics for assessing student performance in a state where performance-based assessment has been a focus for nearly ten years. Teachers' beliefs and practices with regard to the development of performance-based assessment were measured through a survey questionnaire and a meta-rubric was developed in an effort to score teacher-developed rubrics submitted for this study.; Results indicate that teachers frequently use performance-based assessments to measure student achievement. They tend to have a high degree of confidence in the assessments they construct and report frequent use of "best practices" in the development of such assessments. In general, the quality of the rubrics developed by teachers in this study were found to be above average, providing some promise with regard to understanding the impact that measurement training can have on teacher competency in assessment.