How to Weight a Rubric on a 100 Point Scale

Rubrics are scoring tools used to assess student work. They list all criteria required for each numerical score, usually on a scale from 1 to 4. The challenge for many teachers is translating rubric scores into more traditional grading systems that some school districts still require. Some debate surrounds the best way to do this.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Go Directly to 100

1. Translate each score. Although time consuming, this will be easy to explain to parents and administrators. Simply choose an appropriate number to match each score on your rubric, such as saying that a 4 on a 4-point scale equals 100, a 3 equals 80, a 2 equals 60 and a 1 equals 40.

2. Add the new numbers up for each student. To weight some assignments, such as tests, more heavily than others, add that score at least twice.

3. Divide each student's total by the number of assignments. This will give you an appropriate number on the 100-point scale.

Use the Rubrics

4. Combine all rubric scores before converting them to a traditional system. Start by adding each student's rubric scores together, weighting any scores for important assignments.

5. Divide the rubric scores by the number of assignments for each student. So if you have a 5-point scale, each student's rubric average will fall between 1 and 5.

6. Decide how to scale the rubric averages. If you have been using the 5-point scale, you can say that an average of 5 will equal 100. An average of 4.75 might equal 95 points. Then, 4.5 would equal 90 points, 3.75 would equal 85, 3.5 would equal 80 and so on.

7. Determine whether or not to round student averages up. Then take each student's rubric average and translate it to the 100-point scale you have selected.

Tips & Warnings

• If you want to weight some assignments more heavily than others, simply repeat that score 2 or 3 times when adding the student scores together. For example, if a student had 15 assignments for the quarter and 1 unit test but you want to weight the test, you would repeat the score for that 3 times so that you were working with 18 scores.
• Don't forget to discuss your plans on how to weight your rubrics with the other teachers in your department or at your grade level so that you can all be consistent.

References

• Middleweb: Rubrics
• The Hurt: Standards-Based Grading With Traditional Grading Systems

Resources

• Rubistar: Create Your Own Rubrics

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