Grading using rubrics

A pre-service teacher at an Alice Springs primary school seeks assistance from her supervising teacher at the conclusion of a unit of work in her final teaching round. In using a pre-determined assessment rubric to make judgements about her students' achievements, she has found that students may be achieving at different levels in the same task, and needs advice about how to allocate a final overall grade. Her decision to request an assessment moderation is an indication of the importance she places on making consistent and comparable judgements of student learning.

Ross Park is the oldest government primary school in Alice Springs. It has almost 400 students of which 25 per cent are Indigenous. At the school, a pre-service teacher from Charles Darwin University is in her final round of teaching practice. The teacher has taught the class a science inquiry unit on how environmental changes may affect the growth of flower seedlings. At the conclusion of the unit, students have written a report, based on which the pre-service teacher is making a summative assessment of each student's learning outcomes.