Mathematics Rubrics and Portfolio Assessment 2009

MATHEMATICS RUBRICS AND PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT

Mathematics Rubrics

The performance assessment that promotes authentic and alternative assessment needs to
design a scoring device because a performance assessment does not have an answer key in a sense that
a multiple choice test does. A good set of scoring guidelines or ‘rubric’ provide a way to make the
judgment fair and sound. It can be done by setting forth a set of precisely defined criteria or guidelines
that are properly shared to students, their families, and the school teachers, which will be used to judge
student’s work.

Herman, Aschbacher, and Winters (1992) stressed that a good scoring rubric will help teachers
define excellence and plan how to help students achieve it, communicate to students what constitutes
excellence and how to evaluate their own work, communicate goals and results to parents and others,
help teachers and other raters be accurate, unbiased and consistent in scoring, and document the
procedures used in making the important judgment about students. Thus, a scoring rubric is very useful
and helpful. What make the scoring rubric useful are the several components which include one or more
dimensions on which performance is rated, definitions and examples that illustrate the attributes being
measured and a rating scale for each dimension. Ideally, a good scoring rubric contains examples of
student’s work that fall at each level of the rating scale. A rubric with two or more separate scales is
called an analytic rubric. This contrasts with a scoring rubric that uses a single scale that yields a global
or holistic rating. Holistic scoring is often more efficient, but analytical scoring systems generally provide
more detailed information that may be useful in planning and improving instruction, learning tasks and
activities, and communicating with students. Hence, a mathematics teacher must examine first these
two rubrics and think about which would provide him with better diagnostic information to use in
planning instruction, and also provide the students with the clearest feedback about their works and
how to make their works better.

Mathematics Portfolio

In this era of performance assessment related to monitoring of students’ mastery of a core

curriculum, and in response to DepEd Order No. 79, s. 2003 stressing the need for an assessment and
evaluation system that truly reflects and reveals holistic information about students’ performance,
portfolio can enhance the assessment process, support mathematics goals, encourage student, teacher
and the parent reflection, and provide continuity in mathematics education.
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A portfolio is a purposeful collection of student work that exhibits the student’s efforts, progress
and achievements in one or more areas of the curriculum. The collection must include the student’s
participation in selecting contents, criteria for selection, criteria for judging merits and evidence of a

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Mathematics Rubrics and Portfolio Assessment 2009

student’s self-reflection. It should represent a collection of student’s best work or best effort, student’s
selected samples of work experiences related to outcomes being assessed, and documents according to
growth and development toward mastering identified outcomes (Paulson, Paulson and Meyer, 1991).
Basically, portfolio is a record of student’s works – a type of elaborate grade book that contains not just
scores, notes on progress or percents of correct answers, but also the work on which the scores and
notes are based.

Rubrics and Portfolio Assessment in Mathematics

According to Paulson, Paulson and Meyer (1991), “Portfolios offer a way of assessing students’
learning that is different from traditional methods. Portfolio assessment provides the teacher, students
and parents an opportunity to observe students in a broader context: taking risks, developing creative
solutions, and learning to make judgments.”

Portfolio assessment is a multi-faceted process characterized by the following recurrent

qualities:
 It is continuous and ongoing, providing both formative and summative opportunities for
monitoring students’ progress toward achieving essential outcomes.
 It is multi-dimensional, i.e., reflecting a wide variety of artefacts and processes reflecting various
aspects of students’ learning processes.
 It provides a collaborative reflection, including ways for students to reflect about their own
thinking processes and meta-cognitive introspection as they monitor their own comprehension,
reflect upon their approaches to problem-solving and decision-making, and observe their
emerging understanding of subjects and skills.

As the school year progresses, students and teacher can work together to identify especially
significant or important artifacts and processes to be captured in portfolio. Additionally, they can
work collaboratively to determine grades and scores to be assigned. Rules and scoring keys in
rubrics must be designed for a variety of portfolio components.

Guidelines for Portfolio Entries

The following guidelines will be used for selecting entries in the assessment portfolio. The
assessment portfolio will be due one week before the final test.

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A complete portfolio contains the following:
 A complete table of contents
 A cover letter

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Mathematics Rubrics and Portfolio Assessment 2009

 At least five entries reflective of the topics studied and the activities completed

Instructions for the cover letter

Write a cover letter to go with your portfolio. Include with your cover letter
a. what math topics you studied
b. what you learned
c. why you choose each item for your portfolio
d. how do you think you progressed in these areas:
i. working with others
ii. presenting your work to the class
iii. writing about and describing your thought processes

Guidelines for the Selection of Five Entries

The following are the portfolio materials:

a. Journal Entry
Every week, you will be asked to write your impressions on the lesson for the week. Include as
entry in your journal the lesson which, you think, is interesting and which you learned new, or
the lesson which you got stuck or did not understand fully.
b. Debugging
Include a problem from one of your quizzes or homework that you did not complete or did not
answer correctly, but which you realized later how it should have been done. Include a correct
solution and an explanation of why it works and what you think of it. Also include your false or
incomplete start.
c. One Special Project (Mathematics problem and solution)
Describe the procedure and difficulties you encountered in making the project. Cite the
usefulness or its application.
d. Best Work
Include a test or quiz that you think shows your best work for each quarter period.
e. Critique’s Corner
A group or individual student will be asked to present a project to the class. You will be asked to
grade the presentation. Comment on the presentation of the topic must be clear, which
contains what you have learned from what was presented.

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Mathematics Rubrics and Portfolio Assessment 2009

MICROTEACHING/PRESENTATION

Oral Presentation Feedback Sheet

Name of Presenter :

Topic of Presentation :

Name of Evaluator :

Name/s of Reactor/s :

PRINCIPLES REMARKS

1. Logical & systematic ordering of parts

of the presentation

2. Correct & adequate use of word links

3. Correct & adequate use of concrete

words or examples

4. Clear and adequate links to related

concepts, if applicable

5. Clear enunciation

6. Correct pronunciation

7. Correct and clear presentation

8. Other comments

a. Reactor/s

b. Presenter

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Teachers Training/erl’07

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Mathematics Rubrics and Portfolio Assessment 2009

Criteria for a Finished Portfolio

The following are the criteria for a finished portfolio:

 Thoughtfulness (including evidence of students’ monitoring of their own comprehension, meta-
cognitive reflection, and productive habits of mind)
 Growth and development in relationship to key curriculum expectancies and indicators
 Understanding and application of key processes
 Completeness
 Correctness
 Appropriateness of products and processes presented
 Diversity of entries (e.g., use of multiple formats to demonstrate achievement of designated
performance standards)

Problem Solving Scoring Guide

The following scoring scale for problem solving will be used:

Criteria Score
 Problem is not attempted or the answer sheet is blank.
 The data copied are erroneous and no attempt has been made to use these 0 point
data.
 An incorrect answer is written and no work is shown.
 The data in the problem are recopied but nothing is done.
 A correct strategy is indicated but not applied to the problem. 1 point
 The student tries to reach a sub-goal but never does.
 An inappropriate method is indicated and some work is done, but the
correct answer is not reached.
 A correct strategy is followed but the student does not pursue the work 2 points
sufficient to get the answer.
 The correct answer is written but the solution is either not intelligible or not
shown.
 The student follows a correct strategy but commits a computational error in
the idle, which leads to an incorrect answer.
 The student uses a correct strategy but ignores or misunderstands some
conditions and never reaches a solution. 3 points
 The correct answer is given and the works gives some evidence that an 5
appropriate method was used; however the implementation of the strategy
is not clear.

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Mathematics Rubrics and Portfolio Assessment 2009

 The student uses an appropriate method and implements it correctly, but

commits a computational error towards the end and obtains an incorrect
answer.
 The student follows a correct method and performs the necessary work but
towards the end loses sight of the answer or does not label the answer 4 points
appropriately.
 The student makes an error copying. Except for this error, the work shows
complete understanding of the method and implementation, even though
an incorrect answer is reached.
 The student has followed a correct method, performed appropriate
computations, and labelled the answer correctly. 5 points

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