We're creating a suite of rubrics for teachers, designed for reflecting on – and improving – practice.

Share your insights about the rubrics 

The first rubrics are being presented in draft form and focus on the practices of formative assessment and explicit instruction. We'll continue to refine them based on testing and your insights. 

Sharing your insights is easy. You can choose to complete one or both of the rubrics in survey form:

The rubric surveys each take about 30 minutes to complete, and you will be sent a certificate acknowledging your involvement to record towards professional development time. 

Downloadable versions

Formative assessment draft rubric

Formative assessment is the practice of gathering and interpreting information about student learning as it is happening in your classroom.

Explicit instruction draft rubric

Explicit instruction involves fully explaining and effectively demonstrating what students need to learn.

How to use the rubrics

Read instructions on how to use the rubrics, where to start and different ways you can use the rubrics to enhance your practice.

The rubrics are developmental, meaning the criteria describe increasing levels of proficiency. They are designed to support teachers and their teams to implement evidence-based practices. They do this through:

  • demonstrating a common, shared understanding of ‘good practice’ and what it looks like
  • helping teachers identify how well they are implementing these practices and specific areas for improvement.

While evidence-based practices such as formative assessment and explicit instruction are complex, they can be simplified into discrete and observable elements that have been proven to enhance student learning.

Creating the rubrics

The rubrics were drafted based on a review of the most rigorous and relevant research evidence (including meta-analyses, systematic reviews and literature reviews). The rubrics were then reviewed and revised in consultation with expert practitioners and researchers. The current drafts take into account both the research evidence and feedback gathered from stakeholder consultations to form descriptions of formative assessment and explicit instruction that are both rigorous and relevant. 

Why we’ve created rubrics for teachers

While some rubrics already exist to measure the use of different teaching practices, many have been developed primarily for research purposes or to support general reflections on practice. They don’t provide enough detail to support teachers to determine if they are implementing evidence-based practices in the most effective way. Our rubrics include clear and detailed descriptors that allow teachers to easily determine their level of competency across key elements that make up a specific evidence-based practice.