Definition: A Scoring Guide is a useful organizational tool for criterion-based assessment. In our version, influenced by our work with standards-based education in Oregon, we rate every trait or criterion on a 5-point scale. The middle value, or 3, represents the target level of quality. We do not give scores of 4 or 5 lightly. Scores of 1 and 2 represent some dissapointment.
Scoring Each Trait. Scoring each individual trait makes sense; taking an average of all the scores does not. Interpretting the scores as equal numbers embues them with properties they may not have. NWe have therefore given you two ways to use the individual traits to form an overall opinion. The first is to assign your own wieghts to each trait and then compute a weighted average. This has the advantage of providing the comfort of quantization while recognizing that for many resources, only some of the traits are truly important and for almost no resources are they equally important.
Summary Judgement. In addition to computing a weighted average, we have given you the opportunity to form a summary judgement. We have discovered from other work that such judgements are well-informed but not always identical to the results of a weighted average.