edited 2/18/01
A scoring guide (rubric) for evaluating student responses on comprehensive doctoral examinations, adopted unanimously by doctoral advisors of the Center for Education. This rubric does not represent anything new added to the program, but sets out specifically the criteria that have been used for years to grade exams.
Students only wonder why they have failed, not why they passed. The rubric sketched out below focuses, therefore, only on reasons for failure . It specifies those items which must be improved to effect a passing examination.
A check-off form based on the rubric would be filled out by each grader who fails a student. It will enable the Coordinator of Graduate Programs to field students' questions and direct them to improvement without involving the grader who failed them, who will remain anonymous.
The response fails because: (any one item may be sufficient for failure).
A: It does not answer the question posed:(check off any and all that apply)
___1. It offers a narrow or off-center example that misses important concerns.
___ 2. It gets sidetracked and/or never focusses on the relevant points.
___ 3. It confuses the intent of the question, e.g. responds to a hypothetical as though it were an assertion of fact.
___ 4. It confuses a request for a review of fact or theory for an expression of personal opinion.
___ 5. It offers personal experience instead of the general treatment required.
___ 6. It misinterprets principles of research as expressed in the question.
B. It fails to demonstrate
expert
knowledge of the topic: (check off any and all that apply)
___ 1. It treats the question with superficial laypersons' conceptions.
___ 2. It fails to indicate relevant expert options or controversies involved with the topic.
___ 3. It fails to examine problematic issues involved with the topic.
___ 4. It misses major developments or aspects of the topic.
___ 5. It misses important secondary developments or aspects of the topic.
___ 6. It fails to demonstrate sufficient knowledge of pertinent literature.
___ 7. It makes error of fact.
___ 8. It lacks sufficient elaboration of the pertinent themes.
C. It contains major aberrations:
___ 1. The writing is non-standard, or illegible.
___ 2. It is or contains a non sequitur in that it draws an inference that does not follow from the premises.
___ 3. It is generally incoherent, i.e. contains other rhetorical flaws so great as to be incomprehensible.