‘Examining Rubrics in Graduate Education,’ a partnership with the University of Minnesota, will examine the utility and feasibility of rubrics in graduate admissions.

USC Rossier Associate Professor Julie Posselt (and project Principal Investigator) and a team of Pullias Center and University of Minnesota researchers have received a significant grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) that will examine evaluation rubrics and how they affect racial equity outcomes in graduate school admissions.

Using a mixed methods design, the four-year study led by Posselt and University of Minnesota co-PI David Quinn seeks to understand rubrics’ potential and limitations in racial equity outcomes at three levels: individual bias in judgment, organizations’ standard practices, and shared values. “Rubrics are tools, and we are investigating how their design and implementation affect outcomes,” stated Posselt.

Dr. Posselt, who also serves as Associate Dean of the USC Graduate School, has long been a leader in equity and admissions in higher education. Discussing the origins of this project, she shared, “The higher education community is looking for strategies to improve the fairness and transparency of admissions. And they need tools to advance mission-driven diversity within the bounds of the new Supreme Court rulings. We were inspired to conduct this research in part by listening to our community partners in the Equity in Graduate Education Consortium and Inclusive Graduate Education Research Hub. We hope to provide them and many others with generalizable evidence to advances equitable practice.”

More broadly, this project will enable universities across the country to improve their approaches to admissions following this summer’s rulings from the United States Supreme Court. Whether and how race-neutral admissions policies can be designed to mitigate inequities is an urgent question for the country, and people are looking to rubrics as a race-neutral tool that may improve diversity.

“This project will build on over a decades-long scholarship that Dr. Posselt has been engaged with that has focused on improving equity in graduate admissions.  It is exciting to see her scholarship put into practice and with support from the NSF,” added Dr. Adrianna Kezar, Director of the Pullias Center.