Description
Examining Rubrics in Graduate Education will examine evaluation rubrics and how they affect racial equity outcomes in graduate school admissions.
About
A partnership between the Pullias Center and the University of Minnesota, this four year mixed methods study will investigate rubrics’ potential and limitations in racial equity outcomes at three levels:
- Individual bias in judgement
- Organizations’ shared practices
- Organizations’ shared values
This project will be the first to measure racial bias in rubrics’ use.
More broadly, this project will enable universities across the country to improve their approaches to admissions following the 2023 United States Supreme Court rulings on affirmative action. 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.
The project’s findings will also inform conversations about the potential of rubrics for supporting equity in other academic evaluation contexts, including fellowship/scholarships, awards, hiring, and tenure/promotion.
Project News
Julie Posselt and the Pullias Center for Higher Education Awarded $1.3 million grant from the National Science Foundation
Project Team
Julie Posselt
Principal Investigator
Associate Professor of Education, USC
Associate Dean, USC Graduate School
David Quinn
Co-Principal Investigator
Professor, University of Minnesota
Funder
This project is funded by a National Science Foundation Division of Equity in Excellence for STEM award under grant No. 2314982. The official title of the grant is “Examining the Potential and Limits of Rubrics as Tools in Racial Equity in Graduate Admissions: A Sequential Mixed-Methods Inquiry.” Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
