Criterion-Referenced Rubric Generator Agent Skill

Generate a criterion-referenced rubric with descriptive performance levels for a task or objective.

Context cost
5.3k tokensestimated from the bundle, loaded when it triggers
Bundle
1 file · 21.2 kBtext throughout, nothing executable
Licence
not declarednone named by its author
Last change
—v1.0
Servers it uses
Noneruns standalone

What it does

Generate a criterion-referenced rubric with descriptive performance levels for a task or objective. Use for marking guides and general curriculum contexts. For Manning programmes where Competent = success, use coherent-rubric-logic-builder instead.

What this skill changes about the agent has not been set out here as a list. Its SKILL.md, shown below, says it in the author’s own words.

assessmentcriteriadescriptive-languagedocumentationformative-assessmentperformancerubric

The skill itself

A skill is instructions the model reads, so you can see what you are getting: below is the start of its SKILL.md. The front matter loads with every session, the body loads when the skill triggers, and the whole file comes with the install.

SKILL.md21.2 kB · preview
--- # AGENT SKILLS STANDARD FIELDS (v2) name: criterion-referenced-rubric-generator disable-model-invocation: false user-invocable: true effort: medium # EXISTING FIELDS skill_id: "curriculum-assessment/criterion-referenced-rubric-generator" skill_name: "Criterion-Referenced Rubric Generator" domain: "curriculum-assessment" version: "1.0" evidence_strength: "strong" evidence_sources: - "Brookhart (2013) — How to Create and Use Rubrics for Formative Assessment and Grading" - "Andrade (2000, 2013) — Using rubrics to promote thinking and learning" - "Jonsson & Svingby (2007) — The use of scoring rubrics: reliability, validity and educational consequences" - "Sadler (1989) — Formative assessment and the design of instructional systems" - "Panadero & Jonsson (2013) — The use of scoring rubrics for formative assessment purposes revisited" input_schema: required: - field: "learning_objective" type: "string" - field: "task_description" type: "string" - field: "student_level" type: "string" optional: - field: "criteria_count" type: "integer" - field: "performance_levels" type: "integer" - field: "subject_area" type: "string" - field: "existing_criteria" type: "string" output_schema: type: "object" fields: - field: "rubric" type: "object" - field: "design_rationale" type: "string" - field: "student_friendly_version" type: "string" - field: "calibration_notes" type: "string" chains_well_with: - "competency-unpacker" - "backwards-design-unit-planner" - "gap-analysis-from-student-work" - "feedback-quality-analyser" - "kud-knowledge-type-mapper" teacher_time: "3 minutes" tags: ["rubric", "assessment", "criteria", "descriptive-language", "formative-assessment"] ---
71# Criterion-Referenced Rubric Generator
72
73## What This Skill Does
74
75Produces a criterion-referenced rubric from a learning objective and task description, with descriptive (not evaluative) language at each performance level. Each criterion describes what the student's work LOOKS LIKE at each level — not how "good" it is. The output includes the full rubric, a design rationale, a student-friendly version for self/peer assessment, and calibration notes for consistency across markers. AI is specifically valuable here because effective rubric design requires precise, descriptive language that distinguishes between performance levels without using evaluative labels ("excellent," "good," "poor") or vague quantity indicators ("some," "many," "thorough") — and each descriptor must be qualitatively distinct from the adjacent levels, not just a scaled version of the same description.
76
77## Evidence Foundation
78
79Brookhart (2013) established that effective rubrics use descriptive rather than evaluative language — they describe what is PRESENT in the work, not how good it is. "Uses specific textual evidence to support each analytical point" is descriptive; "Good use of evidence" is evaluative. Descriptive rubrics produce more reliable scoring and more useful feedback because they tell students exactly what to do differently, not just that they need to "do better." Andrade (2000, 2013) demonstrated that rubrics improve both instruction and learning when shared with students before the task — they function as learning tools, not just grading tools. The effect is strongest when rubrics are used for self-assessment. Jonsson & Svingby (2007) found that analytic rubrics (separate criteria scored independently) are more reliable and produce better feedback than holistic rubrics (single overall judgment), though they take longer to use. Sadler (1989) established that assessment quality depends on the "gap" being visible — students must be able to see the difference between where they are and where they need to be. Descriptive rubric levels make this gap concrete. Panadero & Jonsson (2013) confirmed that rubric use improves student performance, particularly when combined with self-assessment, with moderate effect sizes.
80
81## Input Schema
82
83The teacher must provide:
84- **Learning objective:** What the rubric assesses. *e.g. "Students can write a persuasive speech that uses rhetorical devices to influence the audience" / "Students can design and carry out a fair test and draw valid conclusions"*
85- **Task description:** The specific task. *e.g. "Write and deliver a 3-minute persuasive speech on a topic of your choice" / "Plan and carry out an experiment investigating the effect of light on plant growth, then write a conclusion"*
86- **Student level:** Year group. *e.g. "Year 8"*
87
88Optional (injected by context engine if available):
89- **Criteria count:** Number of criteria (default: 4)
This is a preview of SKILL.md. Download or install the skill to get the whole thing.
In the file
SKILL.md3,086 words
Files1
Licencenot declared
Why you can read it

Nothing in a skill executes. The client loads the text and the model follows it, so a skill can be audited the way a runbook is — by reading it.

What it costs in context

Skills are not billed by the call. They are paid for in context: every token the instructions occupy is a token your code, your diff and your conversation cannot use. Here is what this one takes and when it takes it.

≈720
always loaded
The name and description, so the model knows the skill exists and when to reach for it.
4,580
on trigger
The instruction body, read only when the skill fires.
2.6%
of a 200k window
Ten skills this size would take about 27% of the window before you open a file.
050k100k150k200k context window

5.3k tokens, estimated from the bundle at four bytes to the token, held for the rest of the session once it triggers. Heavy. Teams tend to install this one per project rather than globally, and load it only when the job comes up.

Servers bill, skills cost

A server charges by the month. A skill charges once per session, in context, and then keeps charging it for as long as the session lives.

Before and after

The same question, put to the same model twice: once as it comes, and once with these instructions loaded.

No worked example has been published for this skill yet.

The procedure it runs

The procedure has not been set out here step by step. It is in the body of its SKILL.md: the start of it is shown above, and the whole file comes with the install.

Prose, not code

These steps are written for a model to follow, not executed by a runtime. It can still be told to skip one, and it will say so when it does.

Servers it uses

None. This skill calls no MCP servers at all.

Everything it needs is in the instructions, so it works in a project with nothing connected — the model reads the file and changes how it works with what it can already reach.

Its SKILL.md does not declare which tools it asks the agent for, so what it touches is whatever the instructions themselves ask for — read them before you install it.

What it asks for
Writes filesnot declared
Network accessnot declared

This SKILL.md carries no allowed-tools line, so neither is declared. A skill grants no permissions of its own — it can only ask for tools your client already has.

What it will not do

Every skill is narrow, and the useful ones say where they stop. These are the jobs this one is the wrong tool for.

What this skill is not for has not been published here. Nothing is implied by that: it is a section the author has not filled in.

What is in the bundle

1 file, 21.2 kB on disk. A bundle is text throughout: the instructions the model reads, plus the templates it fills in.

  • SKILL.md21.2 kB
What is not in it

No dependencies and nothing executable: a skill is text the agent reads, so the bundle is 1 file you can review in full before installing.

Install

Installing copies the bundle into your project. Nothing runs at install time — the files sit on disk until the model reads them.

# Criterion-Referenced Rubric Generator · 5.3k tokens when loaded · macOS, Linux mkdir -p .claude/skills && t=$(mktemp -d) && curl -fsSL -o "$t/bundle.tar.gz" https://mcprush.com/api/skills/garethmanning-criterion-referenced-rubric-generat/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/criterion-referenced-rubric-generator" ] && { [ ! -e .claude/skills/criterion-referenced-rubric-generator ] || { mv .claude/skills/criterion-referenced-rubric-generator "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/criterion-referenced-rubric-generator" .claude/skills/ && echo "Installed .claude/skills/criterion-referenced-rubric-generator"
On Windows, or any OS with Node 20+
npx mcprush@latest skill add garethmanning/criterion-referenced-rubric-generator

Windows PowerShell says 'running scripts is disabled on this system'? Run Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser RemoteSigned once, or type npx.cmd instead of npx (codex.cmd, gemini.cmd, grok.cmd likewise). PowerShell 7 needs neither. Writes to .claude/skills/criterion-referenced-rubric-generator/ in the current project. For every project instead, run mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && t=$(mktemp -d) && curl -fsSL -o "$t/bundle.tar.gz" https://mcprush.com/api/skills/garethmanning-criterion-referenced-rubric-generat/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/criterion-referenced-rubric-generator" ] && { [ ! -e ~/.claude/skills/criterion-referenced-rubric-generator ] || { mv ~/.claude/skills/criterion-referenced-rubric-generator "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/criterion-referenced-rubric-generator" ~/.claude/skills/ && echo "Installed ~/.claude/skills/criterion-referenced-rubric-generator" (macOS, Linux) — or add --global to the npx line. The curl line replaces .claude/skills/criterion-referenced-rubric-generator/ only after the download succeeds, so files left there by another skill of the same name, or by an older release, do not mix in. A copy already there is moved aside, not deleted, and the line prints where.

Which clients pick it up on their own

A skill is a folder of text. Most of these read a skills folder and pick it up without being told; the rest take the same folder another way — an upload in the app, a parameter on an API call — and then choose it by its description just the same.

Claude Code.claude/skills/
Claude DesktopCustomize › Skills
ChatGPTSkills › Create › Upload
Cursor.cursor/skills/
VS Code.github/skills/
Codex CLI.agents/skills/
Gemini CLI.gemini/skills/
Grok Build.grok/skills/
Microsoft CopilotSkills › Upload a skill
PerplexityComputer › Skills › Upload a skill
DeepSeek Harness.dsh/skills/
Zed.agents/skills/
Devin Desktop.devin/skills/
Windsurf (legacy).windsurf/skills/
OpenAI Agents SDKInstructions or sandbox Skills
HTTP / APIa request parameter
This release
Version1.0
Publishedno release date on file
PriceFree
Referencegarethmanning/criterion-referenced-rubric-generator

Versions

v1.0 is what is on the shelf; no release here carries a date. Instructions change more often than APIs do — a skill can be rewritten entirely without anything it depends on moving.

v1.0
  • No earlier releases have been published to the marketplace.
Pinning

The install command always fetches the release that is current the day you run it — v1.0 today — and cannot ask for an earlier one. The copy on your disk does not change until you run it again.

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