Achieve is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit education reform organization dedicated to working with states to raise academic standards and graduation requirements. Achieve partnered with ISKME to develop an online evaluation tool to allow you to apply these rubrics and evaluate the quality of instructional resources.

Achieve developed a series of rubrics for this tool to help gauge various aspects of quality, allowing an additional filter for sorting and another way to discover OER. These kinds of ratings are essential, especially for states and districts looking to recommend specific OER to their teachers.

You can use the Achieve OER Rubrics to evaluate resources based on:

  • Rubric I: Degree of Alignment to Standards
  • Rubric II: Quality of Explanation of Content
  • Rubric III: Utility of Materials as Tools to Teach Others
  • Rubric IV: Quality of Assessment
  • Rubric V: Degree of Interactivity
  • Rubric VI: Quality of Practice Exercises
  • Rubric VII: Opportunities for Deeper Learning

Select a resource and open the Achieve tool

  1. Login to OER Commons.
  2. Select the resource you would like to evaluate.
  3. Click the Evaluate button. 
  4. Read the text provided by OER Commons on Guidelines and Reminders.
  5. Click the Start Evaluating button.


You should apply the rubric independently to the smallest meaningful unit of a resource or to each OER object as it appears in OER Commons. The rubrics’ common scoring scale describes the predicted level of quality based on a five-point scoring system:

  • Object is superior - 3
  • Object is strong - 2
  • Object is limited - 1
  • Object is very weak in that specific area quality - 0
  • When a particular rubric does not apply to the object being rated - N/A

Note: Each section of the resource must be completed for the whole score to be calculated. If a particular rubric does note apply, select N/A then Save & Go to the next Rubric. 


Evaluate each section using the Rubrics

Rubric I: Degree of Alignment to Standards:

All standards alignments added by you and other OER Commons users will appear here. 

a. If appropriate, add additional Common Core Standards. 

b. Rate the Degree of Alignment to the Common Core State Standard that is highlighted in yellow.

c. If there is more than one standard, you may rate that standard by clicking on the Next standard button.

d. Click the Save & Go to Next Rubric button when you are ready to rate the next rubric.


Rubric II -  Quality of Explanation of the Subject Matter:

This rating measures how thoroughly subject matter is explained or otherwise in the resource. Select the appropriate rating 0-3. 

Rubric III - Utility of Materials Designed to Support Teaching:

Evaluates the potential utility of an object for the majority of instructors at the intended grade level. Is this resource useful? How useful is it? Select the appropriate rating 0-3. 

Rubric IV - Quality of Assessments:

Use this rubric if the resource includes one or more assessments. Evaluate the quality of all the assessments with a single rating. Does the assessment(s) effectively gauge what a student knows before, during, or after a topic is taught? Select the appropriate rating 0-3. 

Rubric V - Quality of Technological Interactivity:

Use this rubric if the resource includes a technology-based interactive component. Evaluate the quality of the interactivity rather than the technology in general. How useful was the interaction in demonstrating the topic at hand? Select the appropriate rating 0-3. 

Rubric VI - Quality of Instructional and Practice Exercises:

Use this rubric if the resource contains exercises to help foundational skills and procedures become routine. When concepts and skills are introduced, providing a sufficient number of exercises to support skill acquisition is critical. However when integrating skills in complex tasks, as few as one or two may be sufficient. Treat a group of practice exercises as a single object, with the rubric applied to the entire set. Select the appropriate rating 0-3. 

Rubric VII - Opportunities for Deeper Learning:

This rubric applies to objects that engage learners to think critically and solve complex problems, reason abstractly, works collaboratively, learn how to learn, communicate effectively, construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others, apply discrete knowledge and skills to real-world situations, or construct, use, or analyze models. Select the appropriate rating 0-3. 


Finalize your Evaluation

  1. Click the Save and View Results button once you have completed rating the resource.
  2. Review the results you have inputted. You may choose to:
  3. Revise your score by clicking the Go Back and Change Your Scores button. or:
  4. Click the Finalize OER Review button once you have satisfied with your ratings.

The average score of everyone who has evaluated the resource appears on the snapshot view page.