Adapting Values: Tracing the Life of a Rubric Through Institutional Ethnography

Adapting VALUEs traces the use of the American Association of Colleges and Universities’ VALUE rubric for written communication at two small universities. Through the lens of institutional ethnography, Jennifer Grouling examines how faculty and administrators adapted the rubric for their own purposes and writing programs. Throughout the book, Grouling explores the ways in which faculty members’ interactions on committees, views of the classroom, disciplinary affiliation, and racial privilege impacted their views of this national rubric. Overall, Adapting VALUEs offers valuable insights into the power of the rubric as both a national and a local text that dictates pedagogical and administrative practice.

Jennifer Grouling is associate professor of Rhetoric and Composition and Director of the Writing Program at Ball State University. She studies writing assessment, teacher preparation, and other aspects of WPA life. She has also published two books on tabletop roleplaying games.