Hundreds of examples of competent student writing from kindergarten to 12th grade, in argument or opinion, informative and narrative writing. Some pieces were written on demand to the same prompt across grades, so you can watch the progression; others show the range of writing a class does in a year. Each piece comes as an annotated version with commentary and a plain transcription, as DOCX or PDF.
Achieve the Core says it has offered free resources since 2011; the files opened without an account (as of 2026-10-30).
Watch for The authors describe the pieces as examples of competent writing, not as scored benchmarks, so there is no score on each paper. Writing only.
Visit In Common student writing samples ↗
22. Smarter Annotated Response Tool (SmART)
Smarter Balanced
Scored student essays from the Smarter Balanced writing tasks, filterable by grade and purpose: narrative for grades 3-8, opinion and informational for 3-5, argumentative and explanatory from 6th grade up. Each response shows its scores for organization and purpose, evidence and elaboration, and conventions, with a scoring rationale, and the rubrics download as PDFs. You can also practice scoring alone or with colleagues.
No price is shown and the site opened without a sign-in (as of 2026-10-30).
Watch for English language arts writing only, from 3rd grade up, and the rubrics are the test's own, so they fit state-test style essays better than classroom projects.
Visit Smarter Annotated Response Tool (SmART) ↗
33. Thoughtful Learning writing assessment models
Thoughtful Learning
Student writing models in the major modes, from narrative and persuasive to research and responses to literature, sorted by grade: 2, 3, 4-5, 6-8 and up. Each model is rated Strong, Good, Okay or Poor, with a completed rubric to download beside it and a blank rubric for your own class.
No price is shown on the models; a login is only for bookmarking (as of 2026-10-30).
Watch for Nothing for kindergarten or 1st grade, and the scores live in the rubric files rather than as comments on the page.
Visit Thoughtful Learning writing assessment models ↗
Grade-level math performance tasks for 2nd through 8th grade, plus high school courses, each with a scoring rubric and a discussion of student work samples. Each grade has roughly 10 to 20 tasks, linked as PDFs, and some link to video lessons.
No fee is mentioned; the page says the tasks may be downloaded and used for professional development without changing them (as of 2026-10-30).
Watch for Math only, nothing below 2nd grade, and the page asks that the tasks not be modified.
Visit Inside Mathematics performance assessment tasks ↗
A state's writing rubrics as PDFs for grade 2, grade 3, grades 4-5 and grades 6-8, in explanatory, narrative and opinion or argument writing. The page says annotated student anchor papers show how the rubrics apply across a range of performance levels, with prompts and responses kept in a linked collection.
A public state page with downloadable PDFs and no price shown (as of 2026-10-30).
Watch for Written for one state's test, and the anchor papers sit on a separate linked site rather than on the page itself.
Visit Tennessee TCAP writing rubrics and anchor papers ↗
66. ReadWriteThink rubric printouts
NCTE
Printable rubrics among NCTE's classroom printouts, filterable by grade. The oral presentation rubric, for example, is listed for grades 3 to 12 and scores delivery, content and organization, and audience awareness on a 1 to 4 scale. Others cover essays, persuasion, compare and contrast, readers theater and Venn diagrams.
The rubric pages show no price and print without a login (as of 2026-10-30).
Watch for A handful of rubrics mixed in with other printouts, mostly for literacy, and several are labeled from 6th grade up.
Visit ReadWriteThink rubric printouts ↗ Facts read on the maker’s page.
RubiStar keeps the rubrics teachers have saved, and its home page lets you search them by title, author name or author email, with up to three keywords, or open one by its saved rubric ID. That makes it a very large bank of teacher-made rubrics on almost any project.
The home page calls RubiStar a free tool.
Watch for Quality varies from one teacher's rubric to the next, the search is by title rather than grade, and the site carries a Why ads? link.
Visit RubiStar saved rubric search ↗
88. PBLWorks rubrics
PBLWorks
More than 25 rubrics on My.PBLWorks.org for project-based learning, including K-12 rubrics for complex communication and creativity that students can use to assess themselves, collaboration rubrics, a project design rubric and a rubric for judging rubrics.
My.PBLWorks.org invites you to register for free (as of 2026-10-30).
Watch for The rubrics live on My.PBLWorks.org, which has a sign-up, and they assess project skills rather than subject content.
Visit PBLWorks rubrics ↗
99. Exemplars rubrics and sample tasks
Exemplars
A set of downloadable rubrics: a standards-based math rubric for K-5 and 6-12, classic math rubrics, a K-8 science rubric, K-4 writing rubrics, and student rubrics for self-assessment in English and Spanish. Free K-8 sample performance tasks in math and science come through a sign-up form, and the company's summative samples include anchor papers with scoring rationales.
The free part: The rubrics, plus 18 Common Core math sample tasks for K-8 and 6 NGSS science sample tasks, after the sign-up form.
Rubrics and sample tasks are free behind a form; the full task libraries are sold by quote, with no prices listed (as of 2026-10-30).
Watch for Downloads ask for your name, email, school and district, and most anchor papers come with the paid task collections.
Visit Exemplars rubrics and sample tasks ↗ Facts read on the maker’s page.
1010. Teachers Pay Teachers free rubrics
Teachers Pay Teachers
Rubrics posted by other teachers, filtered to free ones, in formats from PDF and Word to Google Apps and Canva. It is a huge, searchable pile to borrow from, sorted by grade and subject.
This view lists free items; the same search also shows paid ones.
Watch for Each free item says Log in to Download, quality depends on the seller, and there are no scored student examples.
Visit Teachers Pay Teachers free rubrics ↗