Middle School Rubric
Grades 6–8
Apply to the Share Research Card, the risk and diversification worksheet, the trade journal, and the final Portfolio Challenge.
StockSt uses fictional currency and simulated shares for education only. This is not investment advice.
| Criterion | 1 – Beginning | 2 – Developing | 3 – Proficient | 4 – Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Market vocabulary | Uses few terms correctly. | Uses some terms with errors. | Correctly uses share, portfolio, volatility, risk, and diversification. | Uses vocabulary accurately and explains relationships among concepts. |
| Research quality | Makes choices based only on preference or hype. | Uses limited or irrelevant information. | Uses price history, news, and category information to support a choice. | Compares multiple shares and identifies strengths, weaknesses, and uncertainty. |
| Price analysis | Cannot explain price changes. | Identifies an event but not its effect. | Explains how an event affects demand and price. | Calculates percentage change and evaluates whether the market reaction was reasonable. |
| Risk and diversification | Concentrates in one share. | Diversifies but cannot explain why. | Builds a diversified portfolio and explains reduced single-asset risk. | Analyzes concentration, category exposure, and tradeoffs between risk and return. |
| Decision-making process | Buys or sells impulsively. | Has a reason but lacks evidence or a plan. | Uses a research checklist and states a thesis and risk. | Applies a repeatable process, sets rules, and revises decisions based on evidence. |
| Behavioral awareness | Does not recognize emotional decisions. | Names a bias but cannot apply it. | Identifies FOMO, herd behavior, or overconfidence in a scenario. | Explains how bias affects decisions and proposes a specific counter-strategy. |
| Trade journal and reflection | Missing or incomplete. | Records trades but little reasoning. | Records date, price, reason, and outcome. | Analyzes patterns over time and identifies concrete improvements. |
| Ethics and simulation awareness | Missing disclaimer or misstates purpose. | Includes a basic disclaimer. | Clearly states that shares are simulated and not investment advice. | Explains why financial claims, hype, and advice require caution. |
Suggested scoring
- 24–32 points: Advanced
- 17–23 points: Proficient
- 10–16 points: Developing
- 8–9 points: Needs support
Success criteria
Students can research before buying, explain why prices move, calculate a simple percentage change, diversify intentionally, and recognize emotional trading.
Open Middle School lesson unit →
Implementation tips
- Use the same rubric language in student-facing checklists so students know what “proficient” looks like before they begin.
- Score process and product separately: a student may lose money in the simulation but still demonstrate excellent research, diversification, and risk reasoning.
- Require revisions: for middle and high school, allow students to revise a thesis or portfolio after market events, which rewards learning rather than short-term performance.
- Avoid rewarding returns alone: high simulated returns can result from luck or excessive risk. Weight reasoning, diversification, journaling, and risk controls more heavily than final balance.
- Include a privacy and ethics checkpoint: especially for elementary and middle school, verify that students use pseudonyms and understand that StockSt uses fictional currency and simulated shares.