What Does Educational Rigor Really Mean?
Debbie Willingham
Oct 24, 2011
How do your student expectations affect classroom rigor?
Several years ago the school district in which I was working determined that we should increase the rigor for our students-which was easy to say, but what did it really mean? We knew it was much more than the label given to a course or the reading level of a textbook. It was far too abstract and subjective a term to be able to automatically determine whether or not we really had a high level of rigor in place. As a result, a committee of teachers and administrators developed a definition and explanation of educational rigor:
Educational rigor is the blending of standards-based curriculum, instruction, assignments, and assessment with high expectations and high level reasoning processes in every subject and at every grade level in ways that challenge all students to continually reach more sophisticated depths of knowledge and understanding. (Greenville County Schools, SC)
At its base is the essence of the LEARNING-FOCUSED Strategies Model; rigor is modeled through the use of research-based strategies and with an emphasis on learning experiences in which students internalize, refine, and extend their knowledge and understanding through a wide variety of high-level critical thinking strategies and inquiry. The resulting high quality products and performances that culminate or continue a study are evidence of students' understanding of enduring concepts and overarching ideas.
Curriculum content and process standards, instruction, and assessment are all inextricably tied together in their importance as the bases of rigorous expectations for students. Both formative and summative assessment should reflect the rigor that is expected in teacher instruction and student assignments. Students and teachers should push the limits of their knowledge and skills to continually stretch and more fully develop their ability to analyze, synthesize, evaluate, and apply knowledge and understanding of concepts and essential ideas. Expectations and attitudes on the part of both students and teachers should reflect the excitement of pushing far beyond the typical requirements that are tested and aiming for an internalized ethic of highest quality work.
The same characteristics of rigor apply to all subjects and grades; for example, at the earlier grades an explanation or argument may be simplified, but it should not be simplistic. It is necessary for teachers to discuss and determine the vertical progression of content and skills sophistication through the grades in order to ensure the appropriate degree of rigor. It is far too often that teachers at the beginning of a new school year make assumptions that their new students do not already know how to do something and proceed without first finding out. For example, last May in a kindergarten class in Lincoln County, West Virginia, students were bringing up and using the terms inference and alliteration in realistic contexts on their own weeks after they had initially learned the terms. My comment to their teacher was to be certain that their first grade teacher the following year understood how much they already knew; otherwise she would never have assumed they were operating at such a high level of rigor.
Educational rigor falls into four areas of expectations, those for students, instructional strategies, assignments, and assessments. In a classroom that epitomizes rigor, you would see that teachers have consistently high expectations for every student to continually reach more sophisticated depths of knowledge and understanding. There is an exciting and intellectually-charged classroom climate that intentionally encourages students to "stand on their mental tiptoes." Instructional strategies include teachers' confident use of a wide variety of strategies that address various learning styles and aptitudes on a consistent, on-going basis. There is a consistent and pervasive use of standards-based essential questions as the basis of instruction, and instruction mentally engages all students. Assignments reflect the use of a wide variety of extending thinking strategies, and activities challenge the abilities or interests of students through inquiry or open-ended exploration, requiring challenging and meaningful use of knowledge and skills to provide evidence of deep understanding. Formative assessments are consistently used with regular feedback to students, while summative assessments reflect the ability of students to internalize, refine, and extend knowledge and skills and provide evidence of students' deep understanding. A wide variety of assessments such as differentiated products and performances, portfolios, and student-led conferences are used with clear, specific rubrics.
Seeing, using, and expecting a high level of rigor in every classroom for every student is the goal. It takes dedicated teachers who truly believe all students must be continually challenged and that they can achieve at a much higher level than they would attempt on their own. It takes a huge commitment to children who sometimes seem much less worried about their own achievement than we are. Most of all, it takes a love of teaching and a sense of inner satisfaction you get from a job well done.
By implementing the LEARNING-FOCUSED Strategies Model, you are already doing more to ensure academically appropriate rigor than typical schools! The model sets you up for success, but the quality of implementation and the focus on planning and delivering instruction, assignments and assessments, plus grade-level expectations of students are key.
