1 a (1): harsh inflexibility in opinion, temper, or judgment : severity (2): the quality of being unyielding or inflexible : strictness (3): severity of life : austerity b: an act or instance of strictness, severity, or cruelty2: a tremor caused by a chill3: a condition that makes life difficult, challenging, or uncomfortable; especially : extremity of cold4: strict precision : exactness 5 aobsolete : rigidity stiffness b: rigidness or torpor of organs or tissue that prevents response to stimuliseveritystrictnessausterityexactnessrigiditystiffness

Let’s start with what it is not. Rigor is not fifty math problems for homework when fewer will achieve mastery. Rigor is not more worksheets for the student who finished the assignment early. Rigor is not using a seventh grade text book with your high performing sixth grade students. Rigor is not covering more material in a shorter period of time. Rigor is not cold or impersonal. And most of all, rigor is not just for a select group of students.

The most concise definition of rigor I’ve encountered is taken from Teaching What Matters Most: Standards and Strategies for Raising Student Achievement by Richard W. Strong, Harvey F. Silver and Matthew J. Perini, ASCD, According to Strong, Silver, and Perini, “Rigor is the goal of helping students develop the capacity to understand content that is complex, ambiguous, provocative, and personally or emotionally challenging.”

In The Trenches: A Teacher’s Defense of Public Education by Dennis Fermoyle

Everybody wants more academic rigor from our public schools unless, it means that someone might be inconvenienced.

From Teaching What Matters Most: Standards and Strategies for Raising Student Achievement by Richard W. Strong, Harvey F. Silver and Matthew J. Perini, ASCD, 2001

Rigor is not a special program or curriculum for select students. They (the students) are ordinary students attending traditional public schools where standardized tests and state-run curricula are the rule of the day.

Rigor is not about severity or hardship. The classrooms we have looked into are both warm and challenging.

Rigor is not about back-to- basics. It is not an attempt to roll back education to some prior ideal state, or to find a curriculum that is somehow more fundamental or natural.

Rigor is not about higher-order thinking. The examples are concerned with the content students were learning, not on how they were asked to think about it.

Rigor is neither a conservative nor a liberal agenda that privileges the ideas of one civilization over another. No culture has any prior or superior claim or rigor; the students in our vignettes examined content from a rich variety of cultures.

Finally—and most important— rigor is not a measure of the quantity of content to be covered. Rather, rigor is a measure of that content’s quality.

We are asserting that the ability to manage difficult content is a fundamental skill all students need, in school and out.

Students regularly work with difficult texts and ideas. The decision to withhold rigor from some students is one of the most important reasons why schools fail.

Content should be: complex, provocative, ambiguous, personally or emotionally challenging.

PDFS/co21003/rigor_not.pdf

Rigor is the goal of helping students develop the capacity to understand content that is complex, ambiguous, provocative, and personally or emotionally challenging.

First, the definition describes rigor as a curriculum goal. Most definitions define rigor simply as difficulty. By making it a goal, we are asserting that the ability to manage difficult content is a fundamental skill all students need, in school and out. Second, the definition requires that students regularly work with difficult texts and ideas. In focusing on the role of content, we are supporting David Perkins’ assertion in Smart Schools: Better Thinking and Learning For Every Child (1992) that the most important decision we make is not how to teach, but what to teach. In fact, the decision to withhold rigor from some students is one of the most important reasons why schools fail. All students need schools to provide both rigorous content and direct instruction in the skills needed to manage that content (e.g., note making, summarizing, glossing a text). Third, the definition points out the different ways in which content can become rigorous. Some contents, like molecular biology or economics, are complex, composed of interacting and overlapping ideas (think cellular respiration, the structure or an ecosystem, or the causes of depressions or recessions) Others are provocative, conceptually

Rigor at Risk: Reaffirming Quality in the High School Core Curriculum 2007 ACT

Rigor thoughts from ACT 1. The core curriculum: an unfulfilled promise Far too many students who take a core curriculum today are unprepared for the challenges of first-year college coursework. 2. A rigorous core: aligning the essentials The rigor of core courses is at risk in today’s high schools unless we align a number of the essentials for college readiness. 3. The impact of rigor: real evidence of progress Research shows that high school courses can be made rigorous and that rigorous content can be effectively taught and learned.

ACT Proposals The rigor of core courses in our nation’s high schools can be improved. 1. Specify the number and kinds of courses that students need to take to graduate from high school ready for college and work. 2. Align high school course outcomes with state standards that are driven by the requirements of postsecondary education and work. 3. Provide teacher support. 4. Expand access to high-quality, vertically aligned core courses. 5. Measure results at the course level. ummary.pdf

Academic rigor means the consistent expectation of excellence and the aspiration to significant achievement. It should pervade the entire atmosphere of the University-- teaching and learning, curriculum, evaluation of student and faculty, outreach, admissions, advising, and student life. Rigorous Teaching California State university, Chico

Education Commission of the States 700 Broadway, Suite 1200 Denver, CO Fax:

Ensuring Rigor in the High School Curriculum: What States Are Doing Raising the number of Carnegie units required to earn a diploma Specifying certain courses, including higher-level science and math, in which students must earn credits.

But increased graduation requirements do not necessarily translate into a more rigorous and challenging curriculum. Various indicators suggest that far too many high school students are being sold orange drink under the label of orange juice.

The only people who make money in the United States are working in the U. S. Mint. Everybody else has to earn it. Ken Carter the real Coach Carter. John Troutman Dushawn and Coach Earned It, Harrisburg Patriot-News, January 26, 2007