1. I’ll Know It When I See It CHETL-Rigor
March 29, 2012

2. RATE YOUR RIGOR
Using dots participants will rate CHETL Rigor and Student Engagement components A-I. (Acts as a review of components.)

3. Sometimes, merely telling teachers to “think outside the box” is not enough.

4. My only
skill is
taking
tests.

5. Is Rigor Appropriate for Everyone. Newmann et al
Is Rigor Appropriate for Everyone? Newmann et al. looked at quality of work in grades 3, 6, and 8 Exposure to high levels of authentic intellectual work are associated with gains in standardized test scores. Students exposed to high quality assignments had 20% higher gains than national average. Students exposed to low quality assignments had gains 25% lower than the national average. Student demographics were not associated with exposure to quality assignments.

6. RIGOR IS FOR ALL
Regardless of grade.

7. Benchmarking Rigor: College View of What is Needed
College professors’ views of the skills students lack:
70% say students do not comprehend complex reading materials
66% say students cannot think analytically
65% say students lack appropriate work and study habits
62% say students write poorly
59% say students don’t know how to do research
55% say students can’t apply what they’ve learned to solve problems
2005 Achieve Inc.

8. Benchmarking Rigor: Work/College Skills Public Agenda Foundation “Reality Check”
Percent of Employers & Professors giving high school grads “poor” or “fair” ratings on:

9. Rigor is Not: A special program or curriculum for select students;
About severity or hardship;
A measure of the QUANTITY of content to be covered.

10. Rigor is not….
Something extra you have to do on top of everything else.
More. More pages ≠ rigor
More of the same math problems ≠ rigor
More homework ≠ rigor

11. Rigor is: Part of quality instruction.
Part of a quality schooling experience
You cannot have quality instruction or a quality school without rigor.

12. Defining “Rigor”: Some Essential Questions (Tony Wagner)
What is rigor?
What are teachers doing in a more rigorous classroom?
What are students doing?
What kinds of student work would be evidence of rigor?
How might the definition of rigor be changing in an “information glut” world—what will be expected of our students?
quhttp:// and reflection.”what is rigor

13. Defining Rigor and What it Looks Like
Academic rigor can be defined as the set of standards we set for our students and the expectations we have for our students and ourselves.
Rigor is much more than assuring that the course content is of sufficient difficulty to differentiate it from K-12 level work.
Rigor includes our basic philosophy of learning – we expect our students to demonstrate not only content mastery, but applied skills and critical thinking about the disciplines being taught.
Rigor also means that we expect much from ourselves, our colleagues, and our institutions of learning.

14. PowerPoint Slide Presentation
Definition of Rigor
Rigor is the expectation that students will be able to perform at levels of cognitive complexity necessary for proficiency at each grade level, and readiness for college and the workplace..
Assessing Academic Rigor to Ensure Grade-level Proficiency and College Readiness 15

15. Components of Rigor
Assists students in fulfilling predetermined outcomes and competencies by challenging them with high expectations.
Essential components of rigor in the classroom:
Content acquisition
Critical thinking
Relevance
Integration
Application of concepts
Long term retention
Responsibility

16. Focus on what students are asked to do
Rigor in the Classroom
Focus on what students are asked to do
Three main pieces: course content, instruction, assessment
Course content:
Doing a good job with KCAS standards
Basic skills coupled with key concepts important ideas
Application of core content to problems

17. Rigor in the Classroom Instruction:
Activities that engage students in higher order thinking
“Elaborated communication”
Assessment:
Aligned to higher order goals
Contain higher order thinking, engage with academic content, and require extended, elaborated responses

19. Teaching Video Calibrating Rigor (CHETL)
How would you assess the level of rigor in this lesson (low, medium, high)?
What is your evidence for this assessment?
Watch video with your assigned component (A-I) looking for evidence of rigor, make notes, be ready to share.

20. Rigor in the classroom
Develop a set of best management practices for promoting academic excellence through rigor in the classroom
Develop strategies for establishing instructional goals for academic excellence and for documenting progress toward these goals
Assess our current understanding of rigor in the classroom

21. Excellent Instruction: A Point of View
Excellent instruction is less about what a teacher does (inputs) and more about what students can do and know as a result of the lesson (results).
In assessing the quality of a lesson, performance standards are much more important than content standards.
Performance standards for students must be benchmarked to what will be expected of HS graduates (Tony Wagner)

22. Define Rigor
Using chart paper with your table mates create a mnemonic device for RIGOR. Example C Components of H Higher E Education T Taught L Lively Post on Wall 5 Minutes

23. Remember…..
“Teaching is only as good as the learning that takes place.”

24. Resources
Edmunds, Julie. SERVE. “Defining Rigor” SERVECenter North Carolina. Jones, Richard. “Rigor and Relevance”. International Center for Leadership in Education Model Schools Conference. Wagner, Tony. “Reinventing” Teaching and Learning. Change Leadership Group. 2008