An Academically Rigorous Program for All Students

The concept of rigor is at the heart of the education reform movement. In middle grades philosophy and in the education reform movement, rigor is a critical component of academic excellence and is central to preparing students in the middle grades to succeed in high school and in the global community. To that end, the National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform (Outside Source) uses four criteria to identify schools that are on a trajectory toward success:

Academic excellence
Developmental responsiveness
Social equity
Organizational structures and processes

Three of the criteria for academic excellence used by the forum in its California Schools to Watch™ - Taking Center Stage program that focus on rigor are as follows:

All students are expected to meet high academic standards.
Curriculum, instruction, assessment, and appropriate academic interventions are aligned with high standards.
The curriculum emphasizes deep understanding of important concepts and the development of essential skills.

Articles contained in Understanding and Reporting on Academic Rigor: A Hechinger Institute Primer for Journalists (PDF; Outside Source), provide a spectrum of background information, opinions, and definitions from experts, educators, and non-educators. The publication offers advice to journalists on how to recognize and report about rigor in the context of teaching and on what constitutes rigorous coursework. In addition to the broad discussion about rigor, the report includes a list of experts and resources focused on academic rigor.

The articles in the report provide excellent questions to guide professional learning community discussions. For example:

How does your definition and understanding of academic rigor compare with the information presented in this publication?
How can this information be used to initiate or advance the discussion of academic rigor happening on your site?

Since the advent of the No Child Left Behind Act, education has focused on reading and math scores and on closing the achievement gap between social classes. However, in 2007, a report from the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce1 (a bipartisan group of education secretaries, business leaders, and a former governor) suggested a new blueprint for American education. In spite of some controversial proposals, the commission agreed on one priority: Teaching must prepare students for success in the twenty-first century. Students must be competent in reading, math, science, and technology and acquire:

Knowledge about the world
Creative thinking
The ability to gain access to and use new sources of information
The ability to communicate and work well with people1

Rigor in the middle grades is critical in helping to prepare students with the skills they will need to succeed in high school and to participate in the global economy. A comparison of the skills needed by students to participate in twenty-first century life with research about best practice shows that rigor in the middle grades includes:

Academic and career goal setting
Schoolwide academic literacy—includes vocabulary development, note taking, grade-level reading, and writing
Academic discourse
How to think critically and apply knowledge to real-world problems
Expository writing and the ability to write a five-paragraph essay
Term paper organization, research, and writing skills
State content standards for science and frequent hands-on experiments in laboratories
Algebra as a gateway to college and career
History, geography, civic literacy, and foreign languages to prepare informed citizens
Technological literacy
Understanding of the visual and performing arts as a means of expression
Physical fitness and health education

Taking Center Stage – Act II (TCSII)

A Portal for Middle Grades Educators

An Academically Rigorous Program for All Students

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