I will try and stick to answering what the OP asked, because it is the end of a long week in a classroom with +100 teenagers going through all sorts of emotional crises, not to mention the threat of the looming semester exam next week, which has to act as a check to see how they're/we're doing on a state curriculum which needs to get done by mid April (even though the school yr goes until June) so they can take an end of course exam, and NOT vent about all of the teacher bashing on this thread.
At my school, we are struggling with what "rigor" means in this age of state/national requirements of end of course exams of proficiency which require that kids learn a certain amount of specific material and tie our hands in terms of being allowed time to do creative and meaningful things in our classrooms. A group of colleagues and I have gotten together and come up with the following framework for what it means for a class to be rigorous:
1) the material taught needs to be challenging to the students
2) the assignments given need to be meaningful and able to align with the state/national standards for the topic
3) the assignments also need to be graded against standards of proficiency (0 = none of the above levels have been met, 1 = minimal facts known, 2 = all facts known, 3 = all facts known and some ability to explain facts, 4 = all facts known and ability to explain all facts, 5 = all facts known, ability to explain all facts and some ability to apply facts, 6 = all of the above and general ability to apply all facts.)
4) participation no longer counts as part of the grade
5) getting credit for completion of work is no longer allowed, grading must be done for correctness. (When looking for completion it goes into an accountability grade which shows up on the computerized grading system as a way to show a parent whether or not the child is actually doing their work.)
6) going back to the idea that a grade of a "C" means that the child did an average job on an assignment, or in a class, rather than it meaning that the child is failing.
Please keep in mind that unless you are talking about a private school, or a very unique public school, the teachers have very little say on which textbook we use, what curriculum we teach from and who we allow into our classes. The state sets the book list we are allowed to choose from as well as the curriculum we must use, the guidance or administration decides who sits in front of us, whether we say they are ready for the class we teach or not.
Also, in this age of others deciding if we can do our job or not, teaching is no longer a "safe government job" - in many states we now have 1 yr contracts, no pay increases, even for cost of living, whether or not you're a good teacher, and for many of us the salaries are barely enough to keep us above the poverty line.
