The quality and intellect of teachers as portrayed here is not consistent with my experience as a parent or professor. When those planning to teach at the MS or HS level sign up for my classes I get excited. As a population, they are curious, intelligent, diligent, and broadly more mature than the rest of the students I teach.
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.
This is exactly what I was asking for.
#1-3 make a lot of sense.
#4 makes me sad. A lot of learning comes through discussion, and this is how teachers get insight into students' thinking.
#5 is strange to state. Is that not how it is anywhere?!?
#6 has practical implications, as grades determine entry into college or other programs, even for my rising 4th grader last summer.
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.
I appreciate this. Our district is in the process of shifting standards, and the textbooks have not yet been selected, so the time is ripe to advocate for the needs of all kids within this framework. Further, the various plans they have in place to get students to calculus as a senior appear somewhat short-sighted, and the explanation coming from the district is that these plans are the only option because of the rigor of the standards. Without knowing how they perceive "rigorous," it makes it very difficult to engage effectively.
