From what I've seen around here and read, "rigorous" means "lots of homework."
It appears that this thread has taken a bit of deviation from the original question and I haven't the time to read all of the responses and to respond to the further thoughts, but in regard to the original one, I'd unfortunately agree that our experience has been in line with what Val said on page one.
As I've mentioned with my oldest, her high school states that they are rigorous and expect 4-5 hrs of homework per night from freshmen. She had that much for some time although we're hopeful that things are getting a bit better. When I called another well regarded local high school to inquire about whether they might have a better fit for my child who needs very high level work but not huge quantity, the response I got was that they had similar quantity expectations b/c they, too, "are very rigorous." Quantity as a synonym for rigor isn't one I expected.
