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K-12 Superintendent, reformed IT guy, educator, 1:1 evangelist, life long learner, father, husband, geek, ex self-propelled field artillery turret mechanic, GCT, CCTO, INFP

Is “rigor” just code for “more harder”?

That’s how I used to think of it—more work, tougher work. But as Jon Corippo reminded me in the early days of my education career, rigor isn’t about piling on more of the same. It’s about students owning their learning.

Here’s how I reframed rigor back in 2016:

  • Project Based = Creativity, Collaboration and Critical Thinking
  • Presenting = Communication
  • Publishing = Authentic Audience
  • Minecraft = Problem Solving
  • Reps = Mastery

Do those all well—and faster—and that’s rigor. Not busywork. Student centered instruction.

You can read my original blog post here.

👉 How do you define rigor in your schools today?

#K12 #EducationLeadership #FutureOfLearning #EdLeadership #JonCorippo

Dr. Andrew Schwab is a K-12 Superintendent, former Chief Technology Officer, and advocate for future-ready schools. He believes that education is the gateway to opportunity and that leadership must be human-centered and student-focused.

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One response to “Is “rigor” just code for “more harder”?”

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    Anonymous

    The first time I heard “Owning your own learning goes”, back to Alan November 25 years ago. He would ask the same question over and over again, “Who owns the learning” if it is the teacher, then the students are being passively compliant, which means they will do the minimum to get by or to get the grade they want. If a student owns the learning, they will work harder, dig deeper, and internalize the learning because they want to know. The rigor is a function of student engagement. There are teachers and structures that can motivate students to do more and EduProtocols are a great example of that, but that is definitely teh exception and not the rule.

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