Rigor and Assessment in the Classroom

Barbara R. Blackburn

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781138936133
• eBook ISBN: 9781317386926
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Learn how to assess students in a way that truly impacts learning. In Rigor and Assessment in the Classroom, bestselling author Barbara R. Blackburn provides a broad range of practical strategies for increasing the rigor and usefulness of your formative and summative assessments. You'll discover how to…

• Create an environment where students are expected to learn at high levels;
• Evaluate and check student learning in a way that ensures growth;
• Strengthen the validity and reliability of your assessments;
• Plan assessments in conjunction with planning the instruction;
• Differentiate assessments to increase the rigor for all students;
• Enhance the effectiveness of your grading system and feedback;
• Use performance-based assessment to enhance rigor; and
• Design clear, reader-friendly rubrics and scoring guides.

Each chapter includes ready-to-use tools, examples across the subject areas, and "Think About It" questions to help you reflect on what you've read. Many of the tools are also offered as free eResources at www.routledge.com/9781138936140, so you can easily print and distribute them for classroom use.

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Best Practices in Rigor and Assessment

Rigor

Instructional rigor is a key component of effective instruction. Too often, we think that our instruction is rigorous, but it is not. Our assumptions about rigor, as well as our practices, make a difference in what we expect from students. In this chapter, we’ll explore the myths of rigor, turn our attention to what best practice in instructional rigor is, then look at similar best practices in assessment.

Defining Rigor

Despite all the research, there are seven commonly held myths about rigor.

Seven Myths

•Lots of homework is a sign of rigor.

•Rigor means doing more.

•Rigor is not for everyone.

•Providing support means lessening rigor.

•Resources equal rigor.

•Standards alone take care of rigor.

•Rigor is just one more thing to do.

Now that we have looked at what rigor is not, let’s look at what rigor is. In Rigor is Not a Four-Letter Word, I define rigor as “creating an environment in which …

•each student is expected to learn at high levels;

•each student is supported so he or she can learn at high levels; and

•each student demonstrates learning at high levels.”

Notice we are looking at the environment you create. The tri-fold approach to rigor is not limited to the curriculum that students are expected to learn. It is more than a specific lesson or instructional strategy. It is deeper than what a student says or does in response to a lesson. True rigor is the result of weaving together all elements of schooling to raise students to higher levels of learning. Let’s take a deeper look at the three aspects of the definition.

Expecting Students to Learn at High Levels

The first component of rigor is creating an environment in which each student is expected to learn at high levels. Having high expectations starts with the recognition that every student possesses the potential to succeed at his or her individual level.

Almost every teacher or leader I talk with says, “We have high expectations for our students.” Sometimes that is evidenced by the behaviors in the school; other times, however, faculty actions don’t match the words. There are concrete ways to implement and assess rigor in classrooms.

As you design lessons that incorporate more rigorous opportunities for learning, you will want to consider the questions that are embedded in the instruction. Higher-level questioning is an integral part of a rigorous classroom. Look for open-ended questions, ones that are at the higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy (analysis, synthesis).

It is also important to pay attention to how you respond to student questions. When we visit schools, it is not uncommon to see teachers who ask higher-level questions. But for whatever reason, we then see some of the same teachers accept low-level responses from students. In rigorous classrooms, teachers push students to respond at high levels. They ask extending questions. Extending questions are questions that encourage students to explain their reasoning and think through ideas. When a student does not know the immediate answer but has sufficient background information to provide a response to the question, the teacher continues to probe and guide the student’s thinking rather than moving on to the next student. Insist on thinking and problem solving.

Supporting Students to Learn at High Levels

High expectations are important, but the most rigorous schools assure that each student is supported so he or she can learn at high levels, which is the second part of our definition. It is essential that teachers design lessons that move students to more challenging work while simultaneously providing ongoing scaffolding to support students’ learning as they move to those higher levels.

Providing additional scaffolding throughout lessons is one of the most important ways to support your students. Oftentimes students have the ability or knowledge to accomplish a task but are overwhelmed by the complexity of it, therefore getting lost in the process. This can occur in a variety of ways, but it requires that teachers ask themselves during every step of their lessons, “What extra support might my students need?”

Examples of Scaffolding Strategies

•Asking guiding questions

•Chunking information

•Highlighting or color-coding steps in a project

•Writing standards as questions for students to answer

•Using visuals and graphic organizers such as a math graphic organizer for word problems, maps to accompany history lessons, or color-coded paragraphs to help students make meaning of texts

Ensuring Students Demonstrate Learning at High Levels

The third component of a rigorous classroom is providing each student with opportunities to demonstrate learning at high levels. A teacher recently said to us, “If we provide more challenging lessons that include extra support, then learning will happen.” What we’ve learned is that if we want students to show us they understand what they learned at a high level, we also need to provide opportunities for students to demonstrate they have truly mastered that learning. In order for students to demonstrate their learning, they must first be engaged in academic tasks, precisely those in the classroom.

Student engagement is a critical aspect of rigor. In too many classrooms, most of the instruction consists of the teacher-centered, large-group instruction, perhaps in an interactive lecture or discussion format. The general practice during these lessons is for the teacher to ask a question and then call on a student to respond. While this provides an opportunity for one student to demonstrate understanding, the remaining students don’t do so.

Another option would be for the teacher to allow all students to pair-share, respond with thumbs up or down, write their answers on small whiteboards and share their responses, or respond on handheld computers that tally the responses. Such activities hold each student accountable for demonstrating his or her understanding.

THINK ABOUT IT!

How do you incorporate rigor in your classroom?

Assessment

In addition to rigor, assessment is a key part of the learning process. Almost every researcher on assessment has developed criteria for effective assessment. Although there are some differences between individual researchers, generally, there are seven key principles.

7 Principles of Effective Assessment

1.Informs and transforms

2.Comprehensive

3.Aligned

4.Developmentally appropriate

5.Quality

6.Involves students

7.Results are effectively communicated

Informs and Transforms

Effective assessment informs both the teacher and the student, but it also transforms the teaching and learning experience. Assessment provides information to the teacher about what students know and do not know, which allows him or her to adjust instruction. For example, if all students missed question 12 on a test, but answered all others questions on the same objective correctly, that would lead you to evaluate the question to determine if it was clear to the students. You might reword the question on future tests.

On the other hand, if, in looking at the results of a summative assessment, you discover that 21 of your 28 students missed all questions related to a particular objective, it is likely that your instruction of the objective was not as effective as you thought. Therefore, reteaching is needed.

Assessment should also inform teachers and students about individual strengths and weaknesses. This allows for differentiation of instruction, both in terms of remediation and enrichment. These examples support the notion of transformation, which we’ll l...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Meet the Author
• Acknowledgments
• eResources
• Introduction
• 1. Best Practices in Rigor and Assessment
• 2. Planning for Rigorous Assessments
• 3. Linking Instruction and Assessment to Improve Rigor
• 4. Formative Assessment for Rigor
• 5. Rigorous Summative Assessments
• 6. Performance-Based Assessments to Enhance Rigor
• 7. Differentiated Assessments to Increase Rigor for All Students
• 8. Grading in a Rigorous Classroom
• 9. The Critical Role of Feedback in the Rigorous Classroom
• 10 Working Together to Improve Assessment in Rigorous Classrooms
• Bibliography