The Nonnegotiables of Academic Rigor

Despite the fact that rigor is generally advocated for gifted learners, how it should be measured is not well defined. This lack of specificity in defining academic rigor often makes it difficult to determine if curriculum for gifted learners met their learning needs. With this need in mind and in r...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Gifted child today magazine 2009-10, Vol.32 (4), p.44-52
Main Authors: Matusevich, Melissa N., O'connor, Katherine A., Hargett, Mary Valorie P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic Achievement
Academically Gifted
Core Curriculum
Curriculum standards
Difficulty Level
Education
Educational Needs
Management
North Carolina
Scoring Rubrics
Student Needs
Talented students
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Summary:Despite the fact that rigor is generally advocated for gifted learners, how it should be measured is not well defined. This lack of specificity in defining academic rigor often makes it difficult to determine if curriculum for gifted learners met their learning needs. With this need in mind and in response to the challenge of the North Carolina State Board of Education (NCSBoE) Mission Statement goal that every student be provided with rigorous and relevant core curriculum reflecting what students need to know and demonstrate in a global 21st-century environment, the Academically or Intellectually Gifted (AIG) Program at the North Carolina Department for Public Instruction (NCDPI) set out to create a rigor rubric. It was believed that such a rubric should be applied to educational programs and instruction to determine if an appropriate level of challenge is evident. As a result, a rigor rubric was developed. This article provides a description of how the rubric was developed as well as how it has been utilized to analyze the appropriateness of curriculum and instruction for gifted learners. (Contains 4 figures.)
ISSN:1076-2175
2162-951X
DOI:10.1177/107621750903200412