Increasing Rigor
February 5, 2011
C F
N 107
The Network of
Dynamic Learning Communities
Welcome!
Grab some coffee and breakfast.
Energizer: Non-Linguistic Representation of
Rigor and Performance Assessment
Find a table group where you will share your thinking and non-linguistic communication
skills. Discuss how you define the question on your task card, either:
• What is cognitive rigor? or
• What is the relationship between cognitive rigor and performance
assessment?
Decide together how your group will illustrate the assigned question using a graphic
model or picture with three words or less.
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Common Assessment Practices Across Countries that
May Influence CCSS Movement
 Assessments are part of a tightly integrated system of standards, curriculum,
instruction, assessment, and teacher development at the state or national (in small
countries) level.
 Assessments include evidence of actual student performance on challenging tasks
that evaluate 21st century standards of learning.
 Teachers are integrally involved in the development and scoring of assessments (also
college faculty).
 Assessments are used to provide information for improvement, not to determine
school sanctions.
 Assessments are designed to continuously improve teaching and learning.
Essential Questions
• What is cognitive rigor?What makes a learning task rigorous?
• What makes a well designed performance assessment task?
• What is the relationship between rigor and performance assessment?
• How can we begin to tweak existing tasks or design new tasks to ensure
rigor and alignment with Common Core State Standards?
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Goals for Today
• Examine a model that defines cognitive challenge and rigor
• Identify the level of rigor of various assessment tasks using a
cognitive matrix incorporating Depth of Knowledge (DOK)
levels
• Understand the relationship between rigor and performance
assessment
• Evaluate and redesign a performance task using “validity”
criteria to ensure to rigor and alignment with CCSS
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Text
Based
Discussion:
Text Based Discussion: Cognitive Rigor Matrix
Examining the Cognitive Rigor Matrix
See handout (article), What exactly do “fewer, clearer, and higher standards” really look like in the
classroom? Using a cognitive rigor matrix to analyze curriculum, plan lessons, and implement
assessments (Hess, Carlock, Jones, & Walkup, 2009)
Four A’s and an I Protocol
•Work in mixed school groups
•Take time to reflect on the reading using the Four A’s and an I protocol.
• In different rounds, have each person identify one assumption in the text,
citing the text (with page numbers, if appropriate) as evidence.
• Discuss I’s (implications) last and note these to be shared out with the
entire group.
Text Based Discussion: Cognitive Rigor Matrix
Depth +
thinking
Level 1
Recall &
Reproduction
Remember
- Recall, locate basic
facts, details, events
Understand
Level 2
Skills &
Concepts
Level 3
- Select appropriate
words to use when
intended meaning is
clearly evident
- Specify, explain
relationships
- summarize
– identify main ideas
- Explain, generalize,
or connect ideas
using supporting
evidence (quote,
example…)
- Explain how
concepts or ideas
specifically relate to
other content
domains or concepts
Apply
- Use language
structure (pre/suffix)
or word relationships
(synonym/antonym)
to determine meaning
– Use context to
identify meaning of
word
- Obtain and interpret
information using
text features
- Use concepts to
solve non-routine
problems
- Devise an approach
among many
alternatives to
research a novel
problem
Analyze
- Identify whether
information is
contained in a graph,
table, etc.
– Compare literary
elements, terms,
facts, events
– analyze format,
organization, & text
structures
- Analyze or interpret
author’s craft
(literary devices,
viewpoint, or
potential bias) to
critique a text
– Analyze multiple
sources
- Analyze
complex/abstract
themes
– Cite evidence and
develop a logical
argument for
conjectures
- Evaluate relevancy,
accuracy, &
completeness of
information
- Synthesize
information within
one source or text
- Synthesize
information across
multiple sources or
texts
Evaluate
Create
- Brainstorm ideas
about a topic
- Generate
conjectures based on
observations or prior
knowledge
Strategic
Thinking/
Reasoning
Level 4
Extended
Thinking
Cognitive Rigor & Some Implications for
Assessment (Hess)
 Assessing only at the highest DOK level will miss opportunities to know
what students do & don’t know – go for a range; end “high” in
selected/prioritized content
 Performance assessments can offer varying levels of DOK embedded in a
larger, more complex task
 Planned formative assessment strategies and tools can focus on differing
DOK levels
Tweaking a Unit Task for Alignment
Working as a group…
1. Look at Unit 2 in Curriculum Map (Slavery)
2. Read through essential questions, knowledge, skills, assessments and
other elements.
3. Determine knowledge (concepts) and skills the teacher was targeting.
Inferences may be necessary. Note in graphic organizer.
4. Select Common Core Writing Anchor Standard that will be focus of task’s
realignment.
5. Determine knowledge (concepts) and skills the standard is targeting at
grade 11. Note in graphic organizer
6. Rewrite the prompt for the unit task aligning it to CCSS and ensuring
DOK level 3 or 4.
7. Be prepared to share out.
Tweaking a Unit Task for Alignment
Common Common Anchor Standard:
Key Skills Required by
Standard
Key Skills Addressed in Unit
Key Concepts Required by
Standard
Key Concepts Addressed in
Unit
Tweaking Your Own Unit Task for Alignment
1. Look your current unit task.
2. Think through essential questions, assessments and other elements
of the unit.
3. Determine knowledge (concepts) and skills your were targeting.
Inferences may be necessary.
4. Select Common Core Writing or Reading Anchor Standard that will be
focus of task’s realignment. (see graphic organizer.)
5. Determine knowledge (concepts) and skills the standard is targeting
at your grade . (see graphic organizer.)
6. Rewrite the prompt for the task aligning to CCSS and ensuring DOK
level 3 or 4.
7. Be prepared to share what the original task was, what your learned
through this process and new and improved (“tweaked”) task.
Break!
 Let’s reconvene in 10 minutes
Alignment (validity) Questions:
 Is there a strong content match between assessment task and grade
level standards?
 Is the task (and the assessment as a whole) more rigorous, less
rigorous, or of comparable rigor (DOK) to grade level standards?
Goal: Creating Assessments Tasks that Meet
Quality Criteria:
 Clarity of expectations for the student (and teacher)
 Alignment to the intended standards: content and
performance and intended level of rigor (DOK)
 Opportunities to make the assessment “fair” & unbiased
for ALL
 Opportunities for student engagement
Our
focus
today.
Elements of Well Designed Performance Tasks
• Valid (aligned to standards)
 Does it test what it is supposed to test?
 Does it align with the standards?
 Is it rigorous? (What is its Depth of Knowledge?)
• Reliable (consistent scoring)
 Are scoring results consistent?
 Is the rubric language clear?
 Are there anchor papers to illustrate score points for all
performance levels?
Our
focus
today.
Elements of Well Designed Performance Tasks
Access and Opportunity to Learn
• Fair and Unbiased
 Task design and format
 Accessible to a range of learners
 Clear in language and context
• Engaging and Authentic
 Clear student directions and supporting materials
 Assessment helps students know what they should do before they are assessed
 Requires thinking applied to a real world or new context, situation, problem or
challenge
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Uses of assessment task quality criteria
(Hess Tool)
 Promote collaboration and a shared understanding of




high quality assessment
Develop new assessments
Review existing assessments
“Validate” a revised assessment or new assessment prior
to use
Provide objective feedback to colleagues
Cognitive Rigor
Figure out where you are now
1.
Revisit your non-graphic representations of rigor and
performance assessment– have your ideas changed? If so, in
what ways?
2.
What are the implications for our support of schools and
classrooms?