What does rigor actually look like in the classroom?

It’s a word we use often in education, but rigor isn’t about giving students more work, harder texts, or longer assignments. It’s about ensuring students are consistently engaging in the kind of thinking their grade-level standards demand.

This November, Dr. Sarah Mott Gonzalez, Vice President of College & Career, and Dr. Erica Thomas, Achievement Specialist, of Orenda Education will bring that conversation to the 2026 ACSA Leadership Summit in their session, Beyond Busy Work: What True Rigor Looks Like at Every Grade Level.

Using California’s CAASPP Smarter Balanced Item Specifications for ELA Claim 1: Reading, Sarah and Erica will help participants examine what grade-level rigor actually looks like in daily instruction. Through the Claims, Targets, and Depth of Knowledge (DOK) levels embedded in the California item specifications, participants will have an opportunity to look more closely at the tasks students are being asked to complete and consider an important question:

Are students being challenged to think deeply, or are we simply keeping them busy?

Participants will explore the difference between surface-level work and true text-based rigor, audit current reading tasks, and practice redesigning assignments to better reflect the depth and complexity students are expected to demonstrate.

Most importantly, this is about making rigor actionable. Attendees will leave with practical tools for aligning reading instruction to Claim 1 targets so that what students are taught, asked to practice, and ultimately assessed on reflects the full depth of California’s grade-level expectations.

Because rigor isn’t about making reading harder. It’s about making sure students are doing the right kind of thinking.

Join us at the 2026 ACSA Leadership Summit
Friday, November 6, 2026
2:15–3:15 PM PT
Session P4P-06

We hope to see you there!