Here are the key points about the relationship between complexity and rigor in the Common Core State Standards:
- The Standards require that students constantly build on and apply their knowledge from year to year in order to gain deep, conceptual understandings and the ability to connect key ideas.
- Students are expected to read texts of steadily increasing complexity as they progress through school. This requires continual application of their skills and continual expansion of their abilities over time.
- Tasks in the Standards promote the development of higher-order thinking skills like critical analysis, problem solving, and synthesis/creation of new understandings.
- The Standards expect students to support their analyses and arguments with evidence from texts and other sources rather than opinions or anecdotes