Rigor has become a buzzword in education – and with good reason.

Rigorous coursework and instruction are fundamental to student engagement and achievement, and a critical part of setting students up for post-secondary success. The majority of students today want to go to college, and it’s important that their K-12 learning experiences prepare them for the academic challenges they will face there.

Since student perception data is empirically linked to and predictive of academic outcomes, understanding students’ experiences in their K-12 classes can give educators and school leaders rapid feedback to inform instructional practices. We analyzed data, collected from nearly 183,000 public school students across the country in grades three through twelve, and found a number of interesting results:

Similarly, the majority of students believe they must work hard in order to receive good grades, ranging from 76 percent of elementary school students to 87 percent of middle school students and 82 percent of high school students.

It’s encouraging that the majority of students report feeling challenged at school.  Across all grade levels, most students report that they feel challenged by their coursework and their teachers, including 82 percent of elementary school students, 73 percent of middle school students and 67 percent of high school students.

However, while students may feel challenged to work hard, how are they experiencing the type of work they’re being asked to do? Across all grade levels, only about 60 percent of students agree that their assignments help them understand the subject. When asked if the work they do in class makes them really think, the results were only slightly better: 61 percent of elementary school students, 68 percent of middle school students, and 67 percent of high school students agreed.

Given today’s emphasis on 21st century skills like critical thinking, this data raises some sobering flags — with a third of students feeling neutrally or negatively about whether their classwork makes them really think. According to students across all grade levels, there is substantial room for improvement when it comes to assigning work that gives students a deeper level of understanding about the subjects they are learning. Armed with this type of information, educators and school leaders must confront some tough questions about how to ensure that the work students are doing is as meaningful as possible to their learning.

On a concerning note, our data also found that as students progress through the grade levels, a lower proportion feel supported in their learning.

When asked whether they learn a lot in class every day, 80 percent of elementary students answered positively compared to only 66 percent of middle school and 59 percent of high school students. Furthermore, while 85 percent of elementary students agree that their teachers don’t let them give up when work gets hard, that drops dramatically to only 54 percent of high school students.

It’s important to keep in mind that this data is not indicative of teachers’ intentions, but does speak directly to students’ experiences and can be a powerful conversation starter.

² Skomsvold, P. “Web Tables—Profile of Undergraduate Students: 2011–12 (NCES 2015-167).” National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, US Department of Education. Washington, DC (2014).