This paper describes how two middle-school teachers teamed up to teach a grouping of ten- to eleven-year old students with a focus on innovation. They agreed to emphasize the use of a student-centered curriculum, letting the students select a topic or project that interested them as a group and that would take them out into the community. The project had to include note-taking, creative and transactional writing, computer applications, skill building in mathematics, and observation. Students decided to cross-age tutor local K-1 students and keep a record of their progress in order to develop a cross-age tutoring manual to help other students get started tutoring. They put it on a web page in order to gain computer skills. The innovation had to be tied to rigor in order for the teachers to be sure that their students were reaching higher levels of accomplishment. They believed that the innovation went very well, with students doing a good job of tutoring and creating a web page, but they were not sure that the project was rigorous enough. This paper examines what rigor is and why it is receiving so much attention, and it discusses what has fueled the push for innovation. It looks at the differences between rigor and expectations and between rigor and standards. Finally, it discusses teachers' definitions of rigor and beliefs about innovation. (SM)