Higher-order thinking is one of the defining characteristics of higher education, yet the rating of such behavior has been neither reliable nor valid. Recent research involving the use of categories has yielded relatively high inter-rater reliability, with nominal categories of behavior identified. The current study applies an ordinal-scale model of hierarchical complexity (MHC) to educational tasks. The initial results suggest that the MHC can be used to score questions with varying degrees of complexity and support, and that future research should concentrate on determining the reliability and validity of this scoring system for educational purposes.