Is 'grit' the answer to the 'gap'?

Tuesday, January 1st, 2013 10:00 PM

Jack Crowe

Everyone is looking for a silver bullet that will close the achievement gap nationally, in public schools in the City of Chicago, and here in Oak Park.

Is it about more effective teaching in the classroom? Is it about better after-school academic supports like one-on-one tutoring? Is it about double-dosing math and reading for those who are behind grade level? Is it about having a fairer disciplinary system? Is it about getting students into extracurricular activities? Is it about better measuring student achievement so we know whether the student is making progress?

It is about all these things, but there is something more.

My holiday reading this year included a bestselling book that takes a different approach, titled, How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity and the Hidden Power of Character, by Paul Tough.

Tough, who previewed some of this material in the New York Times Magazine and The New Yorker, argues that qualities such as perseverance, curiosity, conscientiousness, optimism and self-control, impact student success as much or more than scores on ACT exams.

Teaching "character" in school is the third rail of education reform. According to Tough, liberals downplay the role of character, fearing the discussion will devolve into ugly stereotypes. Conservatives like the values-based discussion but then, as Tough writes, they effectively say, "There's not much society can do until poor people shape up and somehow develop better character."

Tough's book is not a polemic. His point is that science shows that childhood stress and adversity can affect a student's learning in school, but effective strategies emphasizing "character" can improve student performance dramatically.

So what are the psychological traits that allow high school graduates to make it successfully through college, work and life? An inclination to persist at a boring and often unrewarding task, the ability to delay gratification, the tendency to follow through on a plan.

For Tough, increasing the odds for students in general and low-income students in particular means not only learning the ABCs but also deliberately developing soft skills, such as persistence, teamwork and accuracy.

Tough believes that as practiced in innovative charter schools such as KIPP, students can build "character," learn optimism, learn to fail quickly and keep going, and increase self-control. The term du jour, as evidenced by the title of this book and as first articulated by Angela Duckworth from the University of Pennsylvania, is "grit."

What if improving overall student achievement and closing the achievement gap requires that students develop a better sense of grit along with geometry?

What if this character trait is just as important as academics to the success of students in Oak Park?

Reader Comments

11 Comments - Add Your Comment

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G Kotter

Posted: January 4th, 2013 12:13 PM

Fair enough, Uncommon, but that seems to give justification for non-blacks to wash their hands of the situation. Kids are the results of their parents...unmotivated black students are products of unmotivated parents. White entitled kids who may get average grades turn out to be entitled college students with helicopter parents. These entitled white children need 'grit' too. Life isnt fair, and no one told me life would be fun, either.

Ray Simpson from Oak Park

Posted: January 4th, 2013 8:22 AM

We never seem to put peer pressure into this discussion. If your friends are not interested in success, why would you risk being ostracized? My son was an honor student at OPRF several decades ago, His group were good kids but not great students. Being on the honor roll was important to him, letting people know was not. The important issue was that his friends didn't abandon him because he got good grades. The reverse is a real problem and peer acceptance is all important to kids without strong family support.

Jim Coughlin from Oak Park, Illinois Facebook Verified

Posted: January 4th, 2013 2:49 AM

Chaos in the home leads to chaos in the classroom.

Uncommon Sense

Posted: January 3rd, 2013 3:56 PM

In the context of OPRF, the achievement gap is primarily a black student issue. Yes, there are poor white kids who fall behind, but were aren't talking about Appalachia or some other podunk area with poor white folks. To ignore the obvious to avoid offending someone already makes it hard to address the issue at hand. People need to be offended IMHO; maybe then we can get to some real solutions.

Tom from River Forest

Posted: January 3rd, 2013 3:43 PM

Welcome back Gabe.

Gabriel Kotter

Posted: January 3rd, 2013 3:18 PM

Cannot we just say "poor" instead of "black" community? Make it less inflammatory? Poor families lack the 'grit' described often, regardless of race. Economics and education are linked, not neccesarily race.

Uncommon Sense

Posted: January 3rd, 2013 2:31 PM

OPRF, I don't disagree. Low expectations from teachers can be devastating. It is only counteracted by involved parents. IMHO, we have lost two or three generations to liberal do gooders whether through public schools or social welfare policies. The sad thing is the black community is too blinded to see the connections between liberal policies and our own community's destruction.

OPRF Parent

Posted: January 3rd, 2013 9:56 AM

Please also don't forget the soft bigotry of low expectations at the school level. Teachers are very guilty of this and pigeonhole students based on race. It's done in the elementary schools and all the way up throughout high school. Plenty of black students have a lot of grit because they have to have it in order to succeed where they are not expected to do so. And that isn't blaming the system, that is saying the system also needs to be held accountable to its imperfections as well.

Uncommon Sense

Posted: January 3rd, 2013 9:48 AM

It is the soft bigotry of low expectations. Fix the culture and expectations of the black community, you fix the gap problem. The gap is merely a symptom of larger societal issues that we are too PC to address - apathy towards education, single parenthood, govt dependency, etc. As our economy continues to go global and become more competitive favored towards those with the best educations, the gap is only going to widen.

Dan Hefner from Oak Park

Posted: January 3rd, 2013 9:16 AM

Sucess or lack of success in school is directly related to parental involvement. Parents who do not encourage, mentor, and tutor their children should not expect a an honor roll child. Chicago Public Schools with a 50% drop out rate is a classic example of parental apathy. I am sick of excuses when it comes to the gap. If you do not study you will not succeed!!

Posted: January 2nd, 2013 12:50 PM

This is all great, and I think it would do a lot of good for people to help their kids develop "grit"... But I have a feeling that there will be many that will resist such an effort because they feel that it's the "system" that's always at fault and never the "individual" that needs changing. We might have progress if both the "system" AND the "individual" will acknowledge the need to self adjust, but I'm not holding my breath.

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