AP Annual Conference 2013 Keynote: True Grit-Angela Lee Duckworth
Our Cluster is very interested in helping all of our students attain/develop the resilience and grit needed to gain admission and to be successful in college. To be honest, most of our students will attend college. We have high expectations for our students. We are not, however, a "No Excuses" school.
Our student population, as a public open enrollment charter school, differs only from the local school districts in that we are schools of choice. Our parents choose every morning to bring their students to our schools. We do also provide city bus passes. So, our parents have grit. They made the choice and stick to their choice daily for the educational benefit our Cluster can offer their children.
Our test scores tend to be above the state and regional scores. We desire to continue to encourage our students to strive for their own personal success.
LISA Academy Cluster, under the direction of APSRC, is implementing Dr. Jane E. Pollock's GANAG lesson planning format to use research-based neurological best practices with our students. We know that all students can learn-but that the students must do the work to achieve their dreams. With this in mind, my mind was piqued by Educational Leadership, Volume 71 Number 1 regarding resilience. We need students who can stick to it, who can stay the course. The majority of our AP students have this ability. Our regular students, are quite a different story. They have learned to be persistent in ducking assignments. They have learned to function as a pack. Both of these are useful skills, but will not help these students achieve the fruitful life of their dreams.
I began my journey into Grit by reading Angela Lee Duckworth's interview in Educational Leadership regarding grit. I committed the time to re-view the entire 45 minute AP Conference Keynote. It was well worth my time. In addition to the myriad data sets that we currently use to inform the educational decisions in our cluster, we also need to seriously implement research-based psychological best practices with our students. This Keynote was well worth the 45 minutes. Our AP and regular teachers will view this video for professional development. Grit is defined by Duckworth as "perseverance and passion for long-term goals," which is exactly what our Cluster desires for our students.
What is your school doing to encourage grit with your students? What are your best practices?
Please share.
Perkins-Gough, D. (2013, Sept). The significance of grit: a conversation with Angela Lee Duckworth.
Educational Leadership. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-
leadership/sept13/vol71/num01/The-Significance-of-Grit@-A-Conversation-with-Angela-Lee-
Duckworth.aspx
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