Promoting Grit, Tenacity, and Perseverance - U.S. Department of ...

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3. Alternative school models and school-level reform approaches. We presented three types
of approaches that we encountered in our interviews with practitioners. The first is “character
education” school models. Key features of those models include explicit articulation of
learning goals for targeted competencies, clear and regular assessment and feedback of
student progress on these competencies, intensive professional development to help teachers
understand and work with these competencies, and discourse about these competencies
infused throughout the school culture and all disciplinary curricula. The second is “projectbased
learning and design thinking” school models. In these models, students develop
competencies through engagement in long-term, challenging, and/or real-world problems that
require planning, monitoring, feedback, and iteration. Projects provide opportunities to learn
important learning strategies and self-regulation skills necessary for perseverance over the
long term to achieve the goals of a given project. Mindsets are addressed inherently in
processes of feedback and iteration, and projects are often aligned with students’ interests
and passions. Both the character education and project-based learning and design thinking
models are relatively new. There is strong anecdotal evidence of their success, but further
research is needed to determine impacts. The third type of approach is school reform
programs. These are organizations independent of schools that provide extensive schoolwide
teacher professional development, networks of school communities, strategies to improve
school organizational structure, targeted behavioral and academic interventions, and other
supports for schoolwide improvement.
4. Informal learning programs. We reviewed informal learning programs that provide
different kinds of support for students’ persistence in schooling through to a professional
career. Some of these programs provide structured social support networks for students
making the transition from high school to college, emphasizing the principles of belonging to
a community engaged in the processes of college exploration, application, and initial college
adjustment. Some of these programs provide opportunities for students to engage in activities
that support interest and persistence in STEM professions. Some are beginning to teach
explicitly about grit, drawing on models similar to those discussed in the character education
models above. Some provide additional support to transition to the workforce. In most cases,
there is strong anecdotal evidence of their success, but further research is needed to
determine impacts.
5. Digital learning environments, online resources, and tools for teachers. We reviwed
educational technologies aligned with each aspect of our hypothesized model. Examples
included digital learning environments that provide optimal challenge through adaptivity;
provide digital tools to help educators promote a rigorous and supportive classroom climate;
provide resources, information, materials, tools, or human capital to accomplish difficult
goals; promote grit through motivating learning environments that trigger interest; teach
about or promote academic mindsets; teach about or promote learning strategies; and
promote the development of effortful control. Online environments can provide a safety zone
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