True ‘grit’: how to measure success in America’s schools

[waitingforcorrection: no audio attached, invalid GUID] There is no question that the American education system faces a number of challenges, and the solution to this problem is unclear. Each administration has established a method for improving it. Under President Bush, it was No Child Left Behind. Under President Obama, it’s Race to the Top. A new educational strategy called the “grit scale” works on the theory that students need to learn certain character traits in order to succeed. The grit scale has proven to have real results, both for low-income students in charter schools and wealthy students in an elite private school. Dr. Dominic Randolph is the headmaster the Riverdale Country School in the Bronx, and proponent of the grit scale. Dr.  Angela Duckworth is a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and creator of the grit scale.