What Is Grit? Should Schools Be Judged for How ‘Gritty’ Students Are?

“I define grit simply as passion and perserverance for especially long-term goals. I don’t believe we should use measures of grit for high-stakes accountability. I think the misconception is that if you start measuring grit because it’s important and you add punishments and rewards to that, you miraculously somehow [have] teachers in schools [who] will start teaching grit more efficiently and I don’t think that’s the case.” University of Pennsylvania psychologist and author Angela Duckworth previews her keynote discussion on grit and the role it plays in the success of students, educators, and schools.