"Don't tell me how talented you are. Tell me how hard you work."
-Artur Rubenstein
What is growth mindset? Dr. Dweck, of Stanford University, has distinguished between a fixed mindset and growth mindset. Individuals with a fixed mindset perceive their basic traits as predetermined. They spend time listing accomplishments and talents, instead of developing them. On the other hand, individuals with a growth mindset, acknowledge that basic traits are predestined, but are enhanced through hard work and perseverance.
Within the realm of education, there are grumblings that the most successful students have a growth mindset; thus, we should be fostering its development in all of our students. Like many sweeping educational reforms such as NCLB and RTI, the research and theory are sound, but is often like forcing a square peg into a round hole. What are the impediments to cultivating a generation of students with a growth mindset? In a nutshell, our entire educational system.
Competition
We have created a culture where personal success is rewarded over cooperation and self-sacrifice. Because our society values winning and outcomes, the road to victory becomes irrelevant. A few fitting examples include Lance Armstrong, Alex Rodriguez, and Rita Jeptoo all exceptional athletes in their own right, who chose to dope. For students, with access to technology, cheating in schools has become more frequent, sophisticated, and necessary. Despite being a generation drunk on praise, the reality is sometimes your best isn't good enough. If being the best is the ultimate goal, and there is little integrity to be had along the way, students are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Work hard, develop a passion, and be ignored, or fight your way to the top with the best grades, test scores, and most college acceptance letters? I haven't experienced many parents bragging about their child's work ethic, if they've only earned a B-. On the other hand, parents are not shy to rattle off straight A's, or honor roll status, even if it was achieved by harassing a teacher, demanding extra credit, or getting extensions on homework.
High Stakes Testing
High stakes assessments, such as PARCC, MAP, ACT, and SAT, truly determine a student's future. Unfortunately, it's a bit like watching a baseball game, and only keeping score during the 4th, 7th, and 9th innings. If you happen to play your best in those three innings, you're in luck, but if not, game over. While teachers use formative assessments aligned with the common core to measure student progress, its results are negated by performance on high stakes tests. The scores earned on these assessments determine a district's level of achievement, and a student's ability to be accepted into a private high school, or university. When the government, and administrators, determine progress based on a stringent, aerial view of student performance, they are acting in opposition to the development of a growth mindset.
Teacher Evaluation
Under the new teacher evaluation provision, salary and job security will be contingent upon students meeting their growth targets on standardized assessments. Best practice in educational research would indicate we need four to six data points to determine a "trend". In the case of teacher effectiveness, many districts use only fall and spring assessment scores. In 180 days, a teacher's success will be defined by student performance over 1.1% of an entire school year . A teacher's job security relies predominately on a quantifiable outcome; thus, focusing on a growth mindset with their students may produce progress on common assessments, but it is not a guarantee on high stakes testing. Again, since 98.9% of growth will not be measured outside the assessment windows, efforts will be placed on ensuring high standardized scores.
Grading
A couple of months ago, I posted an except from the The Narcissism Epidemic, regarding grade inflation over the last twenty or thirty years. While performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has remained stagnant, there has been a marked increase in the number of students earning A's. In terms of growth mindset, this poses some interesting questions: 1) Are students working harder than in years past? 2) Are the skills required to earn an A less rigorous than in years past? 3) Do lower percentiles correlate with higher grades (i.e. 90%=A vs. 94%=A)? 4) Are grades inflated simply as a result of parental or administrative pressure? With the number of confounding variables, it would be challenging to accurately answer any of these questions; however, we can all agree that grades as the valued outcome, and the path to achievement is rarely scrutinized.
Within the realm of education, there are grumblings that the most successful students have a growth mindset; thus, we should be fostering its development in all of our students. Like many sweeping educational reforms such as NCLB and RTI, the research and theory are sound, but is often like forcing a square peg into a round hole. What are the impediments to cultivating a generation of students with a growth mindset? In a nutshell, our entire educational system.
Competition
We have created a culture where personal success is rewarded over cooperation and self-sacrifice. Because our society values winning and outcomes, the road to victory becomes irrelevant. A few fitting examples include Lance Armstrong, Alex Rodriguez, and Rita Jeptoo all exceptional athletes in their own right, who chose to dope. For students, with access to technology, cheating in schools has become more frequent, sophisticated, and necessary. Despite being a generation drunk on praise, the reality is sometimes your best isn't good enough. If being the best is the ultimate goal, and there is little integrity to be had along the way, students are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Work hard, develop a passion, and be ignored, or fight your way to the top with the best grades, test scores, and most college acceptance letters? I haven't experienced many parents bragging about their child's work ethic, if they've only earned a B-. On the other hand, parents are not shy to rattle off straight A's, or honor roll status, even if it was achieved by harassing a teacher, demanding extra credit, or getting extensions on homework.
High Stakes Testing
High stakes assessments, such as PARCC, MAP, ACT, and SAT, truly determine a student's future. Unfortunately, it's a bit like watching a baseball game, and only keeping score during the 4th, 7th, and 9th innings. If you happen to play your best in those three innings, you're in luck, but if not, game over. While teachers use formative assessments aligned with the common core to measure student progress, its results are negated by performance on high stakes tests. The scores earned on these assessments determine a district's level of achievement, and a student's ability to be accepted into a private high school, or university. When the government, and administrators, determine progress based on a stringent, aerial view of student performance, they are acting in opposition to the development of a growth mindset.
Teacher Evaluation
Under the new teacher evaluation provision, salary and job security will be contingent upon students meeting their growth targets on standardized assessments. Best practice in educational research would indicate we need four to six data points to determine a "trend". In the case of teacher effectiveness, many districts use only fall and spring assessment scores. In 180 days, a teacher's success will be defined by student performance over 1.1% of an entire school year . A teacher's job security relies predominately on a quantifiable outcome; thus, focusing on a growth mindset with their students may produce progress on common assessments, but it is not a guarantee on high stakes testing. Again, since 98.9% of growth will not be measured outside the assessment windows, efforts will be placed on ensuring high standardized scores.
Grading
A couple of months ago, I posted an except from the The Narcissism Epidemic, regarding grade inflation over the last twenty or thirty years. While performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has remained stagnant, there has been a marked increase in the number of students earning A's. In terms of growth mindset, this poses some interesting questions: 1) Are students working harder than in years past? 2) Are the skills required to earn an A less rigorous than in years past? 3) Do lower percentiles correlate with higher grades (i.e. 90%=A vs. 94%=A)? 4) Are grades inflated simply as a result of parental or administrative pressure? With the number of confounding variables, it would be challenging to accurately answer any of these questions; however, we can all agree that grades as the valued outcome, and the path to achievement is rarely scrutinized.
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