New Path to Close the Achievement Gap

New Path to Close the Achievement Gap

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You don’t have to be a teacher to know that motivation, persistence, curiosity, conscientiousness, and other such personal qualities make a big difference in student learning. And you might think there is little you can do about them. But new research—in brain science, social science, and economics—makes a compelling case that these essential qualities, and even intelligence itself, can be developed—at school as well as at home. A new research review by the University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research concurs.

Listen in to the 2012 Chicago School Policy Forum Series, “Sweating the Soft Stuff: Qualities Needed for Learning and How to Nurture Them,” to learn what this research can mean for policy and practice. 

Paul Tough, author of the just-published How Children Succeed and Whatever It Takes, his 2008 examination of the Harlem Children’s Zone, kicks off the series. Barbara Bowman, co-founder and past president of the Erikson Institute, a graduate school in early childhood education, responds to Tough’s comments.

Recorded Thursday, September 27, 2012 at the Union League Club of Chicago.