Weekend Reading: Is 'grit' really all it takes for kids to overcome any learning challenge?

  • Convincing kids that “grit” is the key to success teaches them that all challenges are possible to overcome, and that’s not always true. (The Atlantic)
  • Every year the story is the same in Ohio: poor districts do poorly on the state test while while wealth schools’ scores go up. (Cleveland Plain-Dealer)
  • Ohio charter school advocates push hard to shift school grades so they compare test scores with “similar” students. (Cleveland Plain-Dealer)
  • Patrick Harrel, formerly of The Mind Trust, describes how he hopes to make a similar push for change in Cincinnati. (Cincinnati Enquirer)
  • Indiana’s Greater Clark County Schools come back with a smaller facilities plan after a referendum defeat. (Louisville Courier-Journal)
  • Louisville schools struggle to control fights and other problems on school buses. (WDRB)
  • Is Michigan trying to turn Detroit schools into charter schools? The governor says no. Democrats say yes. (Detroit Free Press)
  • Chicago’s teachers union sets a strike vote for Dec. 9 to 11. (Sun-Times)
  • A third of Chicago principals call for state lawmakers to save the district from deep funding cuts. (Sun-Times)
  • Part of Mark Zuckerberg’s $45 billion gift (to his own charity) will advance “personalized learning.” Here’s what that means. (Time)
  • The remainder of Zuckerberg’s donation to Newark’s schools will fund “community schools” that offer social services. (N.J. Spotlight)
  • Those viral math problems that are meant to pillory the Common Core? A math teacher says they reflect good math sense but not always good teaching. (Salon)
  • How math gets taught has been and always will be a political question, not just a pedagogical one. (The Upshot)
  • A Harlem Children’s Zone-inspired initiative aims to improve the lives of children in 2.25 square miles in Colorado. (Chalkbeat)
  • Go inside the DreamYard Project, which is bringing the arts to children and teens in the South Bronx. (The New Yorker)
  • When teachers bar students from using the word “said” to promote creativity, they’re really promoting bad writing. (Slate)
  • Boston’s new schools chief says he’s drawing inspiration from a school that vaulted from worst to award-winning. (Hechinger Report)
  • The replacement for No Child Left Behind is called the Every Student Succeeds Act and would require states and districts (again) to overhaul low-scoring schools. (Politics K-12)
  • A top national teachers union official apologized after seeming to denigrate students with disabilities in a speech about how hard teachers’ jobs are. (Washington Post)
  • An economist argues that increasing educational attainment won’t end poverty. (Demos)