Academic Tenacity: Mindsets and Skills That Promote Long Term Learning

District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) is a national leader in supporting teachers—and it’s no coincidence that just a couple of years after the district introduced its unique professional learning framework, it is seeing big gains in student achievement.

Whether you work at a small operating foundation or for the world’s largest grantmaking one, “scale” and “sustainability” are two words that likely have dominated more than a few staff meetings. That’s not surprising, since both are important indicators of an investment’s impact.

Young people dream about what they’ll be when they grow up, but there’s a gap today between where high school ends and dreams begin. A gap fewer and fewer are able to leap. Hard work and determination are not enough. Today, a high school diploma isn’t the end of learning—it’s only the beginning. The first step to opportunity.