Academic Tenacity: Mindsets and Skills That Promote Long Term Learning

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.

Just as teachers are the experts on learning, parents are the experts when it comes to their children. And just as teachers need access to high-quality tools, so too do parents. That’s the mission of Learning Heroes—to inform parents about what’s happening in classrooms and equip them to support their children’s academic success.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is producing the Let’s Talk series to share what we are learning from our investments and the work of our partners. Our goal is to share what districts and schools should consider—and avoid—so that we can all learn from each other as we continue to advance college readiness for all students.