Recent randomized experiments have found that seemingly "small" social-psychological interventions in education-that is, brief exercises that target students' thoughts, feelings, and beliefs in and about school-can lead to large gains in student achievement and sharply reduce achievement gaps even months and years later.
For as long as she could remember, Vanessa Brewer had her mind set on going to college. The image of herself as a college student appealed to her - independent, intelligent, a young woman full of potential - but it was more than that; it was a chance to rewrite the ending to a family story that went off track 18 years earlier, when Vanessa's mother, then a high-achieving high-school senior in a small town in Arkansas, became pregnant with Vanessa.
Printer-friendly version What is Productive Persistence? The Carnegie Foundation defines " Productive Persistence" as a set of behaviors that involves the tenacity and good strategies students need to be academically successful. Many students work hard in developmental math classes-studying long hours, nights and weekends-yet many of them do so using ineffective strategies.