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Wow. What a powerful article. It made me think of a lot of different things that aren't necessarily directly connected: 1) The early discussion of how access doesn't always mean success makes me think of the "Right to Fail" movement and the discussion of open access policies. While our statistics may show us that large percentages of students who test below a certain threshold will not pass, what about those who test below that threshold and do pass? The movement is about making sure students have the right to attempt courses even when our test measures say they won't succeed, thus the "right to fail" those courses. It's been both an empowering and a dismissive slogan in these conversations. 2) The discussion about the articles that made students feel like they belonged and were less alone made me think about a reading I always have my dev ed writing students read. Anne Lamott's essay "Shitty First Drafts" does a great job of dispelling some myths about the ease of the writing process, and students really seem to enjoy it. (http://wrd.as.uky.edu/sites/default/files/1-Shitty%20First%20Drafts.pdf) 3) The theme that keeps coming up again and again in these success stories for me is that the teachers actually respect their students' intellectual abilities and trust them with actual hard work.