Guest Article by Matthew Pietrafetta, Ph.D.
Grit has been both praised and critiqued across academic journals and the popular press, but much of the discussion focuses on researchers and theory. Less attention has been given to the everyday experiences of teachers, tutors, and mentors who work directly with students to build persistence, resilience, and long-term academic focus.
Many students—especially those facing difficult life circumstances—already demonstrate grit in the ways they navigate daily challenges. The important task for educators is to help students translate that real-world grit into sustained academic effort, connect it to meaningful goals like college readiness, and continue to develop it through classroom practice and mentoring.
Grit Defined
Psychologist Angela Duckworth popularized the term by defining grit as “passion and perseverance for very long-term goals,” describing it as living life like a marathon rather than a sprint. Authors and educators have expanded on the idea to emphasize related noncognitive traits like resilience, persistence, and a growth mindset. Critics have debated whether grit is easily measured or whether results are always reproducible, but regardless of those debates, grit points to skills and attitudes that matter for student success.
I view grit as encompassing resilience, persistence, and a willingness to learn from mistakes—qualities that teachers and mentors can nurture. Teaching students to delay immediate gratification and to sustain effort toward longer-term academic and career goals is central to preparing them for college and beyond. Framing learning as a marathon helps shift attention from short-term performance to durable progress and mastery.
Teaching Grit
In practical terms, one observable indicator of grit is how long a student persists when confronted with difficult tasks. Students with strong grit accept errors and setbacks as part of the learning process rather than signs of defeat. To assess and cultivate grit, watch how long students keep working on a problem, how many strategies they try, and whether they reflect on mistakes and adjust their approach.
For example, a student attacking a challenging math problem might sketch a diagram, reorganize the given information, or try a different solution method. A strong reader might annotate a passage, summarize paragraphs, or look up unfamiliar words and use them in context. These multiple approaches demonstrate persistence, flexibility, and metacognitive awareness—core components of grit.
Teachers introduce and model these tools; students do not develop them in isolation. Building grit does not require an entirely new course or a separate curriculum—these skills can be integrated into existing lessons, assessments, and tutoring sessions. One-on-one mentoring and targeted feedback, for instance, can reinforce persistence by helping students set incremental goals, reflect on progress, and celebrate improvement.
Observing how a student responds to setbacks reveals much about their mindset. I remember a student who, after seeing a disappointing diagnostic test score, responded not with defeat but with curiosity: “Let me see what I did wrong so I can correct it.” She treated mistakes as data to guide study, not as evidence of failure. When she encountered a particularly tough problem, she would laugh and call it “fun” to solve, and then continue trying different strategies until she succeeded. That sustained curiosity and motivation—especially in the face of difficulty—foreshadowed her later success in college-level work.
Grit and a growth mindset reinforced one another in her case: the willingness to embrace challenges, to persist through difficulty, and to view effort as a path to improvement. These habits of mind helped her prepare for standardized tests, complete rigorous coursework, and adapt to the demands of higher education.
The Future of Grit
What follows after we accept grit as a meaningful concept for education? Many dedicated teachers already prioritize persistence and resilience when they plan lessons and coach students. To amplify that work, school systems can foreground grit alongside academic standards without disrupting existing requirements.
Assessment systems that track student progress over time can provide useful evidence of growth in persistence and preparation. For example, longitudinal test scores, diagnostic assessments, and measures of improvement can reflect not only content mastery but also sustained effort and study habits. When assessments are used formatively—helping students set goals, monitor progress, and revise strategies—they become tools for cultivating grit rather than merely judging performance.
Curriculum design, classroom routines, and school culture all play roles in promoting grit. Practical strategies include modeling perseverance, creating opportunities for productive struggle, encouraging multiple problem-solving approaches, setting clear long-term goals, and offering frequent, specific feedback. Mentoring programs and targeted tutoring can reinforce these practices by providing individualized support and accountability.
Grit will remain a meaningful lens through which educators think about student success. By integrating persistence, resilience, and a growth mindset into day-to-day instruction—and by using assessments to inform growth—teachers can help students prepare for the long-term challenges of college and career.
Matthew Pietrafetta, Ph.D. is the founder of the test-preparation company Academic Approach.