Here is an excerpt from an article by Emily Hanford for American RadioWorks, the national documentary unit of American Public Media. ARW creates documentaries, series projects, podcasts and online content for public radio and the Internet. We have a special interest in critical issues facing K-12 and higher education. To learn more about ARW and check out its wealth of resources, please click here.

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Before she was a psychology professor, Angela Duckworth taught math in middle school and high school. She spent a lot of time thinking about something that might seem obvious: The students who tried hardest did the best, and the students who didn’t try very hard didn’t do very well. Duckworth wanted to know: What is the role of effort in a person’s success?

Now Duckworth is an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and her research focuses on a personality trait she calls “grit.” She defines grit as “sticking with things over the very long term until you master them.” In a paper, she writes that “the gritty individual approaches achievement as a marathon; his or her advantage is stamina.”

Duckworth’s research suggests that when it comes to high achievement, grit may be as essential as intelligence. That’s a significant finding because for a long time, intelligence was considered the key to success.

Intelligence “is probably the best-measured trait that there is in all of human psychology,” says Duckworth. “We know how to measure intelligence in a matter of minutes.”

But intelligence leaves a lot unexplained. There are smart people who aren’t high achievers, and there are people who achieve a lot without having the highest test scores. In one study, Duckworth found that smarter students actually had less grit than their peers who scored lower on an intelligence test. This finding suggests that, among the study participants — all students at an Ivy League school — people who are not as bright as their peers “compensate by working harder and with more determination.” And their effort pays off: The grittiest students — not the smartest ones — had the highest GPAs.

The Grit Test

Duckworth’s work is part of a growing area of psychology research focused on what are loosely called “non-cognitive skills.” The goal is to identify and measure the various skills and traits other than intelligence that contribute to human development and success.

Duckworth has developed a test called the “Grit Scale.” You rate yourself on a series of 8 to 12 items. Two examples: “I have overcome setbacks to conquer an important challenge” and “Setbacks don’t discourage me.” It’s entirely self-reported, so you could game the test, and yet what Duckworth has found is that a person’s grit score is highly predictive of achievement under challenging circumstances.

At the elite United States Military Academy, West Point, a cadet’s grit score was the best predictor of success in the rigorous summer training program known as “Beast Barracks.” Grit mattered more than intelligence, leadership ability or physical fitness.

At the Scripps National Spelling Bee, the grittiest contestants were the most likely to advance to the finals — at least in part because they studied longer, not because they were smarter or were better spellers.

Grit and College Completion

Angela Duckworth is now turning her attention to the question of grit and college completion. In a study funded by the Gates Foundation, Duckworth and a number of other researchers are trying to understand what predicts college persistence among graduates of several high-performing urban charter school networks: YES Prep Public Schools in Houston, Mastery Charter Schools in Philadelphia, Aspire Public Schools in California, and Achievement First Schools in Connecticut.

These charter school networks serve mostly students from low-income and minority families. The schools were founded to close the “achievement gap” between these students and their higher-income peers. The ultimate goal of these charter school networks is to get students to go to college and earn degrees.

The charter schools have succeeded in providing strong academic preparation. Most of their students go to college. Yet the students graduate from college at lower rates than would be expected based on their academic preparation.

The charter schools want to know why that is. Angela Duckworth wants to know if grit has anything to do with it.

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Here is a direct link to the complete article.

How gritty are you? Take the Grit test by clicking here.

Education Correspondent Emily Hanford joined American RadioWorks in January 2008. Before coming to ARW, Emily worked as a senior editor and news director at WUNC in Chapel Hill, North Carolina where she oversaw a major expansion of the news department and created the series North Carolina Voices, which won a duPont-Columbia Award in 2005. Emily also worked at WBEZ, Chicago as a reporter, program host and acting news director. She was an assistant to Ira Glass as he was producing the pilot programs that went on to become This American Life. Emily got her start in public radio back in the 1990s at WFCR in Amherst, Massachusetts. In addition to reporting on education, Emily has covered religion, health care, labor and employment issues, and politics. Her work has won numerous honors including a Casey Medal and awards from the Education Writers Association and the Associated Press. Emily is based in the Washington, D.C. area, where she lives with her husband and two sons. She is a graduate of Amherst College. You can follow Emily on Twitter:@ehanford.