Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 93

on political books

First-Rate Temperaments
Liberals don’t want to admit it, and conservatives don’t want to pay for it, but building character—resilience, optimism, perseverance, focus—may be the best way to help poor students succeed.
By Thomas Toch

W

hen Barack Obama campaigned for the White House four years ago, Democrats and their allies in education policy circles were embroiled in a fierce debate over how best to improve the educational performance of the millions of K–12 students living in poverty. One camp, a coalition of researchers and educators formed by the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal Washington think tank, argued in a manifesto called A Broader, Bolder Approach to Education that tackling poverty’s causes and consequences was the way to free disadvantaged students from the grip of educational failure. “Schools can ameliorate some of the impact of social and economic disadvantage on achievement,” the coalition wrote. But, it continued, “[t]here is no evidence that school improvement strategies by themselves can substantially, consistently, and sustainably close these gaps.” In sharp contrast, a second reform group, led by then school superintendents Joel Klein of New York and Michelle Rhee of Washington, D.C., and others drafted a competing reform manifesto under the auspices of an organization known as the Education Equity Project that stressed tougher accountability for schools and teachers, governance reforms for failing schools, and the expansion of charter schools. They largely refused to acknowledge that poverty rather than school quality was the root cause of the educational problems of disadvantaged kids, for fear that saying so would merely reinforce a long-standing belief among public educators that students unlucky enough to live in poverty shouldn’t be expected to achieve at high levels—and public educators shouldn’t be expected to get them there. While one of the few reformers with feet in both camps, Chicago schools superintendent Arne Duncan, was named U.S. secretary of education, the Klein cabal won the policy fight. The Obama agenda has focused almost exclusively on systemic school reform to address the achievement deficits of disadvantaged students: standards, testing, teacher evaluations, and a continued, if different, focus on accountability. The administration’s one education-related poverty-fighting program, Duncan’s Promise Neighborhoods initiative, is a rounding error in the Department of Education’s budget. Duncan was right to align himself early on with both Democratic factions. Good schools can, of course, make a difference in student achievement just by being good. And the inadequate nutrition, housing, language development, and early educational experiences that many impoverished students suffer are real barriers to learning. But in the last several years a new body of neuroscientific and psychological research has made its way to the surface of public discourse that suggests that the most severe consequences of poverty on learning are psychological and behavioral rather than cognitive. The lack of early exposure to vocabulary and other cognitive deficits that school reformers have stressed are likely no more problematic, the research suggests, than the psychological impact of growing up in poverty. Poverty matters, the new work con-

How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character
by Paul Tough Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 256 pp.

Washington Monthly

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Washington Monthly - September/October 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Washington Monthly - September/October 2012

Washington Monthly - September/October 2012
Contents
Editor’s Note: Where Credit Is Due
Letters
Tilting at Windmills
Do Presidential Debates Really Matter?
The Clintonites’ Beef With Obama
Party Animals
Introduction: A Different Kind of College Ranking
America’s Best-Bang-for-the-Buck Colleges
The Siege of Academe
Getting Rid of the College Loan Repo Man
Got Student Debt?
Answering the Critics of “Pay As You Earn” Plans
National University Rankings
Liberal Arts College Rankings
Top 100 Master’s Universities
Top 100 Baccalaureate Colleges
A Note on Methodology: 4-Year Colleges and Universities
Why Aren’t Conservatives Funny?
First-Rate Temperaments
A Malevolent Forrest Gump
Broken in Hoboken
Identity Politics Revisited
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - Washington Monthly - September/October 2012
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - Cover2
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 1
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 2
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 3
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 4
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 5
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 6
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - Contents
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 8
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 9
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - Editor’s Note: Where Credit Is Due
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 11
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - Letters
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 13
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - Tilting at Windmills
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 15
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 16
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 17
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 18
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - Do Presidential Debates Really Matter?
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 20
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 21
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - The Clintonites’ Beef With Obama
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 23
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - Party Animals
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 25
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 26
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - Introduction: A Different Kind of College Ranking
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 28
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 29
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 30
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - America’s Best-Bang-for-the-Buck Colleges
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 32
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 33
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 34
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - The Siege of Academe
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 36
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 37
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 38
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 39
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 40
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 41
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 42
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 43
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 44
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - Getting Rid of the College Loan Repo Man
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 46
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 47
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 48
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - Got Student Debt?
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 50
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 51
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - Answering the Critics of “Pay As You Earn” Plans
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 53
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - National University Rankings
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 55
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 56
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 57
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 58
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 59
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 60
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 61
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 62
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 63
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 64
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 65
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 66
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 67
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - Liberal Arts College Rankings
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 69
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 70
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 71
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 72
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 73
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 74
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 75
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 76
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 77
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 78
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 79
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - Top 100 Master’s Universities
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 81
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 82
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 83
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - Top 100 Baccalaureate Colleges
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 85
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 86
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 87
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - A Note on Methodology: 4-Year Colleges and Universities
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 89
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - Why Aren’t Conservatives Funny?
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 91
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 92
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - First-Rate Temperaments
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 94
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 95
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - A Malevolent Forrest Gump
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 97
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 98
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - Broken in Hoboken
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 100
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - Identity Politics Revisited
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 102
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 103
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 104
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - Cover3
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - Cover4
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