Growth Mindset Betrayed: How Schools Preach Effort but Reward Excuses
By Priscilla Rahn, M.Ed, NBCT | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice
Policies like minimum F grades, lowered expectations, and racial affinity groups are undermining resilience, accountability, and true learning—while students watch the very lessons of growth mindset go unpracticed.
Growth mindset, at its core, is about teaching students that effort, persistence, and strategies—not fixed traits like race, background, or “innate intelligence”—lead to improvement and success. I have spent 32 years in education as a teacher and principal, and I believe deeply in this principle. But after decades of working in public schools—especially large city districts with high numbers of minority students—I have grown increasingly concerned: too often, the policies and practices we adopt ac...

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