NEWTON
PUBLIC SCHOOLS
100 Walnut Street, Newtonville, MA 02460
Office of Assistant Superintendent for Secondary Education
& Special Programs
MEMO
To:
Superintendent David Fleishman
From: Assistant Superintendent for Secondary Education Cynthia Bergan
Date: November 18, 2014
Re:
Growth Mindset; Middle School Principals’ Presentation
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Four years ago, the middle school principals and the curriculum coordinators, along with
first Ann Koufman and then Mary Eich, began the study and implementation of Making
Thinking Visible. The resulting professional development for teachers provided clear
classroom strategies for improving student learning through questions and prompts that
encouraged deeper and more critical thinking. The principals presented their work to
the School Committee in the spring of 2012.
A year ago, the principals and coordinators extended their study to incorporate Growth
Mindset, first described in a 2006 publication, Mindset: The New Psychology of
Success, by Carol Dweck. Growth Mindset addresses the complicated beliefs that one
holds about either one’s own abilities or the abilities of others, and the impact those
beliefs can have on learning, resilience, and school culture. On Monday November 24,
2014, the middle school principals will describe five main areas of the growth mindset
work for the School Committee. They are:
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Learning behaviors associated with fixed and growth mindsets
Design and delivery of professional development for district leaders and middle
school teachers
Current practices that support Growth Mindset work
Expected outcomes from the Growth Mindset work
Next steps under consideration for all four schools
Attached you will find an article by Carol Dweck in which she describes the research
that led to the development of her thinking about mindset, and the implications it has for
our work as educators. We look forward to presenting this work on November 24th.