Parents, educators, and especially teenagers complain that too much attention is paid to grades and test scores. And they are correct! Grades alone cannot capture the breadth and depth of what a child has learned, how they have personalized their knowledge in ways that better prepare them for post-secondary education or the workplace, or whether they are prepared to be confident and contributing members of society. So what’s missing from the “Grade Point Average” (GPA) that is, in so many ways, the gold standard for evaluating student success? How about a companion “Character Point Average”?

The New York Times Magazine article, “The Character Test,” pointed to the efforts of a number of NYC’s prestigious private schools and ways that they are trying to provide an educational experience for their students that goes beyond academic rigor and address factors that are keys to later happiness and success. Modeled upon research by Martin Seligman in the area of character development, these schools tried to isolate key characteristics that would, in the long term, benefit their students, regardless of their background, school achievement or particular goals and aspirations

Now think about students with learning disabilities. For so many, their school careers are riddled with frustration (and too often, failure) and they struggle as much to protect a fragile self-concept as to orchestrate ways to meet (or exceed) the requirements to transition from one grade to the next and exit high school undefeated by repeated hurdles, often posed by the ways that they are tested and graded (the GPA!).

So what if there was another measure of success, not a “grade” point average, but a “character” point average (CPA)? The CPA would also follow a child through school and be used as a way to further understand and appreciate the skills and character traits that recommend to a student further study, employment, or both?

The authors of The New York Times article mention a Grit Scale where students rate themselves on 12 questions (it takes about three minutes to complete) on such items as “I finish whatever I begin” and “I often set a goal but later choose to pursue a different one.” When reviewed by researchers, high “grit” ratings were associated with students who, despite low scores on SATs were able to achieve high GPAs. (Doesn’t THAT sound like so many students with LD!) And when administered to cadets at West Point, the grit scale results successfully predicted which trainees were most likely to make it through the rigorous and at times grueling training program.

Here are some of the CPA characteristics mentioned in the article:

• Zest, grit, self-control, social intelligence, gratitude, optimism, and curiosity.

And I love the mention of these characteristics as leading to a schools’ creating a “blueprint for niceness” (mandating that students treat everyone with respect and that they be aware of other people’s feelings and find ways to help those whose feelings have been hurt)

How about adding these to your dinner-time conversations? Why not incorporate some to these into the goals on your child’s IEP, 504 Plan, or Transition Plan?

How would you feel about a CPA rating side by side with a GPA on your child’s school transcript?

Your opinions please!