De Marillac Academy: Perseverance, Purpose, and Promise

For many years, the Catholic school system within the United States was considered the preeminent educational institution, particularly for poor and marginalized students that live in low income, inner city areas. Now, given the large number of school closures, the Catholic school system's long-standing goal of educating economically disadvantaged students in inner city schools is in peril. In this study, the researchers examined De Marillac Academy, a Catholic, tuition-free middle school, located in the Tenderloin District in San Francisco, CA, to identify both the non-cognitive skills students have learned and the organizational factors in place, which have contributed to these urban students' success in high school and beyond. The authors discuss how the concept of what Angela Duckworth calls grit and Swadener and Lubeck's notion of students-at-promise contribute, in part, to the students' academic success. They also offer a perspective on how to best teach grit in urban Catholic schools.