This University City nonprofit is discovering the science behind success and failure

There’s something of a disconnect in the world of research between the folks who are doing the probing and analyzing and the folks who are putting that work into practice.

University City nonprofit Character Lab wants to bridge that gap in the educational sphere of character development. In simpler terms, the organization is helping teachers demystify the factors that lead to some students succeeding and others failing.

“There’s an actual science behind this,” said Executive Director Donald Kamentz. “Why kids act a certain way, why they have fixed beliefs, why they have tenacity or the willingness to get things done.”

There’s psychological evidence, Kamentz said, that helps unveil the ways children best learn to set and accomplish goals.

Character Lab, founded by researcher and Penn professor Angela Duckworth, is developing tools and processes teachers have never had access to before, due to rules and regulations that have historically prohibited researchers from working with children during school hours. They’re doing it through a “virtual lab network” that allows hundreds of registered educators across the country to use their tools and upload their outcomes.

And it’s all free to use.

“Anything we create, we don’t monetize at all. It’s all free,” said Kamentz.

That includes tools like WOOP (Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan), which helps students identify goals and develop a plan to accomplish them — as long as the methods aren’t obstructed.

“There is such a science to this at times that if you don’t do it right, it could be quite ineffective,” said Kamentz. “You can adapt and personalize it, but if you took that four-step goal and took two steps out of it and it doesn’t work, you can’t blame us.”

Character Lab is able to continue their work on a “small nonprofit budget,” with support from funders such as Conshohocken-based Templeton Foundation and Arizona-based Walton Family Foundation — and the team is growing. At the moment (with help from local hiring and talent startup JaneHires), Character Lab is hiring for two positions ahead of their Educator Summit this summer.

That summit, too, is built for access: With 24 workshops and a host of renowned research scholars and educators, tickets to the event cost $100.

“Whatever we can produce and create should be an advancement of the field,” said Kamentz.