As the American economy has moved from a manufacturing emphasis to the digital age, its students have been found to be lacking academic skills necessary to compete in the current global job market. Education analysts have proposed various remedies to this, including the types of educational reforms outlined in documents such as "A Nation at Risk" (U.S. National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983) and No Child Left Behind (2002). However, these reforms have not resulted in the desired growth that was expected. With brain research occurring in the early years of the 21st century, researchers began to look at noncognitive skills as the missing link for academic growth. This study proposed to determine the degree of correlation between one noncognitive skill, grit, and student academic growth on standardized testing in a small, coastal resort area of North Carolina. Growth measures were determined by comparing the change in performance levels for each student from beginning of the year testing to end of the year testing. Possible relationships between growth and student grit were examined by comparing the testing growth measure to the degree of individual students' grit, as determined from results of a grit survey. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]