“Grit.” “Resilience.” “Growth mindset.” These buzzwords have been invoked in conversations about reforming schools for a couple of years now. (There’s nothing like a TED Talk, is there, to get people to take your idea for changing education seriously.)

Ed-tech entrepreneurs and investors are getting in on the action, as have researchers like Angela Duckworth who’s created software to measure and track how well students perform on these "social emotional" measurements. She’s got a book out this year. So does Paul Tough, who now argues that “grit” can’t really be taught. Despite all that, startups like ClassDojo – which raised $21 million in April – promise to help teachers monitor these sorts of behaviors.

Can social emotional learning be taught? Can it be tested? Can it be profited from? The three burning questions of all ed-tech trends.