Well, this is discouraging...

[Backseat Driver]

Intelligence, Not Mindset, Predicts Learning Ability https://www.labroots.com/trending/neuroscience/16147/intelligence-mindset-predicts-learning-ability

[snip]

This research comes after a recent review of research on mindset that found a weak correlation between having a growth mindset and academic achievement (Sisk: 2019). Finding that encouraging children to believe they can improve their abilities had no significant effect on their academic achievement, researchers hope that this research, combined with the more recent study on learning to play the piano, may inform education practices for better.
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Add to that: Whoa! https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-babies-ex/

Fact or Fiction?: Babies Exposed to Classical Music End Up Smarter
Is the so-called "Mozart effect" a scientifically supported, developmental leg up or a media-fueled "scientific legend"?

[snip]

Chabris says the real danger isn't in this questionable marketing, but in parents shirking roles they are evolutionarily meant to serve. "It takes away from other kinds of interaction that might be beneficial for children," such as playing with them and keeping them engaged via social activity. That is the key to a truly intelligent child, not the symphonies of a long-dead Austrian composer.

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Well, so listening nor playing a tune has much bearing on people's intelligence...so how do we reach the politically unenlightened? Even early interaction looks pretty much impossible, and critical thinking skills could be pretty much unteachable - you got it or you don't depending on where one falls on the Bell curve of inherent "intelligence." That is disturbing and discouraging - is it even worth the higher cost of homes when buying the school system? Stupid is as stupid does is the bottom line? Not good teachers, not social life or experience? Nothing to be done except buy more protection from the Zombies? Oh, the apocalyse must surely be on its way!

[Igel]

1. Mindset isn't a neutral thing.

The claims for it are hyper idealistic because if they're not it means that the educators are classist/racist/etc. It's a kind of virtue signaling with condemnation of others. If we just believed ...

But "growth mindset" does help some kids, primarily those who are convinced that they're destined to fail and therefore don't try. Those kids are very often disadvantaged in terms of home life--family structure, abuse, poverty, constant changing of residence, etc. It's basically saying that if you think you'll fail you probably will, it's a really easy prediction to bring to pass. But if you don't think you'll fail and so you try, then you'll very often succeed to some extent. Most kids, esp. middle class and above, don't think they'll fail, while some think they'll succeed, and the two mindsets are fairly often fluid and switch between mere uncertainty and confidence; the difference between these two groups hasn't been obvious in the research I've seen.

But the downer kids, they do have a small benefit because it provides grounds for motivational strategies to work. The question is why the effect is small. Is it because their expectations are false and they're really ill-prepared to succeed for some reason that they carry with them? Is it because they don't really adopt the "growth mindset"? Is it because circumstances around them still keep them from succeeding, either patronizing and racist teachers or just crappy home life?

Dunno. But education's full of fleeting ideologies, even as NAEP scores rise but slightly at best in spite of the vast effort expended and blame dispersed.