They gave a test to some kids at a place called the Oak Elementary School. After the test they said the results showed that a portion of the kids were going to make fantastic progress during the school year. They called those special kids the “bloomers.” Then they gave the teachers lists of all the bloomers so that the teachers could watch those certain kids change during the year. And the kids did. The kids on the bloomer lists all made amazing progress—real progress. And here’s the best part: The information was fake! The names of the special kids, the bloomers? Those names were picked out of a hat! The only thing that wasn’t fake was the expectation of the teachers. The teachers actually expected certain kids to make progress, and that expectation was real, and the results at the end of the year were real too. The “bloomers” all made huge progress. All because of the expectations. Because expectations can be powerful. And by Thursday morning almost every fifth grader and all my teachers were expecting to see the new and improved Nora Rowley, girl genius.
