Leadership

Back in 1968, Dr. Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobsen published their findings regarding the self-fulfilling prophecy-"Pygmalion in the classroom". These two educators had become very concerned that teachers' expectations about lower-class and minority children were contributing to the high rates of failure among these students. They decided to test their theory-their experiment took place in a elementary school that was located in a lower-class but not impoverished community.

At the beginning of the school year, these educators administered an intelligence test to a group of students at this particular elementary school. They told the teachers that this test not only measured the students' IQ-it would also identify the students who would make rapid, above average intellectual progress during the coming school year, whether or not they were currently "good" students.

Within a few days, Rosenthal and Jacobsen gave the teachers the names of those students who, based upon the test results, could be expected to perform well in the classroom during the coming academic year.

However, there was a secret about those students' names that Rosenthal and Jacobsen deliberately kept from the teachers.....