Attitude Vs Achievement

We took our end-of-year assessments (not the REAL BIG DEAL GOVERNMENT MANDATED test) today, and a belief I know has been researched has been reaffirmed.

A good attitude leads to achievement.

A poor attitude leads to very little growth.

My students who walked into the test going, "Well, I can try and see what happens" scored highly.

My students who walked in going, "I can't do this" scored poorly.

Probably my highest kiddo, let's call him Drum Corps, didn't get a score nearly as well because he walked in saying he couldn't do it, and kept that attitude going throughout the entire test.

Now, another kiddo, we'll call her Pegasus, she blew the test out of the WATER. But again, she walked in with the, "I'm going to try my hardest!" attitude and it paid off.

Job for me over the summer:

How can I help kids adjust their mindsets (hello Dweck, let's spend some time together...) so that they can have the 'I-can-try' mindset all the time, not just for testing?