To be gifted and learning disabled: From identification to practical intervention strategies. 39-40). Since the identification of gifted underachievers depends on defining both underachievement and giftedness, discussing criteria for identification is no less complicated. document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); document.getElementById( "ak_js_3" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Please note, the Davidson Institute is a non-profit serving families with highly gifted children. The causes and correlates of gifted underachievement have received considerable attention in recent research literature (Dowdall & Colangelo, 1982; Van Boxtel & Monks, 1992; Whitmore, 1986). Pirozzo, R. (1982). Whether gifted students actually require interventions that are qualitatively different from nongifted underachievers has yet to be determined. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Gifted students in states across the country often encounter a wide range of services varying from state to state and, The following article shares highlights and insights from one of our Expert Series events, which are exclusive for Young Scholarsand, TheFellows Scholarshipawards $50,000, $25,000 and $10,000 scholarships to extraordinary young people, 18 and under, who have completed a significant piece, This article explores and explains emotional intensity in gifted individuals. In their recent study of gifted urban underachievers, the family dysfunction that characterized the lives of the gifted underachievers contrasted with the happier home lives of the gifted achievers (Reis et al., 1995). (1965). Model-based interventions provide an internal consistency between diagnostic and prescriptive elements. Underachievement Gifted Child Quarterly, 36, 140-146. How can educators help bright students who are underachieving in school? Students who are required to repeat grade levels or courses are rarely singled out as a result of low standardized achievement test scores. Gifted Child Quarterly, 15, 279-292. First, researchers should begin to explore the relationship between classroom practices and academic underachievement. If a certain amount of variation between aptitude measures and achievement measures is normal, how does one distinguish between normal variability in scores and a discrepancy that indicates a cause for concern? However, neither study used a control or comparison group; therefore, the results of their studies may not be generalizable to the entire population of underachievers. In other words, they may not identify a student as an underachiever unless performance in at least one major subject area is at least one year below grade level. Earl A Grollman High Gifted Child Quarterly, 39, 224-235. Underachieving students may not want to identify with their parents (Clark, 1983; Weiner, 1992). These classroom strategies can provide attractive and interesting curricular replacement options and enrichment to advanced students. Gifted children who are struggling academically present an unmet challenge for the educational system. Further research in this area must focus on developing multiple approaches to both preventing and reversing underachievement. Understanding Underachievement Emericks study indicated that one type of effective intervention may be based on students strengths and interests (Renzulli, 1977; Renzulli & Reis, 1985, 1997). Frick, P. J., Kamphaus, R. W., Lahey, B. Neither approach seems logical or practical for school-based research. This approach (Renzulli, 1977) specifically targets student strengths and interests in order to help reverse academic underachievement (Baum, Renzulli, & Hebert, 1995b). Whitmore (1986) suggested that the problem of gifted students who lack motivation to participate in school or to strive to excel academically is, in most cases, a product of a mismatch between the childs motivational characteristics and the opportunities provided in the classroom (p. 67). Let us define underachievement as a discrepancy between expected achievement and actual achievement. Second, the psychometric or standardized tests that are used to screen for gifted underachievement may not be valid or reliable indices of the abilities of students from diverse cultural backgrounds. In fact, it appears each additional academic course that an at-risk student completes can be expected to result in an increase of one eighth of a standard deviation in academic achievement test scores (Anderson & Keith p. 264). Ideally, the researcher would standardize both the predictor and the criterion variables and would identify as underachievers those students whose actual achievement is at least one standard deviation below their expected achievement level. If unchallenging scholastic environments produce underachieving gifted students, then providing intellectual challenge and stimulation at all grade levels should decrease underachievement. Underachieving boys: Problems and solutions. It is important for educators to have a clear understanding as to who are considered gifted underachievers in the classroom. Publication: Gifted Child Quarterly Because students underachieve for so many different reasons, no one intervention strategy can possibly reverse these behaviors in all underachieving gifted students. No one predictor will ever include all the determinants of a behavioral outcome. No reason exists to believe that all gifted students should achieve well academically (Janos & Robinson, 1985) or that ability and achievement should be perfectly correlated (Thorndike, 1963). Psychological disturbance in adolescence (2nd ed.). A. Gifted children who do not succeed in school are often successful in outside activities such as sports, social occasions, and after-school jobs. Family, school, and individual factors all seem to contribute to the emergence of underachievement behaviors (Baker, Bridger, & Evans, 1998). Weiner (1992) outlined four different interventions for four distinct groups of low achieving students: (1) strengthening deficient reward systems, (2) alleviating cognitive and emotional handicaps, (3) filling educational gaps, and (4) modifying passive-aggressive propensities. Columbus, OH: Merrill. Gallagher, J. J. Academic underachievement among the gifted: Students perceptions of factors that reverse the pattern. For example, an observed score of 130 on WISC-III is in the 98th percentile. Although some underachieving students appear to progress during academic interventions, the long-term effect of such programs are less clear. Gifted Child Quarterly, 31, 180-185. Finally, African American students often exhibit an attitude-achievement paradox; they report positive attitudes toward education, yet they manifest poor academic achievement. Gowan, J. C. (1957). Chen, X. Students who seem to be unmotivated may have attention deficits. B. The first theme, displayed in Table 1, portrays underachievement as a discrepancy between potential (or ability) and performance (or achievement). Amazingly, the number of highly intellectual students who had not achieved well in school is as high as 50% (Schultz, 2005). Learning to underachieve. This article reviews and analyzes three decades of research on the underachievement of gifted students in an attempt to clarify the present state of research. Kedding, R. E. (1990). However, although operational definitions provide clarity, they sacrifice flexibility and inclusiveness in a quest for precision. This student may have consciously decided not to expend the time or effort to do seemingly meaningless homework and willfully chose to engage in more self-actualizing activities. Whitmore (1989) identified three broad causes for underachievement in gifted children: Lack of motivation to apply themselves in school Environments that do The documented effectiveness of most interventions designed to reverse underachievement in gifted students has been inconsistent and inconclusive (Emerick, 1988). Taylor, R. D. (1994). Unfortunately, no universally agreed upon definition of underachievement currently exists. Renzulli, J. S., & Reis, S. R. (1985). But neither our psychological insights nor our statistical evidence give us reason to believe that a scholastic aptitude test measures all of the significant determiners of scholastic achievement. Often, the lists of common personality traits contradict one another. (1992). Richert, E. S. (1991). Being aware of these factors could change teacher and parent perceptions of the student as an underachiever. Underachievement in Gifted Children - Verywell Family Holland, 1998). Vocabulary facilitates communication; without a common vocabulary, professionals cannot assume that they are discussing the same construct. It is impossible to establish a causal relationship from case study reports of family conflict and underachievement. Students may experience short-term lags in achievement that may not be indicative of a long-term underachievement problem. Mexican American students who came from Spanish-speaking backgrounds and who became proficient in English (FEP) were generally more successful in school than were those from Spanish-speaking backgrounds who were not proficient (LEP students) in English or than Latino students from English speaking backgrounds. Bright underachievers. The parents of unmotivated underachievers may also benefit from therapeutic strategies that encourage them to speak positively about education, show an interest in their childs schoolwork, and praise their childs accomplishments (Weiner). Pendarvis, E. D., Howley, A. Who is the gifted underachiever? Legitimate problems exist in determining whether these students are at greater risk for social or emotional problems than other students, and most interventions to reverse underachievement have met with limited success. The most successful programs to reverse underachievement behaviors will provide a menu of intervention options for different types of underachieving gifted students. Gifted Child Quarterly, 30, 66-69. (1997). Reggie Bush, RB, Miami Dolphins: Bush was on his way to a top five appearance before he finally had a breakout season for the Dolphins in 2011, putting to Rimm, S., Cornale, M., Manos, R., & Behrend, J. An underachievement epidemic. Renzulli, J. S., Reid, B. D., & Gubbins, E. J. Where Are the Gifted Minorities? Three methods of assisting underachieving high school students. Current identification practices that underidentify gifted African American students hinder the identification of gifted underachievers of African American descent. Where Are the Gifted Minorities? - Scientific American Blog Network Standardized achievement tests offer one advantage over classroom grades: They provide documented, empirical evidence of reliability. Social Science Research, 18, 21- 52. Roeper Review, 16, 88-90. In a recent study, researchers used self-selected Type III enrichment projects as a systematic intervention for underachieving gifted students. Storrs, CT: University of Connecticut, National Research Center for the Gifted and Talented. Watertown, WI: Apple. Underachievement in Gifted Children. In M. Kornrich (Ed. Certain responses to these questions may lead to the conclusion that underachievement does not exist or is not a problem that adults should remedy. For example, statistical regression to the mean further complicates the comparison of two aptitude or achievement measurements. Renzulli, J. S. (1977). Do students underachieve because they come from families in conflict? Paper presented at the First Southeast Asian Regional Conference on Giftedness. Both Whitmore and Supplee designed their programs to effect immediate change in student behaviors, as well as to research the construct of underachievement. For each personality trait common to gifted underachievers, there are many other underachieving gifted students who do not exhibit that trait. Defining underachievement in gifted students seems as if it should be an easy and straightforward task. Silverman, L. K. (1993). There was an increasing opposition between parents as the challenger became more authoritarian and the rescuer became increasingly protective (p. 355). Differences in scores will arise as a result of sampling errors, student mood and health on the testing days, and other extraneous variances. Why bright kids get poor grades and what you can do about it. The process of defining underachievement, identifying underachieving gifted students, and explaining the reasons for this underachievement continues to stir controversy among practitioners, researchers, and clinicians. Gifted "underachievers under-the-radar" are frequently overlooked, and sometimes even mistaken for high achievers. These are the exceptionally gifted students who coast through school, often receiving average to high average grades, but who fail to reach their potential. 119-137). Even the research on common characteristics in underachieving gifted students is often inconsistent. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education. This attitude-achievement paradox makes understanding and reversing their underachievement difficult to those unfamiliar with the phenomenon (Mickelson, 1990). Three of these paradigms are compared and contrasted in Table 6. Friends influence on students adjustment to school. Participants in Emericks study perceive that out-of-school interests and activities, parents, development of goals associated with grades, teachers, and changes in selves had a positive impact on achievement. 11-12). Despite this interest, the underachievement of gifted students remains an enigma. & M. Bireley & J. Genshaft (Vol. Locus of control and self-concept in achieving and underachieving bright elementary students. Rumberger, R. W., & Larson, K. A. Minority students are often underrepresented in programs for the gifted and talented (Ford, 1996; Tomlinson, Callahan, & Leili, 1997). For example, Rimms trifocal model is a three-pronged approach that involves parents and school personnel in an effort to reverse student underachievement (Rimm, 1995; Rimm, et al., 1989). At what age should an individual gain control over his or her own destiny and make decisions regarding his or her priorities and goals? New York: Teachers College Press. Zimmerman, B.J. Culturally diverse students continue to face unintentional bias at school and in society at large (Ford, 1996). Roeper Review, 12, 23-29. Or, is there a dynamic interaction between the underachiever and the family? In general, inadequate research has examined the interventions aimed at reversing underachievement.