Underachievement and the Gifted

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Underachievement and the Gifted

• Suzanne Myers-Laird, MS Ed.
• Waukee Academic Boosters 1/13/09

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• It is not impossibilities which fill us with the
  deepest despair, but possibilities which we have
  failed to realize.
• Robert Mallet

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Underachievement What is it?

• Children with average, above-average, and even
  gifted intellectual abilities who are simply not
  performing up to their capabilities.
• Rimm (1995)

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• Severe discrepancy between expected achievement
  (as measured by standardized achievement test
  scores or cognitive or intellectual ability
  assessments) and actual achievement (as measured
  by class grades and teacher evaluations)
• Reis and McCoach (2000)

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• A student not working up to his/her potential.
  You can do better
• Coil (2004)

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Underachievement Why should we care?

• It is speculated that approximately 50 of the
  gifted population fit the definition of
  underachievement
• McCoach and Seigle (2008)
• Davidson and Davidson (2004)
• A Nation at Risk (1983)

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• Of those gifted students without underachievement
  issues
• 100 attend college
• 83 finish 4 years of college
• Peterson (2000 study)

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• Of those gifted students who struggle with
  underachievement issues
• 87 attend college
• 52 finish 4 years of college
• Peterson (2000 study)

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• Four years after high school graduation, high
  school and college achievement were strongly
  correlated.
• Peterson (2000)

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• Thirteen years after high school, the educational
  and occupational status of high school
  underachievers paralleled their grades in high
  school, rather than their abilities.
• McCall, Evahn, Kratzer (1992 in the largest
  longitudinal study of underachievers conducted to
  date)

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• Between 18-25 of high school dropouts are
  identified as gifted
• The Center for Comprehensive School Reform and
  Improvement (2008)

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Characteristics of Underachievement

• The Rebel or Rebellious Rebecca
• Disruptive, delinquent, hostile, touchy,
  temperamental
• Reis McCoach (2000)

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• The Stressed Learner or Perfectionistic Pearl
• Anxious, perfectionistic, worries about failure
• Reis McCoach (2000)

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• The Complacent Learner or Passive Paul
• Procrastinates, easily
• distracted, seems
• unconcerned about work
• Reis McCoach (2000)

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Underachievement What does it look like?

• Low academic self-perceptions
• Low self-motivation
• Low effort toward academic tasks
• Negative attitudes toward school and teachers
• Daydream and dawdle
• Lack of goals
• Feelings of inferiority
• Avoid competition (unless they are sure to win)

• Low self-confidence
• Use reading, tv, and video games as escapes from
  doing homework
• Inability to persevere
• Have creative ideas but they are rarely brought
  to closure
• School is boring
• Disorganized
• Possible behavior/learning problems

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• Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson
• Reprint for educational use only

Reprinted for educational purposes only
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Early Risk Factors for Underachievement

• The too soon child
• The overwelcome child
• Birth order
• Early health problems
• Specific parenting relationships
• Giftedness
• Rimm (1995)

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Eleanor Roosevelt said,

• The surest way to make it difficult for children
  is to make it easy for them.

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Possible Familial Causes

• Inconsistent parenting techniques
• Overly lenient/strict/protective
• Treating child as an adult at too young an age
• Family instability/problems
• Too much pressure

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Possible Environmental Causes (school)

• Strict/repressive/inflexible teachers
• Unrewarding curriculum
• Overly helpful teachers
• Lack of variety in teaching styles
• Impossible standards/low expectations
• Extremely competitive/no competition

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Possible Environmental Causes (peers)

• High-achieving peers have a positive influence on
  gifted students who begin to underachieve. The
  reverse is true as well. One study showed that
  66 of high ability students named peer pressure
  as the primary force against getting good grades.
• Studies show that friends grades are very
  similar by the end of the year.
• Inman Powerpoint

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Possible Personal Causes

• Depression and anxiety
• Externalizing issues including rebellion and
  nonconformity
• Learning problems
• Deficits in self-regulation
• Social immaturity
• Dual exceptionality
• Reis and McCoach (2002)

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• Its never too late to be what you might have
  been.
• George Eliot

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Is there no hope???

• Children are not born underachievers.
  Underachievement is learned, therefore it can be
  unlearned.
• Davis and Rimm (2004 p. 317)

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Underachievement What can we do to reverse it?

• As Teachers
• Show acceptance and caring
• Encourage extra-curricular interests
• Communicate one-on-one
• Maintain home/school contact
• Suggest counseling (parent, student, or family)
• Use competition productively

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What can we do?

• As Parents
• Be good models
• Refrain from using words like smartest and
  brilliant
• Emphasize hard work and good thinking
• Instead of reassuring underachievers of their
  brilliance and creativity, its better to admire
  their hard work ethic.
• Be consistent (individually and together)
• Encourage extra-curricular activities
• Maintain a positive attitude toward your child,
  even in the face of academic failure
• Remain calm, consistent, and objective during the
  underachievement situation

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What can we do?

• Rimms TRIFOCAL model
• Assessment
• Communication
• Changing Expectations
• Role Model Identification
• Correction of Deficiencies
• Modifications of Reinforcements
• Rimm (1995)

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What can we do?

• As schools
• Provide for intellectual challenge and advanced
  studies
• Use independent study
• Include student discussion
• Make activities/assignments real/relevant to the
  student
• Focus on the process as well as the product
• Gifted/advanced classes
• Early identification
• Use of counselors familiar with underachievement
• Mentoring
• Promote extracurricular activities
• Promote home-school partnerships

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What can we do?

• In regards to peers
• Parents and teachers should encourage
  interactions and friendships with other gifted
  achievers with similar interests

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• I find the harder I work, the more luck I seem
  to have.
• Thomas Jefferson

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What can we do?

• Seek counseling interventions
• Individual, group, or family
• Concentrate on changing personal and/or family
  dynamics that lead to underachievement
• Coping with frustration

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• Professor Dumbledore
• It is our choices, Harry, that show what we
  truly are, far more than our abilities.
• J.K. Rowling
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

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Works cited

• Coil, C. (2004). Becoming an Achiever. USA
  Pieces of Learning.
• Davidson, J. a. (2004). Genius Denied. New York
  Simon and Schuster.
• Davis, G. A. (2004). Education of the Gifted and
  Talented. Boston Pearson Education, Inc.
• Delisle, J. (1994). Dealing with the stereotype
  of underachievement. Gifted Child Today, 17(6),
  20-21.
• Emerick, L.J. (1992). Academic underachievement
  among the gifted Students perceptions of
  factors that reverse the pattern. Gifted Child
  Quarterly, 36(3), 140-146.
• Inman, T. Underachievement Powerpoint. The
  Center for Gifted Studies Western Kentucky
  University
• National Commission on Excellence in Education.
  (1983). A nation at risk The imperative for
  educational reform. Washington, D.C. U.S.
  Government Printing Office.
• McCall, R.B. Evahn, C. Kratzer, L. (1992).
  High School Underachievers What do they achieve
  as adults? Newbury Park Sage Publications.
• Peterson, J.S. (2000). A Follow-Up Study of One
  Group of Achievers and Underachievers Four Years
  After High School Graduation. Roeper Review,
  22(4), 217-224,
• Peterson, J.S. Colangelo, N. (1996). Gifted
  Achievers and Underachievers A Comparison of
  Patterns Found in School Files. Journal of
  Counseling and Development, 74, 399-407.
• Reis, S. M., McCoach, D. B. (2002).
  Underachievement in gifted and talented students
  with special needs. Exceptionality, 10(2),
  113-125.
• Reis, S. M., McCoach, D. B. (2000). The
  underachievement of gifted students What do we
  know and where do we go? Gifted Child Quarterly,
  44, 152-170.
• Rimm, S. (1995). Why Bright Kids Get Poor Grades
  (and what you can do about it). New York Three
  Rivers Press.
• Rimm, S., Cornale, M., Manos, R., and Behrend,
  J. (1992). Guidebook For Implementing the
  TRIFOCAL Underachievement Program for Schools.
  Watertown Apple Publishing Company.
• Schultz, B. H. (2005). Gifted Underachievement
  Oxymoron or Educational Enigma? Gifted Child
  Today, 28(2), 46-49.
• The Center for Comprehensive School Reform and
  Improvement. (2008). Issue Brief Gifted and
  Talented Students at Risk for Underachievement.
  Washington, D.C. Learning Point Associates and
  SEDL for the U.S. Department of Education.
• Tomlinson, C. A. (1999). The Differentiated
  Classroom Responding to the Needs of All
  Learners. Alexandria Association for Supervision
  and Curriculum Development.