Underachievement among gifted children: why it's a problem, how to prevent it, and how to reverse it.

1. No
Child
Left
Behind?
not
Gifted children are ^ going to be just fine on their own.
MYTH: Gifted children are the “good kids.” They already
know the material, so they don’t need anything from
school.
Eric is 16. He can frequently be found skulking around the outer
perimeter of his school with a cigarette in hand when he should be in
class. He barely passes his classes, and has no plans of going to
college. In fact, he’s thinking of dropping out of high school.
When he buys drugs, he doesn’t need a calculator to figure out
what he owes. When he bothers to show up for tests, he gets almost
all the answers right even though he didn’t study. He is quick to point
out teachers’ mistakes and mutters disrespectful comments under his
breath. His charismatic personality means he can quickly draw other
students into his misbehavior.
Eric has an IQ of 145. When he was in first grade, he wanted to do
well—and it wasn’t a difficult goal. Because everything was too easy
for him, he never learned how to study or persevere through
challenges, and so when he encountered something he didn’t know
how to do, he lacked the skills to meet the challenge.
He also grew to think of school as a place where his ideas weren’t
valued. He was scolded for skipping ahead in his workbook and his
friends thought he was weird for wanting to talk about exoplanets.
Eric attends a top-rated school. His teachers work hard to make
sure every child is proficient in the material studied. They genuinely
care about their kids.
Why should I care?
You became a teacher because you care.
You want the best for all of your students.
W hen faced w ith drills and repetition of m aterial they
have already m astered, gifted students experience: 2
• stunted progress
• stress
• low self-esteem
• avoidance of risk
and failure
• depression
• underachievement
• social & behavioral
maladjustments
BE THE CHANGE!
73% of teachers nationwide
agree:
“Too often, the brightest
students are bored and underchallenged in school.”1
1%
Agree
26%
Disagree
73%
Not Sure
No one teacher will singlehandedly solve this problem.
But you can make little swaps
that go a LONG way towards
preventing underachievement!
INSTEAD OF: Sending students
to help classmates when they
finish early
TRY: Having students create
challenging problems for you,
classmates, or older students.
INSTEAD OF: Asking students to
wait quietly while others think
through problems
TRY: Challenging them to
think of as many ways as possible
to solve a problem while others
are thinking.
INSTEAD OF: Having students
who finish writing a poem early
write a new one
TRY: Helping them improve upon
what they’ve already done.
LEARN HOW TO HELP THE ERIC IN YOUR CLASS REVERSE THE TREND
© Cassandra Trujillo, 2013. www.GiftedKidsMatterToo.blogspot.com

2. Underachievement (n):
a severe discrepancy between expected achievement (as measured by standardized test scores
or cognitive ability assessments) and actual achievement (as measured by class grades and
teacher evaluations)3
The Path to Underachievement4
Boredom
Underachievers often
begin underachieving
when they feel
bored because of the
curriculum is not
challenging enough.
Lack of
Study Skills
Because of this lack of
challenge in early grades,
gifted students don’t
develop study skills, so
as they get older and work
gets harder, they are
unprepared to meet
the challenge.
Reversing Underachievement
Research5 shows that students who reversed their underachievement did so by:
• improving their self-concept
• understanding the causes
• increasing their self-confidence
behind their underachievement
• discovering intrinsic satisfaction
• developing study skills
from schoolwork
These three factors were imperative to the reversal:
An out-of-school hobby that provides:
• an escape from unfavorable school situations
• feelings of self-worth and success in the face of
academic failure
• a way to foster love of learning and independent
learning
• a practical application for scholastic achievement
A teacher who:
• students believe cares about and likes them
• speaks to students as equals
• is willing to discuss students’ personal lives
• exhibits a love for the subject and learning
• encourages student participation
• holds students to high but realistic standards
• uses a variety of strategies and resources
A class that:
• provides a challenge by going just over the
students’ heads academically
• allows students to move at their own pace
and work independently on topics of their
own choosing
• incorporates interactive, discussion-based
elements
• involves material that can be practically
applied to real life
Low
Self-Esteem
When work gets harder,
students initially increase
their efforts. If this does not
quickly lead to success,
students begin to “devalue
their own efforts” and
underachieve.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
To prevent and reverse
underachievement:
• Hold students to high,
explicitly-stated expectations
• Keep students engaged and
challenged by allowing them to
work on independent projects
based on individual interests.
• Provide resources for learning
study skills.
• Take interest in all areas of
your students’ lives.
• Use evaluation methods that
emphasize progress towards
mastery instead of
performance or results.
It is difficult to identify underachieving gifted students.
(Think back to Eric. Did he fit
with your idea of gifted?)
Luckily, these practices are
best practices for all children.
By incorporating them into
your classroom, you can
ensure that every student’s
needs are being met.
EVERY CHILD DESERVES THE RIGHT TO LEARN IN SCHOOL.
© Cassandra Trujillo, 2013. www.GiftedKidsMatterToo.blogspot.com

3.
Research Sources
1. Farkas, S. & Duffett, A. (2008). Part II: Results from a national teacher survey. In Thomas B. Fordham Institute
(Ed.), High-achieving students in the era of NCLB (pp. 49-82). Retrieved from: www.edexcellence.net
2. Rogers, K. B. (2007). Lessons learned about educating the gifted and talented: A synthesis of the research on
educational practice. Gifted Child Quarterly, 51(4), 382-396.
3. 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(3), 152-170.
4. Reis, S. M., Hebert, T. P., Diaz, E. P., Maxfield, L. R., & Ratley, M. E. (1995). Case studies of talented
students who achieve and underachieve in an urban high school (Research Monograph 95120). Storrs, CT:
University of Connecticut, National Research Center for the Gifted and Talented.
5. Emerick, L. J. (1992). Academic underachievement among the gifted: Students' perceptions of factors that
reverse the pattern. Gifted Child Quarterly, 36(3), 140-146; Renzulli, J. S., & Park, S. (2000). Gifted dropouts:
The who and the why. Gifted Child Quarterly, 44, 261-271.
© Cassandra Trujillo, 2013. www.GiftedKidsMatterToo.blogspot.com