Sally M. Reis

The Underachievement of Gifted Students: What Do We Know and Where Do We Go?:

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. Despite this interest, the underachievement of gifted students remains an enigma. 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. The problems inherent in defining and identifing underachieving gifted students are given special attention. The authors also include suggestions for those interested in pursuing potentially promising new lines of research and inquiry in this area.

We Can't Change What We Don't Recognize: Understanding the Special Needs of Gifted Females

In this article, an overives of some of the major issues, questions and problems related to gifted females will be presented. These issues include the underachievement of gifted females; creative productivity of females; male dominance in mathematics and science; cultural stereotyping, sex roles and mixed messages; lack of planning; the perfection complex and the imposter syndrome; concerns about counseling and special populations, Research related to the issues of ability, achievement, personality, social and environmental pressures related to gender will be briefly discussed and suggestions for future research directions will be made.

Understanding resilience in diverse, talented students in an urban high school

This article summarizes findings from a 3‐year study of 35 economically disadvantaged, ethnically diverse, academically talented high school students who either achieved or underachieved in their urban high school. In particular, the resilience of these two groups of high ability students is explored. Comparative case study and ethnographic methods were used to examine the ways in which some academically talented students develop and/or employ strategies associated with resilience to achieve at high levels. Both risk factors and protective factors are examined to explore participants’ pathways toward either positive or negative outcomes. The results of this study suggest that some protective factors helped some academically talented students to achieve at high levels. The protective factors include supportive adults; friendships with other achieving students; opportunity to take honors and advanced classes; participation in multiple extracurricular activities both after school and during the summer; the development of a strong belief in self; and ways to cope with the negative aspects of their school and urban environment; and in some cases, their family lives. Other protective factors include students’ relationships with supportive adults and their previous participation in a gifted and talented program. Students who underachieved had specific risk factors, such as having older siblings who dropped out of school or became involved in drugs and/or alcohol. They also appeared to have developed fewer protective factors. The combination of the presence of risk factors and the absence of protective factors may ha ve impeded the ability of some underachieving students to achieve at higher levels.

Research Related to the Schoolwide Enrichment Triad Model1

The Schoolwide Enrichment Triad Model (SEM) is a product of 15 years of research and field testing and combines the previously developed Enrichment Triad and Revolving Door Identification Models. SEM has been implemented in school districts worldwide, and extensive evaluations and research studies indicate the effectiveness of the model. In this article, a brief explanation of SEM is provided as a summary of the research conducted on this approach. The review of the research is subdivided into (a) the effectiveness of the model as perceived by key groups, (b) research related to creative productivity, (c) research relating to personal and social development, (d) the use of SEM with underserved populations, (e) research on self-efficacy, (f) the use of SEM as a curricular framework, (g) research relating to learning styles and curriculum compacting, and (h) longitudinal research on the SEM. Research suggests that the model is effective at serving high-ability students in a variety of educational settings and in schools that serve diverse ethnic and socioeconomic populations.

The Effects of Differentiated Instruction and Enrichment Pedagogy on Reading Achievement in Five Elementary Schools

This experimental study examined the effect of a differentiated, enriched reading program on students’ oral reading fluency and comprehension using the schoolwide enrichment model–reading (SEM-R). Treatment and control conditions were randomly assigned to 63 teachers and 1,192 second through fifth grade students across five elementary schools. Using multilevel modeling, significant differences favoring the SEM-R were found in reading fluency in two schools (Cohen’s d effect sizes of .33 and .10) and in reading comprehension in the high-poverty urban school (Cohen’s d = .27), with no achievement differences in the remaining schools. These results demonstrate that an enrichment reading approach, with differentiated instruction and less whole group instruction, was as effective as or more effective than a traditional whole group basal approach.

The Reform Movement and the Quiet Crisis in Gifted Education

The reform movement in education appears to focus on the ways in which schools are organized and managed rather than on the interaction that takes place among teachers, students, and the material to be learned. In the process of designing reform to encourage our most promising students and also to meet the needs of at-risk students, we need to examine the types of changes currently being advocated. An examination of the various reform efforts and the effect that they are having on gifted education is provided in this article. Rather than allowing all reform movements to affect our students without our consent (especially those that call for the elimination of grouping), we need to address the impact of gifted education programs and practices and how they might influence the reform effort. We must also be concerned with continued advocacy for gifted programming, creating and maintaining exemplary programs and practices that can serve as models of what can be accomplished for high ability students. Simply to allow high ability students to be placed in classrooms in which no provisions will be made for their special needs is an enormous step backwards for our field. To lose our quest for excellence in the current move to guarantee equity will undoubtedly result in a disappointing, if not disastrous, education for our most potentially able children.

Case Studies of High-Ability Students with Learning Disabilities Who Have Achieved

We used qualitative methods to study 12 young people with learning disabilities who were successful at the college level. The participants reported negative school experiences, verified by their parents and school records, such as social problems, difficulty with teachers, and frustration with certain academic areas. The interaction of their high abilities and their learning disabilities produced a number of negative consequences since their talents were not usually addressed by the school system they attended. However, despite these experiences, participants were able to integrate specific personal traits and special compensation strategies and environmental modifications to succeed in a challenging university setting.

Gifted Females: They've Come a Long Way—Or Have They?

Current research and practice as well as media attention seem to indicate that opportunities for gifted females have increased while barriers to their achievement have decreased. However, before we become enthusiastic about these developments, a closer review of the implications and potential dangers of this attention must be conducted. This article will review recent research studies and analysis regarding gender and sex differences, point out promising research directions, and suggest future research needed to answer relevant questions. Sex bias in both programs and curriculum used in programs for the gifted will also be discussed.

The Differential Impact of Academic Self-Regulatory Methods on Academic Achievement Among University Students With and Without Learning Disabilities

Although research on academic self-regulation has proliferated in recent years, no studies have investigated the question of whether the perceived usefulness and the use of standard self-regulated learning strategies and compensation strategies provide a differential prediction of academic achievement for university students with and without learning disabilities (LD). We developed and tested a model explaining interrelationships among self-regulatory variables and grade point average (GPA) using structural equation modeling and multiple group analysis for students with LD (n = 53) and without LD (n = 421). Data were gathered using a new instrument, the Learning Strategies and Study Skills survey. The results of this study indicate that students with LD differed significantly from students without LD in the relationships between their motivation for and use of standard self-regulated learning strategies and compensation strategies, which in turn provided a differential explanation of academic achievement for students with and without LD. These paths of influence and idiosyncrasies of academic self-regulation among students with LD were interpreted in terms of social cognitive theory, metacognitive theory, and research conducted in the LD field.

Compensation Strategies Used by High-Ability Students With Learning Disabilities who Succeed In College:

To investigate how high-ability students With learning disabilities succeed in postsecondary academic environments, 12 young adults with disabilities who were successful at the university level were studied. Extensive interviews with these young adults provided examples of the problems faced by high-ability students with learning disabilities, as well as the specific compensation strategies the used to address and overcome these problems. Four of the participants had been identified as having a learning disability in elementary school; six were identified in junior or senior high school; and two were not diagnosed until college. The participants believed that having a learning disability was considered by elementary or secondary school personnel as synonymous with below-average ability. They reported that content remediation, rather than instruction in compensatory strategies, was usually provided in elementary and secondary school learning disability programs. In this article, the compensation strategies used by academically gifted students who succeeded in college are discussed. These include: study strategies, cognitive/learning strategies. compensatory supports, environmental accommodations, opportunities for counseling, self-advocacy, and the development of an individual plan incorporating a focus on metacognition and executive functions.