The Challenges Of Underachievement In Gifted Students

Gifted education is very stressful for students in middle school, but if you start in elementary school with a gifted program it could be less stressful on your child. Gifted programs are good programs but there are things that could make your child feel pressured and they may want to leave the program. To get into the programs depending on the district you are in there could be discrimination to be accepted or recommended to test for it. This discrimination could be based on race, income, gender, or ethnicity, if you’re in a school district that lets you apply without being recommended then you won’t have to worry about this. Studies show that in Broward County they started with teachers recommended students and then changed their system to where any students could apply to the gifted programs and there was a major increase in low income, latino, and black students that were accepted.

There are many debates going around about gifted education. Should we fund it? Should we not? Should we support it, or shouldn’t we? Many articles that I’ve read are on both sides. Everyone has their own opinion to whether or not we should support it. But in my opinion I think we should support both sides of the education system, the low-achieving and the higher-achieving students. Gifted education classes can help students challenge themselves and their peers around them.

Middle school is a period of transition for adolescents. Students are no longer the children were once were in elementary school; they are beginning to mature into the adults they will need to become. Gifted learners at the middle-school level face the same developmental and tasks tasks and challenges that their peers do. Yet, gifted learners also possess traits that are different from their peers, which often make them misunderstood or ignored. The need for teachers to identify these students and differentiate instruction in a way that addresses the needs of the gifted students in the classroom is becoming more crucial than ever.

Gifted students have a higher risk of dropping out of school due to a number of factors including a lack of challenge in academic areas, feeling disconnected to their fellow students and their teachers, potential drug and alcohol abuse and the lack of coping skills to deal with increased sensitivities. Additionally, gifted students are known to experience a lack of community or none acceptance at school, a high sensitivity not acknowledged in school, no help in learning coping skills for dealing with a major loss such as illness, death or changing schools, issues with authority but most importantly, they often do not have an advocate to help bring out meaningful change (Hansen and Torso, 2007). These factors have led to gifted students being underachievers, dropouts, or students who have developed an overall negative impression on school and learning in general.

You might think twice before sending a tennis coach to baseball’s spring training season; although there would be overlap in general kinesthetic and sports psychology knowledge, the nuances of the two sports are very different and require disparate sets of coaching skills. Just as a baseball team needs a coach who understands baseball, gifted students need guidance from well-trained, challenging teachers who understand their educational needs. Teacher training requirements for working with gifted students are determined at the state and local levels. Although gifted and talented students are in every school and classroom, few districts require that all classroom teachers receive training to address the educational needs of advanced learners.

Motivating gifted students can present a challenge for any teacher. Many children are coming to school with very little enthusiasm to learn, especially the gifted child. Although

Knowledge. Gifted learners will experience collaborative learning in a non-competitive environment. I will establish self management skills so they can be independent

Part of the Russell County Middle School (RCMS) mission statement declares that we as an organization will help students accomplish what they are capable of. Procedures are in place to assist special education students and cater to gifted students, but some students seem to fall through the cracks. About five percent of the student population is retained each year and about one percent fail to capitalize on the opportunity to be promoted mid-year the following school year. A review of these students’ average data showed that absenteeism and discipline were issues, but that the students performed on or close to grade level on standardized tests.

13) while promoting independence in learning and group-work (Taber, 2007a, pp. 16-17). This approach is in accord with the Maker Model (1982) which incorporates strategies for modifying curriculums for gifted students in the four key areas of content (what is taught), process (how content is taught), product (how students demonstrate their learning) and the learning

In this case, some people refute that gifted students are practically children with adult minds who are capable of diving into the real-world while they have merely begun to test the waters. Others counter with the belief that pushing gifted youth to tackle subjects above the average student of their grade is socially damaging. However, K. Elijah (2011) explains that gifted students who are not being challenged can develop an extreme boredom in school which can lead to disruptive behaviors that will evolve into dropping out of school. In the same article, gifted students are credited with learning quicker, more deeply, and tend to practice material for memorization less (Elijah, 2011). Also, “Acceleration of Gifted Students” (2003) further clarifies that when gifted students are properly assisted in developing an educational program, they report to be satisfied emotionally and academically. Students also tended to have more self-confidence, and no negative effects of acceleration were reported in a survey of non-gifted and gifted students (“Acceleration,” 2003). Assisting gifted students is imperative whether it be through homogeneous grouping, heterogeneous grouping, and/or acceleration in order to provide proper instruction that will benefit these

The need to reform the special education system is a topic agreed on across the board by scholars, but they do not all agree on the same aspects needing to be reformed. Baldwin, Baum, Pereles, & Hughes concentrate their research in developing a single accepted definition for twice-exceptional students. The authors created a timeline of what they consider the development of the history of twice exceptionality. The authors argue critics of Twice-Exceptional students do not accept the existence of a group of students gifted and disabled because there is not substantial proof (Baldwin, Baum, Pereles, & Hughes, 2015, p.211). The authors examine different approaches for establishing a unified solution to the gap in the education of twice-exceptional students. The premise of the author’s arguments are based on the acceptances of gifted students and disabled students, but not both combined. The revision of IDEA in 2004 began to open the door for the acceptance of the twice-exception field. “Significantly, the mention of students with disabilities who may also have gifts and talents was noted for the first time in the priorities for funding” (Baldwin, Baum, Pereles, & Hughes, 2015, p. 210). The authors use legal, educational and social lens when establishing their arguments. VanTassel-Baska’s focus is much the same as the previous authors. VanTassel-Baska examines the history of twice-exceptional students. The author suggests, “That gifted education policy is not coherent across the country, is controlled by state legislatures, and subject to annual scrutiny for continued and new funding” (VanTassel-Baska, 2018 p. 98). The author stresses the lack of coherence across the United States. The author suggests the issues surrounding twice-exceptional students are left to state level policy, therefore differ. The author further argues

It is really important that tasks are differentiated in advance for both gifted and talented children and

Throughout my high school career I was in a gifted program and it was helpful to an extent, the only classes I felt truly challenged in were advanced placement English and Dual Enrollment Anatomy. The program was helpful because it helped pay for many college preparation tests, that my parents were unable to afford. However, in Virginia, there are Standards of Learning tests. These tests have caused teachers to teach a different way, they now teach to a test. Because teachers focus more on the students who are falling behind, bright students tend to be left behind and do not reach their full potential. Due to the lack of focus on the brighter students, many bright students fail or even quit school because their needs are not being met by the school system. Bright students are not excelling due to the lack of attention received by teachers, the lack of challenge, and the lack of commerce.

It’s not every child gifted. There are many students with intellectual disabilities. In 2013, for example, 35 percent of all students ages 3-21 with disabilities were identified as having specific learning disabilities (U.S.Department of Education ,2015). For example: Students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; Students with speech or language impairments; Students with emotional and behavioral disorders; Students with autism spectrum disorder; Students with sensory, physical, and health impairments.

Every child is different. That sounds like an obvious statement, but so many ineffective teachers seem to forget this. Each student has his or her own varying abilities, talents, and levels of competence, and it is the job of a teacher not only to recognize this, but to help each student recognize this as well. If a child isn’t doing well in a particular subject, both the teacher and the student should work towards figuring out why, and the teacher should accept the challenge of finding a way to make a particular subject more