Giftedness and High School Dropouts - Neag Center for Gifted ...

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educational support at home. Ekstrom and his colleagues reported that (a) dropouts got
fewer educational aids from parents, (b) dropouts' parents had lower educational
expectations, and (c) dropouts' parents had less interest in and were less likely to monitor
their children's school activities (Ekstrom, Goertz, Pollack, & Rock, 1986). In this study,
it is not clear that the parents of gifted dropouts provided poor educational support to
their children.
The study also shows that parents of gifted dropouts were not actively involved in
their children's decision to drop out of school. Although 75% of parents tried to talk their
children into staying in school, only a small percentage of parents took actions such as
calling the child's teacher or school counselor, offering special tutoring or programs, or
offering transfer to another school. These results imply that parents whose gifted child
who is at risk for dropping out of school should communicate closely with teachers,
because parents' educational aspirations and their involvement may affect gifted students'
school performance as well as deportment (Ekstrom et al., 1986). Present study findings
reveal that many gifted students who dropped out of school had very limited experience
with computers and spent little time on hobbies.
Reasons for Dropping Out of School
In this study, gifted students who dropped out of school reported a variety of
reasons that caused them to drop out of school (see Figure 12). Many gifted students left
school because they were failing school, did not like school, got a job, or were pregnant,
although there are many other related reasons. Although gifted male students' reasons
were more related to economic factors and gifted female students' reasons were more
related to personal factors, school-related reasons such as "I did not like school" or " I am
failing school" were common reasons for both groups. These findings are similar to
findings from the previous study from NCES, which included all ability groups.
According to the NCES report (1994b), the reasons for leaving school reported by
dropouts were more often school-related than job related or family related. Also, male
dropouts were more likely than female dropouts to report leaving school because of
expulsion and suspension. In addition, present study results indicated that students'
educational aspirations were significantly related to the gifted students' dropping out of
school. Some gifted students have low educational aspirations because of personal or
school-related problems. This suggests that teachers and parents should guide and
encourage potential dropouts to increase their educational aspirations. Also, school
culture should be changed to meet the needs of these students, providing an appropriate
curriculum and stimulating their interests and learning styles (Renzulli, 1986; Robertson,
1991).
It should also be noted that some gifted students dropped out of school because
they failed their courses, even though they were identified as gifted. This finding has an
important implication for teachers and researchers. In this study, we used a flexible
definition that included a broader range of students identified as gifted. If educators and
researchers use a very restrictive definition of gifted, some talented young students who
are potential dropouts will be overlooked and not provided with appropriate educational