Achievement vs. Ability

Achievement vs. Ability

Here's a good blog post I found. It's really good for APD, too. It means I'll quit making him do things over and over again when we learn history! Anyway, here's the part I found most interesting:

From research analysis by Karen Rogers, PhD and author of “Re-Forming Gifted Education”

-the learning rate of children above 130 IQ is approximately 8 times faster than for children below 70 IQ
-Gifted students are significantly more likely to retain science and mathematics content accurately when taught 2-3 times faster than “normal” class pace
-Gifted students are significantly more likely to forget or mislearn science and mathematics content when they must drill and review it more than 2-3 times
-Gifted students are decontextualists in their processing, rather than constructivists; therefore it is difficult to reconstruct “how” they came to an answer

A high I.Q. simply means that you process information differently, more quickly. In America we seek to educate everyone to the same level. The disastrous consequence of that is typically the slowing down of the pace in the classroom to meet the needs of lower ability students. The high ability child is left to languish. Democratization, indeed.

The Davidson Institute estimates that nearly 20 percent of all high school dropouts test in the gifted range. If we really want to improve achievement levels in this country then please, by all means, go about the task. Start with encouraging students to be successful and smart, build upon their strengths, introduce new and relevant role models, give as much effort to their academic education as you do to their athletic training. If you want to improve the number of high I.Q. students and their opportunities for success – do a better job of identifying them (a mandated national ability test would do nicely) and then serve their needs for a faster paced curriculum so they can remain engaged in school and have an opportunity to fulfill their potential.