Reduce Underachievement,
Raise Graduation
ASCA Conference 2010
Carolyn Berger, Ph.D.
Nova Southeastern University
What does an underachieving student
look like?
 Three examples:
 Kaleb
 Candace
 Dana
Topics to be Covered
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
Why is underachievement an important issue school
counselors need to look into?
Identifying underachieving students
Determining individual student’s underlying cause(s)
for underachievement
Proposed intervention plan for underachieving
students
Barriers to working with underachieving students
If time, we’ll do an activity so you can practice your
skills
Percentage of high school dropouts among
persons 16 to 24 years old, by race/ethnicity:
Selected years, 2000-06
Year
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
Total
10.9
10.7
10.5
9.9
10.3
9.4
9.3
White
6.9
7.3
6.5
6.3
6.8
6
5.8
(U.S. Department of Education, 2008)
Black
13.1
10.9
11.3
10.9
11.8
10.4
10.7
Hispanic
27.8
27
25.7
23.5
23.8
22.4
22.1
Other dropout data…
 Among public high school students in the class of
2004–05, the average freshman 4-year graduation
rate was 74.7 percent (U.S. Department of
Education, 2008).
 The 4-year graduation rate among public high
school students in the 50 largest cities in the U.S.
was 51.8% for the class of 2004 (Editorial Projects
in Education Research Center, 2008).
Do you think there is a link?
 Looking at these graduation rates, do you think
underachievement plays a role in some of the low
graduation rates?
Identifying Underachieving Students
 Debated topic in the literature
 For the purpose of my past research, I chose to
utilize the following definition:
“Underachievers are students who exhibit a severe
discrepancy between expected achievement (as
measured by standardized achievement test scores or
cognitive or intellectual ability assessments) and actual
achievement (as measured by class grades and teacher
evaluations)” (Reis & McCoach, 2000, p. 157).
Important Points to Note when
Identifying Underachievers…
 Care must be taken to account for the impact of
learning disabilities or other disorders when
identifying underachieving students
 It may also be difficult to identify English as a
Second Language learners as underachievers
What do your underachieving students
“look” like?
 How do you know when a student is underachieving?
 Are there common phrases or words that teachers
and parents use to describe these students?
They all look different!
 Underachieving students may have certain
characteristics in common but overall they tend to be
very different from each other
 Several different groups of researchers recognized that
typologies of UA students need to be identified
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Mandel & Marcus (1988, 1995)
Spevak & Karinch (2000)
Rimm (2008)
Peters (2000)
Typologies of UA Students
 When combining these four typology theories, 6
themes resulted:
 Students who avoid work
 Students who worry about school
 Students who are trying to find their identity
 Manipulative students
 Distressed students
 Students who defy authority
 There are MANY other different possibilities of UA
types, and some may be combinations of types
 Avoiding students
 Wait until last minute to do work
 Motivated to avoid work and have fun
 Easy-going, usually get along with others
 Worrying Students
 Put pressure on themselves to do better
 Parents may pressure them
 Fear imperfection
 Try to please others
 Usually tense and anxious
 Identity Searching Students
 Identity connected to area of interest
 Seek independence
 Opinionated
 Trying to find their own identity
 Manipulating Students
 Persuasive
 Try to “beat the system”
 May cheat, lie, or skip school
 Sense adults’ weaknesses
 Distressing Students
 Noticeably sad
 Have trouble sleeping and concentrating
 Detached
 Irritable
 Defying Students
 Argue frequently with authorities
 Rebellious
 Risk-takers
 Viewed as having an “attitude problem”
 Lose temper easily
So how does this knowledge help us as
school counselors, parents, and
educators?
 We need to determine WHY a student is underachieving
before we can most effectively help him/her
 Many great intervention plans out there…
 Student Success Skills
 Organizational skills training
 Time management training
 Goal-setting interventions
 Etc.
 These will be a waste of time if you don’t carefully evaluate
student’s primary needs 1st
How can we efficiently determine
reasons behind a student’s UA?
 Development of SAMS (Skinner, 2008)
 School Achievement Motivation Scales
 Sample questions handout
 Develop your own questions to look at
important areas
School Achievement Motivation Scales
 Preliminary study presented 5 factors:
 (I) Dedication to Schoolwork
 (II) Personal Well-Being
 (III) Interpersonal Diplomacy
 (IV) Desire to Learn and Succeed
 (V) Academic Self-Concept
 See handout for SAMS sample items
Sample Questions Handout
 These are questions that can be asked in addition to
SAMS items
 Notice that there are questions for students, parents,
and teachers to get whole picture
 The next section will show you how to best utilize
these questions
Intervention Plan for UA Students
 Step 1: Assessment
 Step 2: Intervention Planning
 Step 3: Implementation
 Step 4: Monitoring and Feedback
See Handout…
Step 1: Assessment
Three parts to this step:
Identify the students’ motives/reasons
1)
Do this by asking questions (see samples)
b) Can use an instrument that is already developed*
c) Make sure to include multiple perspectives
a)
Determine the nature of the interventions that have
already been tried
3) Invite suggestions from the student, teacher and
parent (and other relevant stakeholders) regarding
interventions that might work
2)
*Examples can be found in recent literature (Amatea & Skinner, 2006; Friedlander,
Marcus & Mandel, 1996; Rimm, 2008).
Step 2: Intervention Planning
 In this step you will use the information you gathered in
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Step 1
Always keep the student’s reasons for underachievement
at the forefront of your mind
Talk with the student about what his immediate goal might
be (e.g. being promoted to 10th grade) and how he plans to
get there
Consider strategies that will help him meet his goal (e.g.
confidence building, time management, empowerment,
coping with stress, anxiety, etc.)
Conduct a joint problem-solving meeting with the
teacher(s), parent(s), and student to propose the plan
Decide on short term and long term goals, and decide on
each person’s role in implementing it
Step 3: Implementation
 Each person involved in this plan may require some
assistance in implementing their responsibilities
 Counselor as “point person”
 It is our responsibility to make sure that each person has
the resources they need
Step 4: Monitoring & Feedback
 Gather data, both quantitative (e.g. grades, attendance,
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discipline) and qualitative (e.g. feedback from teachers, parent,
student)
Is intervention plan effective?
Certain parts of the plan may be working, while others are not
Always celebrate student’s accomplishments, no matter how
small
Determine how plan can be modified
 Even if plan is effective, some strategies may need tweaking
 If it is not effective, you will need to make some changes to plan
 Gather feedback from the student, parent, and teachers to
come up with the modifications to the plan
 Cycle back to step three to make sure that the intervention plan
is being carried out
Case Illustration
 Kaleb- 11th grader
 Fs in 3 classes, never turned in homework
 Very intelligent according to standardized tests
 STEP ONE: Assessment
 Kaleb: loved video games, no goals, does want to be
promoted to grade 11, likes to socialize, easy-going
 Mother: always helped him in middle school, has tried
not to nag
 Teachers: tried incentives to get him to turn in
homework, haven’t found anything that works
Case Illustration (cont.)
 STEP TWO: Intervention planning
 Counselor meets individually for 4 sessions to discuss
goals, and potential career path
 Focused on empowering Kaleb to show that he has control over
his future
 Used interesting activities like guided imagery, art therapy
 Confront excuses, introduce reality
 Kaleb agreed to join environmental club since he likes
animals and socializing
 Env. Club was full of students who were positive peer
connections for Kaleb
 Look for areas of student strengths and interests
 Never learned organizational skills- put in a small group
Case Illustration (cont.)
 STEP TWO: Intervention planning (Cont.)
 Counselor met individually with parent
 Teachers’ role- update grade system online, email parent
if they notice significant changes (positive or negative)
Case Illustration (cont.)
 STEP THREE: Implement Plan
 Counselor as “Point Person”
 Contact parent, set up meeting
 Set up regular sessions with Kaleb
 Make sure Kaleb is placed in organizational group
 Check in to see if he is attending Environmental Club
 Check to make sure grades are getting posted online
 Etc.
Case Illustration (cont.)
 STEP FOUR: Monitoring & Feedback
 Counselor reviews Kaleb’s grades and feedback from
teachers, parent, and Kaleb himself after 4 weeks
 Kaleb seemed happier in school
 Organizational skills still needed a lot of work
 Kaleb likes club, met peer who is positive influence
 Grade in social studies improved, but science and math grades
were still Fs
 Go over progress with parent and Kaleb
 Praise accomplishments
 Modify plan as needed
 Change organizational strategy he was using
 Start to share what he’s doing organizationally with his mom
Barriers to Working with UA
Students
 Complicating factors
 Poverty
 Community violence
 Familial conflict
 Gender role expectations
 Lack of cultural support
 High mobility
 Consider school climate
 Teacher/faculty training
 Work with administration to foster awareness
Activity
Get in small group of 2-3 people.
2) You will be given a profile of an underachieving
student
3) Determine his/her underlying causes of UA
4) Come up with an intervention plan for him/her
1)
Books to Help you Come Up with
Intervention Plans:
Mandel, H.P. & Marcus, S.I. (1995). “Could Do Better”.
New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
Rimm, S. (2008). Why bright kids get poor grades.
Scottsdale, AZ: Great Potential Press, Inc.
Spevak, P.A. & Karinch (2000). Empowering
Underachievers. Far Hills, NJ: New Horizon Press.
Other Resources
Amatea, E. & Skinner, C. (2006), Preliminary test manual for the school achievement
motivation scales. Gainesville, FL: University of Florida.
Editorial Projects in Education Research Center (2008). Cities in crisis: A special
analytic report on high school graduation. Retrieved from
http://www.edweek.org/media/citiesincrisis040108.pdf
Friedlander, J, Marcus, S. & Mandel, H. (l996). Achievement motivation profile. Los
Angeles,CA: Western Psychological Services.
Peters, R. (2000). Overcoming Underachieving. New York, NY: Broadway Books.
Skinner, C.A. (2008). Development of the School Achievement and Motivation Scales:
An assessment tool used to differentiate reasons for student underachievement
(Doctoral dissertation). Available from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database.
(UMI No. 3334504)
U.S. Department of Education (2006). Student Effort and Educational Progress Tables.
Retrieved March 3, 2009, from
http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/2008/section3/table.asp?tableID=896