Ten-year longitudinal follow-up of ability-matched accelerated and unaccelerated gifted students.

Abstract

Gifted students identified by the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth who underwent academic acceleration in their education were longitudinally compared across several domains with a group of equally gifted students who were never accelerated. The groups were matched for gender and for ability and were studied for 10 years. At age 23 few significant differences were found between the groups for the individual academic and psychosocial variables studied. Both the accelerates and the nonaccelerates reported impressive academic achievements, as well as high personal satisfaction with school and self. When academic variables are considered as a group, the performance of accelerates is slightly higher than that of nonaccelerates. In both accelerated and unaccelerated groups, male students pursued mathematics/science more vigorously than did female students, but there was no differential response to acceleration on the basis of gender. The findings do not support the common concern that gifted students may be harmed by accelerative experiences.

Gender differences in middle grade science achievement: Subject domain, ability level, and course emphasis

“…Despite these minimal differences within the main focus of the study, several important gender differences among high achievers were reported (Swiatek & Benbow, 1991). While many observed differences were not large enough to achieve statistical significance, an overall pattern emerged: talented male students pursued mathematics and/or science coursework and advanced degrees more vigorously than their talented female counterparts.…”

“…The 1992 assessment of science proficiency by the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) demonstrates that gender gaps favoring males are wider at higher levels of proficiency in that subject (Jones et al, 1992), a finding that those authors interpret as "showing that gender differences in achievement in science increase between the elementary grades and high school" (p. 51). A multivariate study of two cohorts from the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth, investigated the long-term effects of precollege academic acceleration on students' subsequent achievement and psychosocia1 adjustment (Swiatek & Benbow, 1991). By age 23, there were very few academic differences and no psychosocial differences between accelerates and nonaccelerates; accelerates reported a higher level of educational attainment at that time, and the accelerated students who attended graduate school began their graduate studies at a younger age than the nonaccelerated students who attended graduate school.…”

Intellectual giftedness: Economic, political, cultural, and psychological considerations

“…These studies have now generated more than 30 years of long-term longitudinal research [e.g., Lubinski, Benbow, Webb & Bleske-Rechek, 2006;Stanley & Benbow, 1986;Swiatek, 2007;Swiatek & Benbow, 1991)]. Of interest is that the so-called "promising aptitude complex" includes such indicators as interest, values, and commitment, along with SAT-M scores.…”

The emotional development of the highly able

“…These effects of feeling for example small, weak or socially less capable than classmates, often stayed with them through university. Studies which only look at the marks of grade-skipped pupils and not their emotional development, are more likely to find this procedure satisfactory, such as Swiatek and Benbow (1991), but a wide overview has issued warnings on the emotional effects of such a move (Southern & Jones, 1991).…”