Impact of Behavioral Factors on GPA for Gifted and Talented Students

INTRODUCTION An upper-level residential school for accelerated learners faces many of the same concerns as employers. The school administration wants to attract and retain students who have both the behavioral, social and academic skills needed to be successful in the residential school environment (Brody & Benbow, 1986; Caplan, Henderson, Henderson & Fleming, 2002; Lupkowski, Whitmore & Ramsey, 1992; Muratori, Colangelo & Assouline, 2003; and Noble & Drummond, 1992). As in industry, when the fit between student behavioral, social and academic skills is strong, the students potentially have a greater likelihood of persisting and being more successful while the cost to the school in lost funding opportunities for other potentially successful students decreases. The purpose of this study is to identify and prioritize behavioral factors that would contribute to student success. Success in this study was measured as the outgoing grade point average (endGPA) of the student. Identification of the behavioral factors leading to success could assist the school administration in screening students for admission and providing an early warning of students most likely to be at-risk for dropping out. Retention is a significant component of state funding. Furthermore, it would reduce the emotional stress of both students and parents created by the student's dropping out of school before graduating. As reflected in the following section, the identification, selection and effective placement of gifted and talented students has been a topic of research interest for a number of years. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND Identifying and selecting gifted and talented students has been researched for over 40 years (Johns Hopkins University, 1999). Joseph S. Renzulli, Director, The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented, University of Connecticut, has indicated that highly productive people have three interlocking clusters of ability that can be applied to gifted and talented students: above average ability, task commitment, and creativity (Renzulli, 1986). Sternberg and Wagner (1982) have described giftedness as a kind of mental self management with three characteristics: adapting to environments, selecting new environments, and shaping environments. They also describe three skills typically used: separating relevant from irrelevant information, combining isolated pieces of information into a unified whole, and relating newly acquired information to information acquired in the past. Each of these studies found that gifted and talented students tended to be different in predictable ways. When gifted and talented students were compared with students of the same age group, personality and behavioral differences were found (Mills, 1993). In this case the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator dimensions were used as a basis for comparison. The gifted and talented students showed greater preferences for introversion, intuition, and thinking. They were also likely to value objectivity and to be impersonal in drawing conclusions. They were more likely to want solutions to make sense in terms of the facts, models, and/or principles under consideration. The Myers and Briggs Foundation, from the perspective of the student or employee completing the Type Indicator, partially defines introversion as: I like getting my energy from dealing with the ideas, pictures, memories, and reactions that are inside my head, in my inner world. I often prefer doing things alone or with one or two people I feel comfortable with. I take time to reflect so that I have a clear idea of what I'll be doing when I decide to act. Ideas are almost solid things for me. Sometimes I like the idea of something better than the real thing. (The Myers & Briggs Foundation, 1997d). Students who score higher on introversion as defined by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator are likely to use self descriptors such as the following (The Myers & Briggs Foundation, 1997d): * I am seen as reflective or reserved. …