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4.3.10 School Engagement in High Ability Students: Developmental Trajectory, Contextual Factors, and Long-term Educational Outcomes
School engagement has received increasing attention because of its importance to student achievement and well-being (Appelton, Christenson, & Furlong, 2008) and its potential to be influenced by contextual factors (Fredericks, Blumenfield, & Paris, 2004). Among high-ability students, underachievers generally demonstrate lower academic engagement than high achieving students (Landis & Reschly, 2013). It is unclear, however, how this engagement evolves over time, how it is influenced by students’ learning environment, and what its implications are for the long-term educational outcomes school retention and choosing non-academic studies within a tracked educational system.
Because of the importance of school engagement to student outcomes and its potential for identifying high ability students at risk for secondary school underachievement, the current study had the following objectives:
1) To examine the development of school engagement in high-ability versus average-ability students across early adolescence.
2) To investigate the effect of students’ environmental perceptions about their teacher and peers on the development of high and average ability students’ school engagement.
3) To examine the predictive value of school engagement for secondary school retention and non-academic track choice among high and average ability students.
To answer these questions, we used a longitudinal study of 5,953 Belgian students (The SiBO-study; Maes, Ghesquière, Onghena, & Van Damme, 2002). Cognitive ability was tested via standardized intelligence tests when the students were in grade 3. Students achieving scores in the 90th percentile were considered to be cognitively high ability (n=630) and students with scores in the 10th to 80th percentiles were considered average ability (n=4323). Math achievement was assessed by standardized tests in grades 5-7. School engagement and perceptions regarding students’ quality of relationship with their teacher as well as the degree of study orientation in their class were measured each year by student questionnaires. The students’ grade level and study track position were obtained from the Flemish Government. Latent growth curve modeling and logistic mixed models in the statistical software Mplus 8 (Muthén & Muthén, 1998-2017) were used to analyze the data.
We found that the high ability students had consistently lower engagement than their peers. The relationship with their teacher and the perceived degree of study orientation in their class distinctly and positively influenced their engagement. Non-academic studies in grade 11 could be predicted by engagement levels in grade 5 among all students, while male gender and low achievement were salient predictors of secondary retention of high ability students.