Low Family Income and Underperformance in High School Students - Thesis Example

Learners are categorized into three main classes depending on their academic capabilities in classwork. These include the higher achievers representing the group that registers higher grades in their examinations as well as in their daily activities (Rogers & Creed, 2011). The ‘high achievers category’ is composed of just a small fraction of students in every school (Benner & Graham, 2009). The high achievers also perform better in their careers as Boon, (2007) records. The next category is the average performers consisting of students who register average results/ grades in their academics as well as in life activities.

This group forms the majority of students in most schools around the globe and has slim chances of joining career courses of their choices as these are competitive, selected on the basis of high school grades. The last category is that of the least achievers. This is the group composed of students who perform the poorest in classwork, contrary to life activities (Boscardin, Muthe´n, Francis, & Baker, 2008). Again this group, like the high achievers, makes a smaller percentage in most schools compared to their average achieving counterparts (Benner & Graham, 2009).

A large number of adolescents in high school are average performers (Connell & Frye, 2006) and who have been constantly ignored by teachers and academic counselors due to their average performance. Such ignorance, therefore, is of great hindrance to their academic lives at high schools, vocational training institutes as well as at colleges and universities.As in the case of high achievers, the low-performing students are, accorded very close attention in their academics with an aim of helping them to improve their performances at school as well as in their future lives.

Similarly, most teachers prefer focusing a keen watch on the high achievers as they are the center of impress (Enders & Tofighi, 2008). On the contrary, the moderate performers are the most neglected in schools with regard to the amount of attention accorded to them by their teachers and counselors. Consistent moderate performance is therefore the result in this group as they struggle to maintain their achievements and compete with their overperforming fellows for the same career opportunities after high school education.