Academic Outcomes in Higher Education for Students Screened as Twice-Exceptional: Gifted with a Learning Disability in Math or Reading

To investigate academic outcomes for twice-exceptional (2e) students who pursue higher education, a pool of 20,761 undergraduate students at the University of Tennessee were screened and 244 were selected as potentially 2e because they matched certain criteria traditionally used for the determination of giftedness and a specific learning disability (SLD) in math or reading. First-year retention rate and final college GPA were significantly lower for students screened as gifted with a SLD in math or reading than for students screened as gifted without a SLD (p< .05), but were not significantly different from other students in the general population. Students screened as 2e were more likely to be undecided in their choice of major than students screened as gifted (pp<.001).