(1988). In contrast, students who underachieved had developed neither a strong belief in self nor the resilience to overcome negative experiences with their families, their schools, and their communities. Meeting the needs of gifted underachievers individually! If a certain amount of variation between aptitude measures and achievement measures is normal, how does one distinguish between normal variability in scores and a discrepancy that indicates a cause for concern? However, neither study used a control or comparison group; therefore, the results of their studies may not be generalizable to the entire population of underachievers. Storrs, CT: University of Connecticut, The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented. Therefore, such studies will require the attention of researchers who can utilize sophisticated design techniques. Richert, E. S. (1991). Kaph, J. Storrs, CT: University of Connecticut, The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented. The literature also presents a variety of other classroom designs, such as self-contained classrooms, and home and school partnerships. A teacher may believe that reading Huckleberry Finn is more worthwhile than mastering a new video game, but a child may not. Legitimate problems exist in determining whether these students are at greater risk for social or emotional problems than other students, and most interventions to reverse underachievement have met with limited success. In addition, bright students who receive poor grades may demonstrate mastery in standardized achievement testing situations (Colangelo, Kerr, Christensen, & Maxey, 1993; Lupart & Pyryt, 1996). Dowdall and Colangelo (1982) described three underlying themes in the definition of gifted underachievement: Reis, S. M. (1998). Sixty-six percent of the students named peer pressure or attitude of the other kids, including friends, as the primary force against getting good grades (pp. Recently, Reis (1998) suggested that gifted students who are not challenged in school may actually demonstrate integrity and courage when they choose not to do required work that is below their intellectual level. Almost all of the students who completed Type III investigations showed some positive gains in either behavior or achievement during the course of the school year. Labeling a student an underachiever requires making a value judgment about the worthiness of certain accomplishments. (1982). Certain treatments aimed at combating underachievement combine counseling and school-centered interventions. Gifted Child Quarterly, 42, 96-104. In 95% of the families, one parent emerged as the disciplinarian, while the other parent acted as a protector. Defining underachievement operationally provides researchers and readers with a clearer picture of the composition of the sample being studied and enables the comparison of results of different studies. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Reaching the gifted underachiever. Family, school, and individual factors all seem to contribute to the emergence of underachievement behaviors (Baker, Bridger, & Evans, 1998). These factors were the relationship with the teacher, the use of self-regulation strategies, the opportunity to investigate topics related to their underachievement, the opportunity to work on an area of interest in a preferred learning style, and the time to interact with an appropriate peer group. Underachievement: A common fallacy. In general, these students display high verbal expressive ability and good conceptual understanding concurrent with significant academic underachievement and frustration or a lack of motivation (Crawford & Snart 1994). Hidden gifted students: Underachiever prevalence and profile, Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 20, 36-53. Certain responses to these questions may lead to the conclusion that underachievement does not exist or is not a problem that adults should remedy.
