The topic of underachievement and how to reverse it has received a great deal of attention in the gifted education literature. The present study sought to add to the knowledge base on this issue by investigating the occurrence of underachievement behaviors and their predictors in a population of highly gifted students attending a summer educational program based on the talent search model. A group of 440 students in Grades 8-10 were given the School Attitude Assessment Survey—Revised at the beginning of the program. Attitudes toward and grades obtained in students' regular schools had little to no predictive value on students' academic and behavioral performance during the summer program. Results support qualitative findings in the literature, suggesting that educational interventions can be extremely effective in reversing the expression of underachieving behaviors.
Ablard, K.E., & Mills, C.J. (1996). Implicit theories of intelligence and self-perceptions of academically talented adolescents and children. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 25, 137-148.
2.
Baker, J.A., Bridger, R., & Evans, K. (1998). Models of underachievement among gifted preadolescents: The role of personal, family, and school factors. Gifted Child Quarterly, 42, 5-15.
Benbow, C.P. (1988). Sex differences in mathematical reasoning ability among the intellectually talented: Their characterization, consequences, and possible explanations. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 11, 169-183.
5.
Benbow, C.P., & Arjmand, O. (1990). Predictors of high academic achievement in mathematics and science by mathematically talented students: A longitudinal study. Journal of Educational Psychology, 82(3), 430-441.
6.
Benbow, C.P., & Stanley, J.C. (1996). Inequity in equity: How “equity” can lead to inequity for high-potential students. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 2, 249-292.
7.
Betts, J.R., Zau, A.C., & Rice, L.A. (2003). New insights into school and classroom factors affecting student achievement. San Francisco: Public Policy Institute of California.
8.
Colangelo, N., Assouline, S.G., & Gross, M.U. (2004). A nation deceived: How schools hold back America's brightest students. Iowa City: University of Iowa.
9.
Colangelo, N., Kerr, B., Christensen, P., & Maxey, J. (1993). A comparison of gifted underachievers and gifted high achievers. Gifted Child Quarterly, 37, 155-160.
10.
Cooper, H., & Valentine, J.C. (2001). Using research to answer practical questions about homework. Educational Psychologist , 36, 143-153.
11.
Delisle, J., & Berger, S.L. (1990). Underachieving gifted students (ERIC digest No. E478). Reston, VA: ERIC Clearinghouse on Handicapped and Gifted Children.
12.
Dowdall, C.B., & Colangelo, N. (1982). Underachieving gifted students: Review and implications . Gifted Child Quarterly, 26, 179-184.
13.
Emerick, L.J. (1992). Academic underachievement among the gifted: Students' perceptions of factors that reverse the pattern. Gifted Child Quarterly, 36, 140-146.
14.
Flint, L.J. (2002). Stories of success: Self-interventions of gifted underachievers. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, The University of Georgia, Athens.
15.
Ford, D.Y. (1996). Reversing underachievement among gifted Black students: Promising practices and programs. New York: Teachers College Press.
16.
French, J. L. (Ed.). (1960). Educating the gifted. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
17.
Golden, D. (2003, December 29). Initiative to leave no child behind leaves out gifted: Educators divert resources from classes for smartest to focus on basic literacy. The Wall Street Journal, p. 1.
18.
Huberty, C.J. (1994). Applied discriminant analysis. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
19.
Kanevsky, L., & Keighley, T. (2003). To produce or not to produce? Understanding boredom and the honor in underachievement. Roeper Review, 26, 20-28.
20.
Matthews, M.S. (in press). Talent search model and programs. In C. M. Callahan & J. A. Plucker (Eds.), What the research says about ... an encyclopedia on research in gifted education. Waco, TX: Prufrock Press.
21.
McBee, M.T., & Matthews, M.S. (2004, November). A validity study of the School Attitude Assessment Survey-Revised. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Association for Gifted Children, Salt Lake City, UT.
22.
McCall, R.B., & Beach, S.R. (2000). The nature and correlates of underachievement among elementary schoolchildren in Hong Kong. Child Development , 71, 785-802.
23.
McClelland, R., Yewchuk, C., & Mulcahy, R. (1993). Motivation and strategy factors in gifted underachievement . In B. Wallace & H. B. Adams (Eds.), Worldwide perspectives on the gifted disadvantaged (pp. 67-99). Oxon, England: A. B. Academic Publishers.
24.
McCoach, D.B., & Siegle, D. (2003a). Factors that differentiate underachieving gifted students from high-achieving gifted students. Gifted Child Quarterly, 47, 144-154.
25.
McCoach, D.B., & Siegle, D. (2003b). The School Attitude Assessment Survey—Revised: A new instrument to identify academically able students who underachieve. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 63, 414-429.
26.
National Commission on Excellence in Education. ( 1983, April). A nation at risk: The imperative for educational reform. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved September 10, 2004, fromhttp://www.ed.gov/pubs/NatAtRisk/risk.html
27.
Olszewski-Kubilius, P. (1998). Research evidence regarding the validity and effects of talent search educational programs. Journal of Secondary GiftedEducation, 9, 134-142.
28.
Olszewski-Kubilius, P., Lee, S.-Y., Matthews, M.S., Brody, L.E., Lupkowski-Shoplik, A., & Assouline, S.G. (2004, November). Contributions of talent-search research to gifted education. Paper presented at the 51st annual convention of the National Association for Gifted Children, Salt Lake City, UT.
29.
Peterson, J.S. (2001). Successful adults who were once adolescent underachievers . Gifted Child Quarterly, 45, 215-229.
30.
Peterson, J.S., & Colangelo, N. (1996). Gifted achievers and underachievers: A comparison of patterns found in school files. Journal of Counseling & Development, 74, 399-407.
31.
Plewis, I. (1991). Underachievement: A case of conceptual confusion . British Educational Research Journal, 17, 377-385.
32.
Reis, S.M., Hébert, T.P., Diaz, E.I., Maxfield, L.R., & Ratley, M.E. (1995). Case studies of talented students who achieve and underachieve in an urban high school (Research Monograph No. 95120). Storrs, CT: National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented.
33.
Reis, S.M., & McCoach, D.B. (2000). The underachievement of gifted students: What do we know and where do we go?Gifted Child Quarterly, 44, 152-171.
34.
Reis, S.M., & McCoach, D.B. (2002a). Underachievement in gifted and talented students with special needs. Exceptionality, 10, 113-125.
35.
Reis, S.M., & McCoach, D.B. (2002b). Underachievement in gifted students. In M. Neihart, S. M. Reis, N. M. Robinson & S. M. Moon (Eds.), The social and emotional development of gifted children: What do we know? (pp. 81—91) Waco, TX: Prufrock Press.
36.
Rimm, S.B. (1995). Why bright kids get poor grades and what you can do about it. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc.
37.
Rimm, S.B., & Lovance, K.J. (1992). The use of subject and grade skipping for the prevention and reversal of underachievement. Gifted Child Quarterly, 36, 100-105.
38.
White, P.H., Sanbonmatsu, D.M., Croyle, R.T., & Smittipatana, S. (2002). Test of socially motivated underachievement: `Letting up' for others. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 162-169.
Worrell, F.C., Szarko, J.E., & Gabelko, N.H. (2001). Multi-year persistence of nontraditional students in an academic talent development program. Journal of Secondary GiftedEducation, 12(2), 80-89.
41.
Zilli, M.G. (1971). Reasons why the gifted adolescent underachieves and some of the implications of guidance and counseling to this problem. Gifted Child Quarterly, 15, 279-292.
