Association for the Education of Gifted Underachieving Students

To Be Gifted and Learning Disabled: Strategies for Helping Bright Students with LD, ADHD, and More;
By: Susan M. Baum and Steve V. Owen
Students who are gifted, but who struggle with a learning disability or attention deficits are a strange paradox--they have special
intellectual gifts, but are unsuccessful with certain basic learning tasks. Their potential is at great risk of going untapped and
undeveloped because the major focus of educational intervention is on what these students do not know and cannot do rather
than on nurturing their talents. These students require special attention, and it is vital that schools pay attention to the gifts
as well as the learning difficulties.

Do Gifted Students Have Special Needs? By: Linda Kreger Silverman 
Students who achieve A's based on what they have already learned are gaining daily practice in underachievement.

Special Populations in Gifted Education: Working with Diverse Gifted Learners 
Edited By: Jaime A. Castellano
...recognizesthe reality that gifted students are from all backgrounds and that their talents transcend cultural, ethnic, linguistic ties, handicapping condition, poverty, and geography. This book reflects today's student demographics and serves as a valuable resource tool to educators and adminstrators who choose to promote access, equity, and excellence to the special students they serve. self-motivated, responsible and happy individuals.

Academic underachievement among the gifted: Students' perceptions of factors that reverse the pattern  
By: Linda Emerick
A classic article in Gifted Child Quarterly (1992) that is really worth a read.  Dr. Linda Emerick is a past President of AEGUS and her work on the underachievement of gifted students will bring new insight to all educators.

Family Conferences at CTD: Experts Share their Advice on Underachievement
Summaries from three different experts with different perspectives on Underachievement...

From Overt Behavior to Developing Potential: The Gifted Underachiever
Gifted underachievers are usually lumped in with the rest of a school's malcontents. Teachers, counselors, and administrators look too shallowly for underlying factors...

Get off my Brain: A Survival Guide for Lazy* Students (*Bored, Frustrated and Otherwise Sick of School   By: Randall McCutcheon 
Aimed at bright, talented kids who are bored, frustrated, and otherwise sick of school, including so-called "underachievers," Get Off My Brain is an offbeat, unconventional study guide ...

Gifted and Learning Disabled: Twice Exceptional Students
By: Dawn Beckley
There are at least three subgroups of twice-exceptional students  whose dual exceptionality remains unacknowledeged ...

Giftedness and Academic Underachievement: What lies Beneath  By: Andrew Mahoney
An example within clinical counseling of a highly gifted 19-year-old male student whose academic capabilities fall in the 99.9th percentile. He entered therapy with a desire to understand his presenting problem of academic decline over the past several years of high school as well as to deal with the impact of his decline, both on his emotional development and his academic future... an analyzed transcript

Gifted Underachievers  An excellent summary from the Education Department of Western Australia
Characteristics, factors, and strategies...

Learning in School  By: Cole
Most seem to have been born with a love for learning (I think everyone is), and started school with high hopes. Then came the experiences that told them *they* weren't supposed to learn in school... And they were told only that this was "wrong," or that they needed to turn their brain off until the others caught up ...

The Miseducation of Our Gifted Children  By: Ellen Winner
"Gifted children are usually bored and unengaged in school; they tend to be highly critical of their teachers, who they feel know less than they do, and they are often underachievers."
 
Motivation Problem or Hidden Disability By: Meredith Warshaw
"Your child's so smart - she could do that if only she'd try"...  Children who look like they have "motivational problems" may have undiagnosed special needs.  A few of the hidden disabilities that can make children seem like they "would rather stare at the ceiling than do serious work"...
 

On Overachievement  By: Linda Kreger Silverman, Ph.D.
"The concept of "overachievement" needs to be examined more carefully to see what it really implies"
 
Underachievement Among Gifted Minority Students: Problems and Promises (ERIC Digest #544)   By: Donna Y. Ford and Antoinette Thomas
 
Underachievement: Developing Student Potential   By: Dr. Suzanne Schneider, for PAGE
Underachievement is a pervasive problem which results in a tremendous waste of human potential in this country, even among our most able students
 
Underachievement in Gifted Girls from the Education Department of Western Australia
Gifted girls may underachieve in the classroom due to a variety of reasons...

Underachievement and Learning Disabilities in Children Who are Gifted  By: Steven G. Zecker
It comes as a surprise to many people to hear that learning disabilities are as prevalent in the gifted population as in the general population, yet there is nothing in the definition of learning disabilities (or in their diagnosis) to preclude the gifted from this category ...
 
Underachieving Gifted Students (ERIC Digest #478)  By: James R. Delisle and Sandra L. Berger
There is perhaps no situation more frustrating for parents or teachers than living or working with children who do not perform as well academically as their potential indicates they can...

Underachieving Gifted Students: A Mother's Perspective 
By: Pamela Hunter-Braden
The problem of identifying underachievers reminds me of a quote ascribed to a supreme court justice about the definition of obscenity: "I can't tell you what it is, but I know it when I see it."

What educators of gifted learners need to know about ...  By: The Association of Educators of Gifted, Talented and Creative Children in B.C.