Surveys issues related to recent and prospective schooling investment in developing countries, including educational levels, changes, and demands between 1960-81, and identifies under- and over-achieving countries. Standard estimates overstate schooling impacts by not controlling for school quality, childhood family background, and geographical…

Explores the differential impact of negatively rated and positively rated trigram paired-associate materials on underachievers and overachievers in high school. (AE)

Delineated characteristics of over- and under-achievers within a sample of 372 randomly selected public school students aged 6 through 17 years from 3 racial-ethnic groups and 2 levels of socioeconomic status. Found discrepant achievement not to be unique to particular race, intelligence, gender, age, family size, or degree of family intactness.…

This article discusses student pressure as a subject of debate. The latest debate about schoolwork is being fueled by three recent books: "The Homework Myth" by Alfie Kohn, "The Case Against Homework" by Sara Bennett and Nancy Kalish, and "The Overachievers", by Alexandra Robbins, which depicts overextended high…

In this study the responses of 30 colleges seniors who over-achieved in terms of predicted grade point average (GPA), were compared with those made by 38 high ability under-achievers. Graduate Record Examination (GRE) scores and GPA's were compared with those for two groups of students performing as predicted. Over-achievers were found to be…

Describes a study of community college students attending a City Colleges of Chicago campus, who received high grades through diligent study rather than high aptitude. Interviews conducted with 26 students revealed that participation in learning, review/restudy, selectivity in classes and teachers, and planning were responsible for students'…

This study explored the relationship of two distinctive types of divergent cognitive styles, "cold" creativity and "hot" creativity, to academic overachievement. The "cold" divergent cognitive style was found to be a controlled, problem-solving approach to stimuli, whereas the "hot" divergent cognitive style was a freer, more impulsive response to…

Presented is a procedure that could be used by a school system to identify by the end of first grade those children who are likely to underachieve (achieve or overachieve) in reading by the third grade. The procedure consists of (1) Defining underachievers, achievers, and overachievers through use of regression and its standard error, (2)…

This article discusses findings by pediatric psychologists studying destructive stress responses and other psychological costs of overdriven competitiveness in gifted students. Warning signs indicative of depression or antisocial withdrawal are described, as are contributing factors such as parental expectations. Suggestions for avoiding…

Tutoring services, known in the federal No Child Left Behind Act as "supplemental services," arguably represent the federal government's largest free-market experiment in education. In the rush to capture market share, more than 1,000 tutoring providers have signed up for the program. But market uncertainty, combined with differences in…

THE CO-RELATED OBJECTIVES OF THIS STUDY WERE--(1) TO DEVELOP AND EVALUATE A MODEL OF EGO COUNSELING DERIVED, IN PART, FROM THE PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF ADAPTIVE FUNCTIONING, AND (2) TO INVESTIGATE CERTAIN PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS UNDERLYING ACADEMIC UNDERACHIEVEMENT. A COUNSELED EXPERIMENTAL SAMPLE OF 53 BRIGHT, BUT ACADEMICALLY…

Using the College Student Questionnaires (CSQ), Part I, data on student performance of two different entering classes at eight colleges were studied to identify the characteristics of freshmen women students associated with overachievement/underachievement during the first college year. Overachievers were defined as those whose overall average was…

A statistical analysis of data on Michigan, New York City, New York State, and Project Talent schools found evidence of schools that consistently produce outstanding students even after allowance is made for the different initial endowments of their students and for chance variation. Methodologically, like many previous studies, this report uses…

Traced the life course, from mid-adolescence to young adulthood, of females characterized at age 16 as underachievers or overachievers. Found that, compared to the overachievers, the underachievers came from families with lower assessments of the daughters' academic achievement, lower aspirations, and conflicted relationships with parents.…