Self-efficacy is the belief in one's capacity to perform and accomplish goals. Specifically, academic self-efficacy refers to a student's perception of their ability to engage and successfully complete academic tasks. Self-efficacy affects students' behavioral choices, motivation, thought patterns and responses, perception of control, and…

This study investigated whether a particular grade in school would prove to be critical in the development of underachievement in 100 high school students identified as intellectually gifted, where 18 of the students were identified as underachieving. Data were collected on each student, including IQ scores, age identified as gifted, gender, final…

This study reports on ways student under-achievement is being dealt with in the Bilingual Program of Jackson, New Jersey in grades 1-5. The study is limited to students in one school and was carried out during one 12-month period. It focuses on the following issues: (1) teaching methods which are best suited to solve the problems of student…

A study investigated the educational value of retaining low achieving elementary school students in the same grade for an additional year. Subjects were 56 students who had completed at least one grade level beyond the grade in which they had been retained. The students had each been tested with the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills during the…

This report describes a program for decreasing student underachievement. The targeted population consisted of two German classes at the third- and fourth-year levels in a high school in a suburb of a major metropolitan area. Persistent student underachievement was documented through homework percentages, participation percentages, overall grades,…

A discussion of English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) learning in Spanish-speaking migrant workers' children focuses on the relationship of language identification and achievement. The first chapter briefly tells the story of the education and ESL instruction of one migrant adolescent. Chapter 2 offers a demographic and historical overview of migrant…