Home | How It Works | Stats Login | Register         Case: Underachiever in a high achiever class I have a gifted and high achiever class this year. Our county places gifted identified students in this class and uses a rubric to determine the high achievers that fill in the slots. In our school, we do not have many gifted students and even our high achievers are not true high achievers. I have a student who definitely should not be in this class. Out of all of the assignments we have had so far, he has done maybe 5% of them. I have already had 2 conferences with the parent. I have told her all of the expectations on this high achieving class before she signed the acceptance letter. I told her that her child was going to have to work very hard to be successful in this classroom and asked her if she still wanted him to stay in the class or be removed. She chose to have him stay in the class. He has not turned in the 2 last projects, does no homework, and virtually no classwork. The mom thinks I am being too hard on him because he is a 'sensitive' child but I feel like I should punish him and hold him to the same high standards as the other students. Am I wrong about this? Solution: (Rates are posted for this solution!) You are totally correct in both contacting the parent and not lowering the standards for this kind of gifted program. But I also think you hit it on the head when you said unmotivated. Having experienced a similar situation it is better to see if the student is ready to leave. If he leaves and his motivation stays the same it is the students motivation and ethic at school not with the gifted program.If he goes back to regular classes and is shown again to at a gifted level talk to the parent about reassigning him in the gifted program but with a program suited for his kind of learning style.