A student whose academic performance is usually well below educators’ estimates of his or her potential, especially a student whose scores on standardized tests of ability are consistently higher than those on achievement tests. Students fail to work up to expected potential for a variety of reasons. A very bright student may be bored and unchallenged by regular schoolwork, in which case enrichment may be in order; or a student may have specific learning disabilities that hamper learning in one or more ways, despite high general abilities. Students may also “under¬ achieve” because their family or cultural expectations do not tally with those of the school, because of personal or family problems, or because of problems with one or more teachers or aspects of the school situation, such as corporal punishment. So-called underachievers may also simply be late bloomers, sometimes termed latent achievers.
A person whose achievements are less than what is predicted to be possible, based on his or her aptitudes, intelligence, and socioeconomic status.