The
Educational Achievement of Indian Children
FOREWORD
During the dozen years following the Meriam Survey of
the Indian Service published in 1928 significant modifications
were made
in the curricula of many Federal Indian schools. The fact that
many children were entering school unable to speak English,
caused greater emphasis to be placed on teaching spoken English
in the
early grades; the fact that Indians in many areas needed to
learn new vocational skills in order to form successfully, derive
maximum
profit from livestock, take advantage of employment opportunities
in non-Indian areas, or provide themselves with more satisfactory
living conditions, led to the introduction into the elementary
and high school grades of pre-vocational and vocational training
suited to the needs of each area; the fact that changed diets,
newly introduced diseases, and new types of clothing were inevitable
results of living in areas surrounded by an alien culture,
led to school emphasis on instruction in home economics and health
education, even in the primary grades.
Non-Indian children attending public schools in adjacent areas
seldom had need for as much school instruction of this kind,
for they were exposed in their homes to daily experiences by
which
they adjusted to the culture pattern of their parents, which
already included many of these knowledges and skills. It was
assumed by
Indians and non-Indians alike, that the Federal schools would
prepare their pupils adequately in the standard subjects of
the public
school curriculum. Few persons besides the school employees realized
that the Federal schools were undertaking this dual job, or knew
that when this new program was introduced, more than 80 per cent
of the pupils in Federal Indian schools were retarded by from
one to six years in reaching the academic standards of the
public schools.
By 1943 it appeared desirable to invite a qualified, impartial,
outside agency to join with the Indian Service in measuring whether
pupils in Federal schools were in fact learning the essential
subject matter of the public school curricula of the several
states, and
were or were not gaining the vocational, health and social adjustment
goals designed to bring them abreast of the public school children
who were being raised in typical American non-Indian homes.
Dr. Ralph Tyler, Chairman of the Department of Education of the
University of Chicago and his associates had achieved nationwide
recognition in the field of educational measurements during the
preceding decade, so it was proposed that they undertake the
direction of a study of Indian school achievement. A contract
with the University
was signed in 1943. The University staff first sought commercial
tests of reading, arithmetic and language, which might produce
valid results
when used in rural areas; second the staff began to devise special
tests to measure important aspects of the Indian school program
which were not common to the average public school. These studies
were completed during 1944. In 1945 and 1946 the selected tests
were given to all pupils in the fourth, eighth and twelfth grades
in Federal Indian schools, and to pupils in the same grades of
many cooperating mission and public schools. While several members
of the University of Chicago staff served as coordinators of
the Indian school study during the period of the contract, Dr.
Shailer
Peterson actively directed the administration and evaluation
of the tests during these two years, and prepared the monograph
How
Well Are Indian Children Educated?1 which summarized the findings
of the study.
The Peterson monograph recorded the first full-scale evaluation
of the schoolwork of Indian children. It was therefore impossible
to refer to previous data, to confirm or explain certain apparent
trends. For verification, it was decided to apply the same tests
to eighth and twelfth grade pupils in 1950 (four years later),
when many of the same pupils who had been tested in 1946 would
again appear at the next higher level of the testing pattern.
Unfortunately World War II intervened, and many eighth grade
pupils who might
have been expected to appear four years later in the twelfth
grade became diverted into war work, and many younger pupils
were taken
out of school for varying periods while their parents engaged
in war work. The 1950 tests therefore do not constitute as complete
a comparison as it had been hoped that they might. However, the
number of children who had appeared in the 1946 tests and who
reappear
in the 1950 scores is sufficient to make the restudy highly informative.
The earlier cooperation with the University of Chicago, which
had begun while the Indian Bureau was headquartered in Chicago,
became
less convenient when the responsibility for the educational testing
program was placed in the hands of L. Madison Coombs at Haskell
Institute. Discussions with the staff at the School of Education
at the University of Kansas revealed that Kenneth E. Anderson,
Director of the Bureau of Educational Research and Service, and
E. Gordon Collister, Director of the Guidance Bureau, would be
willing to undertake the responsibility for continuing the planning
and interpretation of the work of the Indian Service testing
program. A contract with the University of Kansas was signed
in 1950. This
monograph summarizing the data growing out of the 1950 follow-up
tests, is therefore the work of these gentlemen.The Peterson
study brought out certain facts about the Indian population and
about
the work of Indian school children. It permitted certain conclusions
to be drawn, but it also raised some questions which could not
be answered until further tests were made. The present study
affirms some of the earlier conclusions and supplies answers
to some of
the questions.
It has become clear that there is considerable difference between
the Indians living in different parts of the country. It is also
clear that mixed bloods often differ considerably from full bloods?but
not because of the infusion of blood from non-Indian parents.
To the extent that the home environment and the language spoken
in
the home resemble that of the non-Indian community, the children
coming from that home will resemble their non-Indian associates.
To the extent that children live in a home where habits, traditions
and beliefs are those of the Indian group, and one of the many
Indian languages is spoken customarily, the children will find
it more difficult to master the English language and to adjust
to the culture patterns of non-Indian life. Cultural experience,
not blood-quantum, influences assimilation; the confusion grows
out of the fact that the two often go together.
In general, the Indians of the Mountain States and the Pacific
Coast have inter-married freely with non-Indians, and the proportion
of full bloods is small. In Oklahoma, the inter-marriage with
whites has been much more general on the east side of the state
than on
the west. Few full bloods remain among the members of the original
Five Tribes; while considerable numbers of full bloods are found
among the woodland and plains tribes. For the most part, the
mixed blood Indians live among whites. It is usually the children
of
the less assimilated Oklahoma Indians who are still found in
Federal schools.
In the Dakotas, intermarriage has occurred largely between the
Indians living on the fringes of the reservations and their non-Indian
neighbors. Their children attend nearby public schools. Many
completely full blood Indian communities remain. They are usually
in the heart
of the reservation where there are no public schools and their
children attend Federal day or boarding schools.
Among the Pueblos, Navajos, Apaches, Pimas and Papagos of the
Southwest, intermarriage with non-Indians seldom takes place.
Among each of
these tribal groups, there are many Indians who have little contact
with non-Indians. For the most part, their children are in Federal
schools.
The Peterson study showed that the ratio of full bloods in any
area bore a direct relationship to the non-use of English in
the Indian home.
This in turn influenced classroom instruction, because it takes
a year or more to develop the use of English upon the part of a
pupil who has no use of the language when first enrolled.
In the Peterson study, the foregoing facts led to a division of
the schools studied on geographic lines. The geographic distribution
of 1945-46 scores has been retained in the present study.
The 1945-46 study also established that the Federal day schools
enroll a large proportion of full bloods; the non-reservation boarding
schools a smaller proportion. Indian children enrolled in public
schools are mostly mixed bloods. Because other environmental factors
which influence the educational program also differ greatly in
the several types of schools, it seemed wise to segregate the 1950
test scores by the same school types.
This subdivision of results by geographic areas as well as by types
of schools, permits certain comparisons between the educational
achievement of Indian children in the several areas, and in the
different types of schools. For these differences to be meaningful,
however, it is essential to remember that the children themselves
also differ greatly. Due to continued cooperation by many mission
and public schools enrolling Indian children, it is possible again
to compare the educational success of Indian children with rural
white children in similar areas.
In presenting the 1945-46 study, Peterson in his initial chapter
attempted to answer certain specific questions which had been raised
by Indian Service administrators. The present study sheds further
light on some of these questions.
1. Has there been any progress in Indian Education since
the report in 1928 of the Meriam Survey? Peterson's answer was "yes," and
he showed a substantial reduction in retardation. While 42 per
cent of the Indian children had been retarded four or more years
in 1928, by 1946 this percentage had been reduced to 6 per cent.
For the 21 percent who had been not more than one year retarded
in 1928, Peterson found this proportion to have increased to 64
per cent in 1946. As at least one-third of the children in Federal
schools continued to enter the first grade without any knowledge
of English, at least a year of retardation is not surprising.
The figures, such as they are for 1950, show no great change in
these proportions.
2. Is there any difference in educational accomplishment
between the Indian children in non-reservation and reservation
boarding
schools, mission boarding schools, Indian day schools and public
schools? The 1946 tests showed that Indian children (mostly mixed
bloods) who were attending public schools with non-Indian children
did better on reading, arithmetic and language tests, than Indian
children attending other types of schools. The accomplishment of
Indian children in the other schools shows that those in non-reservation,
mission, reservation boarding, and Federal day schools follow in
that order.
Briefly, the 1950 study shows the same rank order of achievement.
3. Is there any difference between the performance of Indian
and non-Indian children in the rural public schools? Peterson found
a slight difference in favor of the Indians in some tests; a slight
difference in favor of non-Indians on others.
In 1950 we find slight but significant differences in favor of
the non-Indian children in all of the standardized tests.
4. Is there any difference in the relative performance
of Indian children at the different grade levels? Peterson found that the
fourth grade group made consistently better scores in comparison
to standardized norms and in comparison to public school non-Indians,
than the pupils in the upper grades. This conclusion may be integrated
with question 6, Is there a difference between the students
in the lower grades and those in the higher grades? To which the answer
also was "yes." "Comments by teachers all indicate
these younger students to be better, and some teachers believe
the difference between two classes one year apart is very marked.
It is probable that the more systematically organized program of
instruction, keyed to Indian needs, accounts in large part for
this clear-cut superiority."
As there was no previous report of achievement with which to compare
these fourth graders, Peterson had to depend on the better comparative
scores made by fourth graders, and the subjective testimony of
teachers, to conclude that better teaching had caused the better
results. In 1950, no fourth graders were tested, but the "superior" fourth
graders of 1946 were eighth graders in 1950. Another measure has
been chosen to determine whether or not the apparent superiority
of this group has been maintained. In 1950, using the same tests
for both eighth and twelfth graders, the percentage of overlap
has been studied. "The percentages of overlap . . . are quite
considerable, indicating that the students in the eighth grade
had achieved higher standards than their counterparts in the twelfth
grade. This seems to indicate that an upsurge is taking place in
Indian education."
The remainder of the 1946 questions dealt with problems not specifically
touched on in 1950. In general the 1950 study of cultural factors,
as they affect the education of Indian children, lends support
to the statement: "that as the cultural and educational backgrounds
of Indian children become more like those of white children in
public schools, the more closely will the educational achievement
of Indian children match that of white children."
The wider curricula and the better teaching in Indian schools in
the years which followed the publication of the Meriam Survey are
clearly contributing to a more rapid assimilation by the Indian
children in Federal schools, of the educational and cultural patterns
of the surrounding majority, which is generally agreed by both
Indians and non-Indians to be a desirable development.
Another study of the work of Federal Indian schools, "Education
for Better Living" by George A. Dole, which evaluates the
program of practical education on the Pine Ridge Reservation since
1936, in terms of the reactions of the students who took part,
will be published in 1953.
In introducing these several studies of educational work in Federal
Indian schools, it may be well to quote again from Peterson's report,
for his statement is as true today as it was in 1948. "The
Bureau of Indian Affairs is not competing with the public school
system. Wherever public schools exist, the Indian Service has taken
advantage of public education and placed Indian children in public
schools. Where public education has not been able to accept the
responsibility of educating Indian children, the Federal schools
have performed an effective job, as indicated by the findings of
this survey. The data available prove that Indian education has
progressed far toward its goals, which combine an understanding
of and respect for the Indian tribal lore and art, with the full
educational opportunities of the non-Indians."
Through critical self-examination, progress is possible.
Willard W. Beatty.
1 How Well Are Indian Children Educated? by Dr. Shailer Peterson,
Haskell Institute, Lawrence, Kansas. 1948.
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