majority of the Indian children in federal schools. Another factor indicated for study was the difference in environment offered to pupils by different kinds of Indian schools.

Most day school students have no contact with English except during the few hours when they are in school, whereas the students in boarding schools are exposed to English during the entire twentyfour hours of the day. Probably the most important difference in school environment is that which relates to the special curricula provided students in Indian schools. The home environment of most Indian students does not provide them with certain types of training in health practices, rural practices and home economics, which most rural white children receive at home. Because of this, the Indian schools attempt to provide those things which are not always included in the public school curriculum. Moreover the vocational objectives of many of the Indian groups differ from the objectives of other Indian groups or white students to the extent that the curriculum in each school must be adapted to the special needs of its students.

It was decided that certain measuring instruments should be tried experimentally during 1944, the first year of the study. Staff members from the Branch of Education, Bureau of Indian Affairs, with the assistance of staff members of the department of Education of the University of Chicago, analyzed existing tests. Where suitable tests were not available, they constructed tests in those fields of rural life education to which Indian schools devote considerable attention. The selection and preparation of the measuring instruments finally employed, resulted from a consideration of the following:

(1) the immediate and far-reaching purposes of the testing program,

(2) the educational program suited to the needs of students now enrolled in Indian schools,

(3) the level of Indian pupil achievement in tool subjects such as reading, English, arithmetic and penmanship,

(4) the effect that certain differences in educational and home environments (e. g. school attended, language of the parents, etc.) may have had upon the Indian student's achievement,

(5) the available measuring instruments with particular reference to:

(a) their wide age or educational range, thereby making the test suitable for students with widely differing abilities, (b) reliability or dependability of the measure,

(c) validity for purposes intended,

(d) simplicity of directions,

(e) ease of indicating answers or choices,

(f) simplicity of scoring,

(g) availability of useful norms,

(h) strange or unusual vocabulary,

(6) the assembly of information that will provide a better understanding of Indian students and their families,

(7) the assembly of information which lends itself to a useful, long-range program.

Table 11-1 lists the evaluation instruments which were selected or prepared for use in the trial program in 1944. The standardized tests included were selected because it was believed they would meet many of the requirements of the program.

The lowa Every-Pupil Tests, used in the trial battery of tests, employ a rather complicated system of answering items in order to facilitate mechanical scoring. Such a scheme presented an additional and unnecessary hurdle to Indian children, unfamiliar with this method of response. A review of the difficulties encountered by the students on items in the reading and arithmetic tests in the lowa battery also revealed that the types of errors seemed to be caused by the fact that the content material was foreign to rural experience, thereby defeating the purposes of the tests. For those two reasons, the lowa battery was replaced in 1945 by other tests as indicated in Table 11-2.

The Indian Bureau tests in Natural Resources and Health and Safety (the Rural Practices Tests) administered experimentally in 1944 proved to contain certain language hurdles. Consequently, these tests were revised in the light of these findings and other tests were prepared for inclusion in the 1945 program. In all of these, there was an effort to minimize the reading skill required for understanding and responding to each content item.

The pilot study of 1944 was exceedingly helpful in revealing many additional factors which required consideration in this program. The results were based on samples too small to warrant any conclusions concerning the achievement of Indian students.

As indicated in Chapter 1, it was decided that the 1945 program should include all of the eighth grade students in Indian schools, as well as students in a selected group of public and mission schools. The total number of students tested in each type of school was as follows:

The test battery was administered in each of the schools by personnel selected by the area superintendent of education. Only persons who had previously had test experience were used in the administration and in 1945 the tests were administered by persons not connected with the schools in which they were given. Table 11-2 lists the test battery given to all eighth grade students in the spring of 1945.

All of the papers from this program were scored in the Chicago Office by a group of well qualified teachers. Reports on the performance of each individual student within a school, together with graphic norm sheets showing the distribution of scores in each type of school and in each region included, were then distributed to the administrators of the schools which participated.

A good many tentative conclusions, discussed in detail in the following chapters, resulted from the data collected and assembled in 1945. In addition, the need for other, specific data became apparent. It was recognized that many questions can be answered only by following the progress of the same students during a period of several years. However, it was decided to extend the student sample to include students in grades four and twelve the following year, in order that differences in relation to grade level could be observed. In 1946, the tests were administered again to students in selected public and mission schools in order that comparative data for rural white children, and for Indian children in public and mission schools might be available. The total number of students tested in each grade and in each type of school was as follows:

*These figures include only those students for whom sufficient data were available to justify the inclusion of their test scores in the compilation of norm sheets.

The standardized tests used in the 1945 program proved sufficiently satisfactory so that all of them were included in the 1946 battery for twelfth grade students. Several of the same tests were administered to fourth graders in 1946. Use of identical test instruments both years made it possible to compare the new data with that collected from the eighth grade students the previous year. This eliminated the necessity of repeating all of the tests at the eighth grade level in 1946. Many of the schools were supplied with all tests for the eighth grade students at their own request, in order that they might collect additional information on the students in their own schools. The 1945 Credit Test was omitted because the number of items in the test was so small that it was decided to include them at a later date as a part of another test. The use of regional tests in resources presented a number of problems which made it seem advisable to incorporate those items which tended to be somewhat general in nature, into the General Resources Test. In this test all items clearly having only regional significance were omitted. The Rural Practices Vocabulary Test was constructed and administered to students in grades eight and twelve. The Gates Advanced Primary Reading Tests were selected for testing the reading achievement of the fourth grade students. The Background Questionnaire was revised to include additional data for study. Table 11-3 lists the tests included in the 1946 battery.