Achievement and Selected Demographic Variables in Relation to Participation in the Early Childhood Education Program on the Devils Lake Sioux Reservation

Abstract

The 1969 Kennedy Report revealed that one of the primary reasons for low achievement among Indian children was the negative self-image that they had of themselves. As a primary result of this study, Congress passed the Indian Education Act of 1972, which attempts to address the educational needs and concerns of Indian people, both young and old alike. The Devils Lake Sioux Early Childhood Education program has been in existence since the mid 1960s and provides three- and four-year-old children with a preschool program in the areas of cognitive thinking, social development, and improving psychomotor skills. The purpose of this program is to develop these children in a positive direction, contributing to their educational performance when entering the elementary school and beyond. The basic question to be answered was, Does the Devils Lake Sioux Early Childhood Education program positively influence academic achievement in the elementary grades? Review of Related Literature: A review of related literature revealed that few studies of this type had been done on the Indian reservations across the country. The results of previous studies in the dominant society were mixed in the 1960s; and as these preschool programs continued into the 1970s, the results appeared to show more concrete findings in academic achievement in the elementary grades in favor of pupil participation in preschool programs over pupils without preschool participation. Design of the Study: Three standardized achievement tests were used in this study to draw comparisons between pupil participation and nonparticipation in the Early Childhood Education program on the Devils Lake Sioux Reservation. In addition, selected demographic variables including sex, grade level, age, socioeconomic status, parental employment status, degree of Indian blood, tribal affiliation, parental education, and school attendance were collected for both pupil groups during the 1977-78 school year. Analysis of variance,, correlation coefficients, and chi square techniques were employed in order to determine significance at the .05 level. Conclusions: Three major conclusions were reached as follows:1. The findings revealed significant differences between these two pupil groups on the Science Research Associates Assessment Survey instrument; and no significant differences were found on either the Metropolitan Readiness Test or the Boehm Test of Basic Concepts instruments. However, it was further concluded that the statistical methods employed did not take into account the per-grade-level factor on the Science Research Associates Assessment Survey instrument where there were more non-early childhood education pupils than early childhood education pupils at the sixth grade level, thus skewing the results in favor of the non-early childhood education pupils. 2. Significant relationships were found on the Metropolitan Readiness Test instrument on the variables home stability, degree of Indian blood, tribal affiliation, and parental education of the mother. Significant relationships were found on the Boehm Test of Basic Concepts instrument on the variable tribal affiliation. Significant relationships were found on the Science Research Associates Assessment Survey instrument on the variables achievement, sex, grade level, age, socioeconomic status, home stability, parental employment status, tribal affiliation, and parental education of the mother. 3. No significant relationships were found on the Metropolitan Readiness Test instrument on the variables achievement, sex, grade level, age, socioeconomic status, parental education of the father, and school attendance. No significant relationships were found on the Boehm Test of Basic Concepts instrument on the variables achievement, sex, grade level, age, socioeconomic status, home stability, degree of Indian blood, parental education of the father, parental education of the mother, and school attendance. No significant relationships were found on the Science Research Associates Assessment Survey instrument on the variables degree of Indian blood, parental education of the father, and school attendance