A Cross-Sectional Study of Intelligence and Achievement in a Seminold Indian Reservation School

Abstract

The entire population of Seminole Indian children at the Big Cypress Reservation school, deep in the Everglades, was administered the Wide Range Achievement Test, the Raven Standard Progressive Matrices, the Draw-a-Person Test, the Bender-Gestalt Test, and speech and hearing examinations. Median achievement in reading, spelling and arithmetic was found to be over one standard deviation below national norms. The older children showed a more serious deficit than the younger group when each group was compared with its respective age norms for reading and spelling, although raw scores on intelligence tests increased steadily with age but remained consistently below norm group medians. The verbal achievement deficit among the older children was attributed to educational and to cultural factors.