Processes underlying intellectual performance of children and youth: A cross-cultural comparison.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the underlying processes of intellectual performance for Native American children and youth with Anglo-American children and youth. A major purpose of most intelligence tests is to ascertain the differences in performance of individuals. The significant gap in performance between middle-class white subjects and minority subjects is well documented. Controversies over the accurate measure of intelligence for cultural groups have resulted in litigation and legislation designed to assure nondiscriminatory assessment. This study is a comparative analysis of test performance for Anglo and Native American subjects from the standardization normative sample of the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery Revised (WJ-R). The WJ-R is frequently used in the assessment and identification of Native American students in need of special education services. The Woodcock-Johnson Revised Tests of Cognitive Ability (WJ-R COG), Part I of this Battery, is designed to measure seven separate cognitive factor clusters and a broad measure of ability with the three Broad Cognitive-Ability Scales. This instrument has received limited investigation in regard to the validity for Native American students. This study analyzed the data of the WJ-R standardization normative sample population for the Anglo and Native American preschool and school-age participants performance on the WJ-R COG. The results of this study indicate factor clusters for these two groups were significantly different for the Gc cluster and oral language cluster. The factor structure for the two groups was similar to the total sample population results reported in the WJ-R Technical Manual.