The influences of culture on learning and assessment among Native American students. Learning Disabilities Research and Practice

The purpose of this article is to raise issues concerning the influences of culture on assessments of Native American students. The nature and extent of the problem is portrayed by citing infor-mation from national data sources on the achievement of Native American students. Cultural aspects of assessment and principles of assessment are discussed, using personal experiences to encourage others to reflect on cultural aspects of assessment. The article ends with the argument that there is much to learn about assessing Native American and other minority stu-dents, taking into account the external influences of culture, environment, attitudes, context, and perspectives. Why is there an overrepresentation of Native American stu-dents (and select other minority groups like African and His-panic Americans) in special education classes? What are the influences of culture in a person’s life? Does the assessment or research currently carried out, in attempting to answer these questions, reflect reality? It is not clear that we have answers to any of these questions. In that context, the litera-ture, whether it is experimental, quasi-experimental, nonex-perimental, or opinion, is sufficient to cause concerns among many professionals within the Native American community and is also the topic of much concern, debate, and consid-eration of other groups outside middle-class White Amer-ica. In this article, I review current issues concerning the influences of culture on assessment with regard to Native America. I consider information available from national data sources; I then discuss cultural aspects of assessment and principles of assessment. I present personal experiences as a way to reflect on the cultural aspects of assessment. I close by summarizing my views about the major cultural factors in assessment. NATIONAL DATA SOURCES In a review of the research literature regarding the educatio