This study was a search for a valid and reliable tool for the measurement and appraisal of the Navajo student at Intermountain School whose cultural and bilingual background make many highly verbal tests untrustworthy. The two tests chosen for the study were the Chicago Non-verbal Examination and the Cattell Institute for Personality and Ability Testing Culture Free Test. It was assumed that these tests would call attention to students who had good intellectual ability but were below standard in reading and verbal development and had been overlooked because of their lack of verbal fluency. The two tests were administered to a random sample of one hundred twenty four students (72 boys 52 girls) at Intermountain High School. The tests were administered and corrected by the author, care being taken to follow directions in the manual on administering, correcting, and figuring IQ scores. Statistical treatment was given the obtained data and the findings compared with the standardization sample for each test. Further statistical treatment was given to compare the performance of the boys with the performance of the girls on each test. Grade point averages were obtained for each individual in the sample. A coefficient of correlation between grade point average and IQ scores was figures for both the Chicago Non-verbal and Cattell Institute for Personality and Ability Testing Culture Free Test. A coefficient of correlation between grade point averages and the "G" score from the General Aptitude Test Battery was computed on ninety eight students on which the scores were available. The results of this study showed that: (1) The Chicago Non-verbal Examination seemed to be more interesting and motivating for Navajo students. (2) The Navajo students in this study scored higher than the standardization sample on the Chicago Non-verbal Examination. This is interesting because on most tests the Navajos score below the mean of the standardization sample.

This thesis suggests a new method of developing reading materials for Navajo students. The core of this method is based on phoneme- grapheme relative frequency correspondence data. A short story was phonetically edited and rewritten using the phoneme-grapheme relative frequency method. This short story was one of the major products of the thesis. This short story and three other short stories previously phonically rewritten, were presented in both this form and in original text to 38 Navajo students for reading. Reading speed and reading comprehension were measured for each student on the short stories. The students performed with superior reading speed and with superior reading comprehension on two stories and equal comprehension on two stories. The difference on reading speed was significant at the .01 level. On the two stories with reading comprehension differences, the difference was significant at the .05 level.

Diné (Navajo) students drop out of high school and postsecondary education at higher than average rates. The purpose of this study was to investigate how Diné students currently enrolled in college describe the factors that supported their pursuit of higher education. Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory was used as a framework and to identify and analyze factors that influence access, enrollment, and participation in higher education. The Diné participants in this study were six students enrolled in postsecondary education at the time of this research, recruited from two university campuses in the Southwestern U.S. Each student participated in a semistructured interview and completed a demographic questionnaire. Open-coding was used to analyze the interviews, and it was observed that factors relating to each of Bronfenbrenner’s five levels of ecological systems theory had an impact on the participants’ access, enrollment, and persistence in postsecondary education. A number of themes emerged that will be useful to stakeholders who work with this population of students. Recommendations are provided that are intended to help these stakeholders retain Diné students at higher rates.