EXAMINING THE POTENTIAL FOR ACADEMIC-ACHIEVEMENT AMONG INUIT CHILDREN- COMPARISONS ON THE RAVEN COLORED PROGRESSIVE MATRICES

A longitudinal design was used to examine intellectual potential and d evelopment of analytic intelligence among Inuit children in Arctic Que bec. Children completed the board form of the Coloured Progressive Mat rices (CPM) on four occasions during the first two years of formal edu cation. Inuit children's CPM scores were consistently higher than age- appropriate U.S. norms and were comparable with data for White childre n in southern Quebec. In addition, the scores of children with two Inu it parents did not differ significantly from those of children with mi xed Inuit/White heritage. Finally, language of instruction and teacher 's ethnicity did not affect scores. In terms of the capacities measure d by the CPM, Inuit children do not appear to be deficient in intellec tual capacity at the time of entry into school. The factors that contr ibute to their academic underachievement appear to do so by preventing the learning of specific classroom materials rather than affecting th eir intellectual development.