A Study of the Suitability of an Attitude-Gauging Instrument for Assaying the Attitude-Toward-Schooling of a Group of Sixth-Grade Negro Pupils

Abstract

This is a report of a study designed to determine whether the data obtained by the administration of an attitude gauging instrument to a group of sixthgrade Negro pupils show that that instrument is a satisfactory scientific tool for assaying the attitude-towardschooling of those pupils. During the fall of 1950, the Illinois Inventory of Pupil Opinion was administered to all of the pupils (278) in the sixth grades in four elementary schools for Negroes. Two additional variables, achievement in reading and intelligence, were measured by means of the California Reading Test and the New California Short Form Test of Mental Maturity. All of the four elementary schools involved in the study are located in a small city in central North Carolina (population 50,897). The writings of a number of outstanding scholars suggest the importance of studies of this kind. In discussing the social implications of the report of the President's Commission on Higher Education, Havighurse