[01] Leitha Delves, Department of Teacher Education and Professional Development, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, USA. [02] Mingyuan Zhang, Department of Teacher Education and Professional Development, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, USA.

Students learn in a complex interplay of numerous variables such as contexts, processes, relationships, affordances, and spaces. This interplay is termed as learning ecology. Each individual’s learning ecology is made up of four primary elements: the learner, the environment, their interactions with the environment, and the learning that emerges from these interactions. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between the reading achievement of fourth-grade Indigenous students in the United States and home factors related to material aids to reading in the home and the economic circumstances of the family. Data was gathered from the National Indian Education Survey using the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Explorer tool. Specifically, data used for the present study was extracted from the 2015 NAEP dataset. The research methods used include quantitative descriptive analysis, correlational analysis, t-test and Cohen’s d effect size with the overall purpose of examining the relationship between home environment factors and reading achievement. The results of data analysis showed a consistent relationship between seven home environment variables selected and levels of reading achievement on the NAEP reading test. These findings may indicate an evident need for greater attention to be paid to the health of the learning ecologies of American Indian/Alaskan Native adolescents in order to identify cases where those affected by social disadvantage are likely also to be achieving academically at a lower standard than their more affluent peers.

Indigenous Reading Achievement, Home Environment Factors, Learning Ecologies

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