Presently the Ministry of Education endorses the use of Psycho-Educational Assessments for students with learning challenges in Canada. These assessments, which are completed by school psychologists, involve the use of intelligence and achievement tests that are not culture fair or culture inclusive. Although some of the tests, such as the Wechsler Intelligence Scales, were re-written in many languages, these scales were not tested in America by David Wechsler with Aboriginal populations. The Canadian version of the Wechsler Scales was tested in less than 2% of urban Aboriginal populations in Canada. There is presently no Aboriginal version of the Wechsler Scales in Canada, which raises the issues of test validity and relevance with Aboriginal students. The importance of cognitive intelligence has overshadowed the diagnosis, labelling, and widespread misuse of these tests with Aboriginal children and youth, resulting in misunderstanding, misleading and irrelevant interventions, and emotional harm caused by negative labelling.

Wechsler believed that intelligence is: “the global capacity of the individual to operate within his or her environment, and that it is essential to understand how a person copes in a number of environments, not just within the realm of an assessment”. In contrast, learning or psycho-educational assessments are conducted out of context of a child’s family and cultural environment and they are language-based. Most importantly, the present system of educational assessments is focused on illness, disorders, and learning deficits, based on the medical model of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IVR). The present system is potentially damaging in its negative labelling of Aboriginal students’ weaknesses, and they are already vulnerable to depression, low self-esteem, shame and suicide. Aboriginal students need a new system of assessment and intervention which bolsters their self-esteem, by identifying and using their strengths and coping strategies.

Wechsler Scales of Intelligence have been used to assess the cognitive abilities of school children throughout rural and urban regions of Canada, including Indigenous children on reserve lands, without addressing their face, content or predictive validity with these unique populations. This has likely resulted in the production of invalid test findings that have misdirected the diagnoses and interventions of students with special needs (e.g. learning disabilities, autistic spectrum disorder, attention deficit disorders, and behaviour disorders) among Aboriginal and Indigenous** students the world over. Aboriginal women have the highest birth rate of any group in Canada; thus, the importance of establishing relevant and useful indicators of Aboriginal life skills and abilities can link to opportunities for education, training and apprenticeship.

It is time to use new models that address the resilience of our First peoples of Canada, specifically in the educational assessment of their abilities, skills and needs. This will render more relevant and meaningful information that will enable Aboriginal communities to develop matching education, training and apprenticeship programs to ensure the employment of Aboriginal youth. The special skills and products of Aboriginal peoples can be marketed to ensure their self-sufficiency in the work place, with reduced dependence on Government assistance programs and increased pride in their achievements and marketable outcomes. To replace the present psycho-educational learning assessments, a new assessment protocol is proposed to focus on the learning strengths that are identified in cognitive problem solving, perceptual intelligence (visual-perceptual pattern recognition), emotional and social skills, community roles and leadership potential. This new assessment model is proposed by Dr. Nancy Cochrane, who has been a registered psychologist with the Canadian Psychological Association since 1988, with extensive experience as a school and child psychologist with both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal populations.

A community-based and community driven model is essential to success of any new initiative in an Aboriginal population in Canada. This is to ensure ownership, pride, and motivation to use the new assessment and achievement protocol.

A new learning and skill assessment protocol will be developed for educators in Aboriginal communities that includes culturally relevant measures of: life skills, social and emotional status, community role, self esteem, and self-image, along with the use of an existing, standardized test of non-verbal intelligence that is not language based. The information gained from this protocol will be used to identify the strengths and barriers to the youth's life and career goals, with the intention of providing support initiatives to assist youth to achieve specific and realistic goals.

This "Achieve" oriented assessment and intervention will be linked to skill development, education and apprenticeship that will lead to jobs in each Aboriginal community, both rural and urban. A culturally relevant learning assessment will lead to culturally appropriate education and training programs that match the needs of Aboriginal youth.,