Jolinstou] 



NAVAHO POPULATION 



53 



These figures indicate that the Navaho were, in 1954, about 50 

 years behind the country as a whole as regards the proportions of 

 young adults graduating from high school. It should be noted, how- 

 ever, that this gap may be largely overcome by around 1963, if the 

 increased high school enrollments presently anticipated are realized 

 in fact." 



Table 10. — High school graduates as a percentage of persons aged 17 years, at 

 selected periods. United States and Navaho populations compared ^ 



' U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1957, table 15. 



2 The percentage of high school graduates is obtained by dividing the number of high school graduates 

 reported for the given period by the population aged 17 years m the same period, and multiplying the 

 resultant quotient by 100. 



» See Appendix, p. 211, for the procedure whereby this figure was estimated, and the pertinent source. 



When we consider the adult Navaho population alone, the gap be- 

 tween their average completed education and that prevailing in the 

 United States as a whole is of course even larger. The establish- 

 ment of educational facilities for even a majority of Navaho children 

 is far too recent to have had an impact upon the educational levels 

 of the adult population as yet. In table 11, the educational attain- 

 ment of adult Navahos is compared to that of the total adult popu- 

 lation of the United States, as of 1950 and 1960. 



The figures on median school years completed suffice to indicate the 

 tremendous gap that prevails as regards the formal education of adult 

 Navahos when compared with that of other adult groups in the United 

 States. In 1950, the median years of school completed by all persons 

 25 years old and over was about 9.3 years. For non- Whites in the same 

 age group, the median was about 6.8 years. Among Navahos in this 

 age group, it was only about 0.8 years. 



It is impossible to gage the improvement that has occurred in the 

 educational attainment of adult Navahos between 1950 and 1960 from 

 published census figures, because the 1960 data pertain to persons 14 

 years old and over. In the case of the Navahos, whose children have 

 only in recent years been enrolled in school for more than a few years, 



"'Young, 1955, p. 117. According to these projections, 1,600 Navaho high school 

 graduates are expected for the year 1962-63. As the total number of Navahos aged 17 

 years cannot be expected to exceed 2,000 by this time, these figures would imply a ratio 

 of about 80 graduates per 100 persons aged 17. As shown in table 10, this ratio was only 

 60 per 100 for the United States as a whole in 1953-54. 



