The present study, funded under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, Title III, was a preliminary investigation of patterns of academic success and failure of American Indian elementary school children. Data on the 157 children in the sample were obtained through parent interviews, testing measures of academic achievement, and several measures of IQ and academic aptitude, teacher ratings, school records, and a measure of the child's self-concept via a projective device. Conventional behavior (CB); functional information, knowledge, and skill (FI); esoteric information (EI); and abstract reasoning and problem solving (AR) were isolated as principal constructs. It was concluded (1) that AR, FI, and CB were related to academic performance; (2) that the existing psychometric instruments do not provide an adequate measure of any of the 3 relevant factors and, in fact, are badly contaminated by factors which are irrelevant to school performance and negatively related to socioeconomic status; (3) that teachers' ratings of performance and potential are influenced by factors irrelevant to actual academic proficiency; and (4) that there is an urgent need for better definition and measurement of the 3 primary factors related to achievement, and to a study of their effects over the school years. Additionally, a model for academic achievement was discussed which could be utilized as a research guide. (HBC)