Education Week - January 14, 2015 - 12

Huge Barriers Ahead as
Feds Aim to Improve
American Indian Ed.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
47,000 students enrolled in bie
schools-announced the creation
of the competitive grants this past
summer. At the time, some tribal
leaders expressed deep concerns
about the effort.
Charles "Monty" Roessel, the director
of the bie, understands the
distrust. For too long, the federal
government has left tribes out of the
discussion about the education of
Native American children, he said,
but this new effort puts tribes in the
driver's seat with support from government
officials.
"Education has been 'done' to
tribes for too long," Mr. Roessel said.
"This [initiative] isn't just dumping
schools on the tribe. It's asking,
'What kind of support do you need?' "
Overcoming Distrust
Despite the acknowledgment
from Obama administration officials
that the federal government
is largely to blame for the failures
in American Indian education, the
long-standing distrust of the bie
will be difficult to overcome, tribal
educators said.
Dayna Brave Eagle, the director
of the Oglala Sioux education
department, said tribal leaders
initially jumped at the opportunity
to apply for the competitive grant,
citing a need to wrest control from
the bie.
"The tribe needed to become more
of a vocal player in education, teaching
our students," said Ms. Brave
Eagle, who has taught in or led
tribal schools for nearly 30 years.
But the enthusiasm shifted to
exasperation among the tribe's
elected leaders, she said.
"Because of our past history with
the bureau, it's hard to know what
[the agency's] intent is," Ms. Brave
Eagle said.
Oglala Sioux tribal leadership did
not respond to Education Week's
questions about why they ultimately
decided to refuse the federal aid.
Other tribes see the grant funds
as an opportunity to begin to move
beyond a past littered with broken
promises.
Matthew Tso, a legislative analyst
with the Navajo Nation Department
of Dine Education, said tribal education
leaders aim to use the fed"
We're
facing
a couple
hundred years
of broken
promises with
these schools."
DONALD YU
Office of Indian Affairs
eral money to work on curriculum
alignment, among other efforts, for
students in a sprawling network of
districts that encompasses nearly
250 schools.
"The challenge for our leaders is
'Do we stick with the status quo?' "
Mr. Tso said. "We have to do something
different to change the future
of Navajo Nation."
Students walk between buildings at the Little Singer Community School in Birdsprings, Ariz., on the Navajo Nation.
The school is run by the federal Bureau of Indian Education, a long-troubled agency that the Obama administration
has pledged to reorganize as part of a strategy to improve educational outcomes for Native American children.
Ahead of President Barack
Obama's appearance at the annual
Tribal Nations Conference in
December, a White House report
acknowledged "a history of deeply
troubling and destructive federal
policies and actions" that has
hurt Native communities, while it
warned that progress today "continues
to be hindered" by poor educational
infrastructure.
President Obama's appearance
came just months after his administration
rolled out the "Blueprint for
Reform," its vision for overhauling
the bie, which directly operates seven
schools for Native American students
and oversees more than 120 others
run under contract by tribes.
"We're facing a couple hundred
years of broken promises with these
schools," said Donald Yu, the chief
school transformation officer in the
Office of Indian Affairs, who is helping
to oversee the bie reorganization
More than a third of American
Indian children live in poverty, and
just two-thirds graduate from high
school-the lowest of any racial or
ethnic demographic group, according
to White House reports.
"Fragmented, balkanized" education
systems across Indian Country
have not helped solve the problems,
Mr. Yu said.
"Without many urgently needed
investments and reforms targeting
Native youth in education and
other high-impact areas, Native
youth face even greater challenges
in the future," the White House report
found.
New Resources, Efforts
In response, the president is expected
to unveil a series of new
steps to address challenges faced by
Native American youths, inside the
classroom and out.
That will include a new grant
program administered by the U.S.
Department of Education to finance
programs to improve the college
and career readiness of Native
children, and a program launched
in partnership with the Aspen Institute
to improve access to leadership-development
tools.
The administration will also convene
two meetings on the issue: a
February summit on Native leadership,
and another gathering later
this year expected to draw hundreds
of Native youths to the White
House.
Members of President Obama's
Cabinet are scheduled to travel
in the coming months to Indian
Country for discussions with
youths on how federal policies
could be improved.
Mr. Roessel and Mr. Yu are also
celebrating the recently approved
congressional spending bill that provides
a $40 million funding increase
for bie schools, including more construction
money to repair or replace
crumbling schools.
Tribal education departments that
have three or more bie schools on
their reservations were eligible for
the sovereignty grants. The six orig12
| EDUCATION WEEK | January 14, 2015 | www.edweek.org
inal recipient tribes are Gila River
Indian Community of Sacaton, Ariz.;
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of Fort
Yates, N.D.; Turtle Mountain Band
of Chippewa, Belcourt, N.D.; Navajo
Nation; Tohono O'Odham Nation;
and the Oglala Sioux.
Federal officials said the grant
funds will help tribes develop improvement
plans that are tied
to goals for improving academic
achievement and correcting operational
efficiencies, including those
identified in a Government Accountability
Office report released
in November. The watchdog agency
found that many bie schools have
serious financial problems, including
a lack of proper oversight and
accumulations of unspent funds
that aren't reaching classrooms
and students as intended.
Mr. Tso said it's a problem he's
seen far too often in schools across
the Navajo Nation, with policies and
procedures "all over the place."
Many of the school districts operate
independently with little regard
for federal education guidelines,
which is a problem for the 38,000
students educated on and around
the reservation, which spans three
states, he said.
Navajo Nation leaders will use the
grant to pay for a two-year project
to align curriculum, establish some
adherence to the Common Core
State Standards, and modernize an
outdated teacher-evaluation system.
The bie and tribes are eager to
embrace change, said Mr. Yu.
"There's not an expectation that
this will take a long time," he said.
But trust may remain the biggest
hurdle.
"There are a lot of people who
have been through this whole process
before. They're leery about any
direction coming from the top," Mr.
Tso said. "The bie is recognizing that
things didn't work before. They want
to do something differently."
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Locher/AP-File

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Education Week - January 14, 2015

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