Post by blackcrowheart on Apr 25, 2006 15:46:06 GMT -5
Microscope (edu)
Indian Education Under the Microscope
Published: March 14, 2005
by: Rob Capriccioso
Over the past few months, hundreds of American Indian and Alaska Natives
in the fourth and eighth grades at schools across the nation have become
part of a unique educational group. They sat down in classrooms – along
with thousands of their peers throughout the country – to answer
multiple questions like, “What makes this story a fable?” and “Which
object is heaviest?” that make up the 90-minute National Assessment of
Educational Progress test.
There’s nothing unusual about that: most Indian students today attend
public schools and have been taking the reading- and math-focused test
since it was first administered in the U.S. in 1969.
Indian Education Budget Cuts
The recent budget proposal by President Bush has alarmed many educators
involved with Indian education. The budget cuts several grants that
provide school supplies, tutoring and other services to Indian students
at public schools.
Bush has also asked for a $89.5 million reduction in funds for the
construction of new BIA schools (government-operated schools intended
for Indian students)-though the construction program was a priority he
had set during his first term
Indianz.com, an online publication focused on Indian issues, has more
information about cuts to Indian education.
What is different this time out is that for the first time ever, Indian
students are being deliberately over-sampled to allow researchers to
better analyze their performance as a group. Often, Indian students make
up such a small percentage of the student body in a particular school
that their results can’t be assessed in a statistically meaningful way.
It’s part of a National Indian Education Study being carried out by the
National Center for Education Statistics on behalf of the U.S.
Department of Education’s Office of Indian Education. The study analyzes
the progress of Indian students in thousands of schools throughout the
nation.
The study sample will include students attending public, nonpublic, and
Bureau of Indian Affairs schools, according to center officials. There
are more than 250,000 Indian students, ages 5 to 18 years inclusively,
enrolled in public, private, federal and BIA schools in the U.S.
However, the study will not report results by type of school.
A special report detailing American Indian student results in reading
and mathematics will be available from the center in spring 2006.
The Problem
Though historically, small sample sizes have made it difficult to assess
the performance results for this population, the results to date have
indicated that achievement levels are lower for Indians than for their
white, Hispanic and African American counterparts. Research also
indicates that American Indian and Alaska Native students have a
drop-out rate twice the national average—the highest rate of any U.S.
ethnic or racial group.
Many educators want to reverse those trends, but Indian educators in
particular say that they also want to be sure that NAEP tests are
accurately measuring Indian student performance.
National Indian Education Association President David Beaulieu, Ph. D.
(White Earth Chippewa), says that the increased sample size measurement
will help educators learn a lot more about Indian students and how they
are performing in schools.
Researchers with the Department of Education agree: “The Department of
Education recognized that the sample size of American Indian and Alaska
Native students in previous [National Assessment of Educational
Progress] assessments led to a high degree of standard error and limited
the comparison to other student populations,” says Jeff Johnson, the
coordinator of the project with the Office of Indian Education. “In
order to decrease the standard error on the sample and ensure reliable
estimates of student performance, the [study] was designed to collect
data from a larger sample of American Indian and Alaska Native
students.”
Culture’s Role
CFK reported in 2003 on some young Crow poets who shared their culture
in Washington, D.C.
While part one of the National Indian Education Study centers on math
and reading performance, part two focuses on cultural issues facing
Indian children in the education arena. The Indian Education Survey will
be conducted during a 6-week period from April 1 through May 13, 2005.
The role of culture in teaching Indian students is an area that many
educators have deemed of great importance. Beaulieu, for one, says it is
necessary for more researchers to explore how culture and language
affect the educational experience of Indian students. “Too often, we
study how kids are doing in math and reading, but we never look at how
schools can be more effective for students in terms of language and
culture.”
Researchers have found that there can be dangerous consequences for
Indian students when educators fail to appreciate Indian languages and
cultures: historically, Indian students have been over-identified as
learning disabled, mentally retarded, or have been more likely to be
subject to disciplinary actions.
For example, members of the Rosebud Sioux Tribal Council have clashed
with school officials in the Winner School District, in Tripp County,
South Dakota recently. They say that because non-Indian teachers with
the district do not attempt to understand Indian youth issues, the
school has unfairly sought criminal prosecutions of Indian students for
minor school misconduct. And they are upset by a high Indian student
drop-out rate.
“Academically capable Native students often drop out of school because
their needs are not being met, while others are pushed out because they
protest in a variety of ways how they are treated in school,” according
to Northern Arizona University researcher Jon Reyhner who has written an
overview of Indian education. “Teachers need to understand the dynamics
of how children are socialized both into their home culture and into the
school culture.”
Reyhner also says that too often superficial attempts are made in
schools to provide an Indian curriculum through a Thanksgiving unit or a
Native American Day, rather than developing a culture-based,
culture-embedded curriculum that permeates both the school day and the
school year
Organizers of the National Indian Education Study anticipate that 250
schools per grade will be sampled across the nation for the 2005 survey
in order to gather information about the educational experiences of
American Indian students and the role of Indian culture in their
education. According to officials with the center, the survey will ask
questions of American Indian and Alaska Native students in the fourth
and eighth grades, as well as their teachers and principals. Organizers
estimate that the student survey will take approximately 15 minutes to
complete, while the teacher and principal surveys will take about 25
minutes to complete.
Effects of NCLB
American Indian/Alaska Native Education: An Overview
In light of the No Child Left Behind Act, signed into law by President
George Bush in 2002, many have expressed apprehension regarding the
ability of teachers to explore cultural teachings with Indian students
in the public school system. The concern is that schools’ focus on
improving performance on mandatory standardized tests, which are called
for by the law, will stifle efforts to educate Indian students about
their culture while in school.
Even educators at many of the nation’s 185 BIA schools
(federally-operated institutions of learning for Indians) are concerned
that No Child Left Behind will usurp cultural teachings. Past studies
have shown that students at these schools were more likely to have
received instruction in American Indian/Alaska Native courses than their
peers who were enrolled in non-BIA public schools.
Some Indian educators say the culture problem has already gotten worse
under the law: “Even in programs that usually support culturally-based
learning, there have been reductions in enriched teaching because of No
Child Left Behind,” says Beaulieu. “Our education programs become less
enriched when we are so focused on tests.”
Beaulieu is hopeful that the Indian Education Survey results will
provide an avenue for understanding how Indian culture interplays with
educational performance. The complete results of the 2005 survey are
scheduled to be available in summer 2006.
Making Up for Lost Time
Organizers of the federally-funded American Indian Education Study say
it is intended to assist the United States in continuing its
relationship with, and fulfilling its responsibility to, American Indian
and Alaska Native peoples with respect to the education of their
children.
The National Center for Education Statistics offers more information on
the study
“This activity is part of a collaborative effort among Indian tribes and
organizations, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and state and local
education agencies, to ensure that programs serving [American
Indian/Alaska Native] children are of the highest quality and meet their
unique culturally-related academic needs,” according to the center’s Web
site.
Taslima Rahman, a researcher who helps oversee the project, notes that
the study was designed in consultation with a technical review panel
composed of American Indian and Alaska Native educators and researchers
from across the country.
The first part of the study will be based on the performance of American
Indian and Alaska Native students at approximately 5,000 schools
nationwide. Both parts will be conducted in a representative sample of
schools selected from states across the nation. Results will be reported
for American Indian and Alaska Native students for the U.S. as a whole,
as well as for regions and states that have a high proportion of
American Indian and Alaska Native students.
Money Now, Money Later?
Recalling his time as Director of the Office of Indian Education during
President Bill Clinton’s second term, Beaulieu recalls, “It was a
tradition to try to find monies to oversample the diverse Indian
population.”
The current study is expected to cost approximately $3 million through
2006. No decision has yet been made by the Department of Education as to
whether it will be an ongoing measure. Beaulieu says that budget
requests to Congress for educational research should automatically
include funds to over-sample the Indian population. Otherwise, he argues
that the data gathered simply does not provide an accurate picture of
the approximately 500,000 Indian learners in the U.S. today.
“I think it’s vital that in developing a study, it actually reflects
good science and also provides good information about our Indian
students,” says Beaulieu. “It should be an issue of priority to
understand our children’s educational needs.”
Resources:
0. National Center for Education Statistics
0. NCES has a new brochure on the NAEP test aimed at a general audience.
0. Department of Education, Office of Indian Education
CFK’s Race & Ethnicity Pages
Indian Education Under the Microscope
Published: March 14, 2005
by: Rob Capriccioso
Over the past few months, hundreds of American Indian and Alaska Natives
in the fourth and eighth grades at schools across the nation have become
part of a unique educational group. They sat down in classrooms – along
with thousands of their peers throughout the country – to answer
multiple questions like, “What makes this story a fable?” and “Which
object is heaviest?” that make up the 90-minute National Assessment of
Educational Progress test.
There’s nothing unusual about that: most Indian students today attend
public schools and have been taking the reading- and math-focused test
since it was first administered in the U.S. in 1969.
Indian Education Budget Cuts
The recent budget proposal by President Bush has alarmed many educators
involved with Indian education. The budget cuts several grants that
provide school supplies, tutoring and other services to Indian students
at public schools.
Bush has also asked for a $89.5 million reduction in funds for the
construction of new BIA schools (government-operated schools intended
for Indian students)-though the construction program was a priority he
had set during his first term
Indianz.com, an online publication focused on Indian issues, has more
information about cuts to Indian education.
What is different this time out is that for the first time ever, Indian
students are being deliberately over-sampled to allow researchers to
better analyze their performance as a group. Often, Indian students make
up such a small percentage of the student body in a particular school
that their results can’t be assessed in a statistically meaningful way.
It’s part of a National Indian Education Study being carried out by the
National Center for Education Statistics on behalf of the U.S.
Department of Education’s Office of Indian Education. The study analyzes
the progress of Indian students in thousands of schools throughout the
nation.
The study sample will include students attending public, nonpublic, and
Bureau of Indian Affairs schools, according to center officials. There
are more than 250,000 Indian students, ages 5 to 18 years inclusively,
enrolled in public, private, federal and BIA schools in the U.S.
However, the study will not report results by type of school.
A special report detailing American Indian student results in reading
and mathematics will be available from the center in spring 2006.
The Problem
Though historically, small sample sizes have made it difficult to assess
the performance results for this population, the results to date have
indicated that achievement levels are lower for Indians than for their
white, Hispanic and African American counterparts. Research also
indicates that American Indian and Alaska Native students have a
drop-out rate twice the national average—the highest rate of any U.S.
ethnic or racial group.
Many educators want to reverse those trends, but Indian educators in
particular say that they also want to be sure that NAEP tests are
accurately measuring Indian student performance.
National Indian Education Association President David Beaulieu, Ph. D.
(White Earth Chippewa), says that the increased sample size measurement
will help educators learn a lot more about Indian students and how they
are performing in schools.
Researchers with the Department of Education agree: “The Department of
Education recognized that the sample size of American Indian and Alaska
Native students in previous [National Assessment of Educational
Progress] assessments led to a high degree of standard error and limited
the comparison to other student populations,” says Jeff Johnson, the
coordinator of the project with the Office of Indian Education. “In
order to decrease the standard error on the sample and ensure reliable
estimates of student performance, the [study] was designed to collect
data from a larger sample of American Indian and Alaska Native
students.”
Culture’s Role
CFK reported in 2003 on some young Crow poets who shared their culture
in Washington, D.C.
While part one of the National Indian Education Study centers on math
and reading performance, part two focuses on cultural issues facing
Indian children in the education arena. The Indian Education Survey will
be conducted during a 6-week period from April 1 through May 13, 2005.
The role of culture in teaching Indian students is an area that many
educators have deemed of great importance. Beaulieu, for one, says it is
necessary for more researchers to explore how culture and language
affect the educational experience of Indian students. “Too often, we
study how kids are doing in math and reading, but we never look at how
schools can be more effective for students in terms of language and
culture.”
Researchers have found that there can be dangerous consequences for
Indian students when educators fail to appreciate Indian languages and
cultures: historically, Indian students have been over-identified as
learning disabled, mentally retarded, or have been more likely to be
subject to disciplinary actions.
For example, members of the Rosebud Sioux Tribal Council have clashed
with school officials in the Winner School District, in Tripp County,
South Dakota recently. They say that because non-Indian teachers with
the district do not attempt to understand Indian youth issues, the
school has unfairly sought criminal prosecutions of Indian students for
minor school misconduct. And they are upset by a high Indian student
drop-out rate.
“Academically capable Native students often drop out of school because
their needs are not being met, while others are pushed out because they
protest in a variety of ways how they are treated in school,” according
to Northern Arizona University researcher Jon Reyhner who has written an
overview of Indian education. “Teachers need to understand the dynamics
of how children are socialized both into their home culture and into the
school culture.”
Reyhner also says that too often superficial attempts are made in
schools to provide an Indian curriculum through a Thanksgiving unit or a
Native American Day, rather than developing a culture-based,
culture-embedded curriculum that permeates both the school day and the
school year
Organizers of the National Indian Education Study anticipate that 250
schools per grade will be sampled across the nation for the 2005 survey
in order to gather information about the educational experiences of
American Indian students and the role of Indian culture in their
education. According to officials with the center, the survey will ask
questions of American Indian and Alaska Native students in the fourth
and eighth grades, as well as their teachers and principals. Organizers
estimate that the student survey will take approximately 15 minutes to
complete, while the teacher and principal surveys will take about 25
minutes to complete.
Effects of NCLB
American Indian/Alaska Native Education: An Overview
In light of the No Child Left Behind Act, signed into law by President
George Bush in 2002, many have expressed apprehension regarding the
ability of teachers to explore cultural teachings with Indian students
in the public school system. The concern is that schools’ focus on
improving performance on mandatory standardized tests, which are called
for by the law, will stifle efforts to educate Indian students about
their culture while in school.
Even educators at many of the nation’s 185 BIA schools
(federally-operated institutions of learning for Indians) are concerned
that No Child Left Behind will usurp cultural teachings. Past studies
have shown that students at these schools were more likely to have
received instruction in American Indian/Alaska Native courses than their
peers who were enrolled in non-BIA public schools.
Some Indian educators say the culture problem has already gotten worse
under the law: “Even in programs that usually support culturally-based
learning, there have been reductions in enriched teaching because of No
Child Left Behind,” says Beaulieu. “Our education programs become less
enriched when we are so focused on tests.”
Beaulieu is hopeful that the Indian Education Survey results will
provide an avenue for understanding how Indian culture interplays with
educational performance. The complete results of the 2005 survey are
scheduled to be available in summer 2006.
Making Up for Lost Time
Organizers of the federally-funded American Indian Education Study say
it is intended to assist the United States in continuing its
relationship with, and fulfilling its responsibility to, American Indian
and Alaska Native peoples with respect to the education of their
children.
The National Center for Education Statistics offers more information on
the study
“This activity is part of a collaborative effort among Indian tribes and
organizations, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and state and local
education agencies, to ensure that programs serving [American
Indian/Alaska Native] children are of the highest quality and meet their
unique culturally-related academic needs,” according to the center’s Web
site.
Taslima Rahman, a researcher who helps oversee the project, notes that
the study was designed in consultation with a technical review panel
composed of American Indian and Alaska Native educators and researchers
from across the country.
The first part of the study will be based on the performance of American
Indian and Alaska Native students at approximately 5,000 schools
nationwide. Both parts will be conducted in a representative sample of
schools selected from states across the nation. Results will be reported
for American Indian and Alaska Native students for the U.S. as a whole,
as well as for regions and states that have a high proportion of
American Indian and Alaska Native students.
Money Now, Money Later?
Recalling his time as Director of the Office of Indian Education during
President Bill Clinton’s second term, Beaulieu recalls, “It was a
tradition to try to find monies to oversample the diverse Indian
population.”
The current study is expected to cost approximately $3 million through
2006. No decision has yet been made by the Department of Education as to
whether it will be an ongoing measure. Beaulieu says that budget
requests to Congress for educational research should automatically
include funds to over-sample the Indian population. Otherwise, he argues
that the data gathered simply does not provide an accurate picture of
the approximately 500,000 Indian learners in the U.S. today.
“I think it’s vital that in developing a study, it actually reflects
good science and also provides good information about our Indian
students,” says Beaulieu. “It should be an issue of priority to
understand our children’s educational needs.”
Resources:
0. National Center for Education Statistics
0. NCES has a new brochure on the NAEP test aimed at a general audience.
0. Department of Education, Office of Indian Education
CFK’s Race & Ethnicity Pages