$14.5 million in federal funds to boost Native school programs across the state (fwd)

[Phil CashCash]

$14.5 million in federal funds to boost Native school programs across
the state

Thursday, October 2, 2003

By ERIC FRY
JUNEAU EMPIRE © 2003
http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/100203/loc_culture.shtml

 The office of Sen. Ted Stevens announced this week that $14.5 million
in federal funds will go to Native education programs in Alaska.

  In Juneau, the money will help expand a Tlingit-oriented elementary
school program, continue a popular science summer camp that has a
Native focus and provide home educational and social services to
preschoolers.

  The funding comes from the U.S. Department of Education under the
Alaska Native Education Equity Act, an amendment sponsored by Stevens,
an Alaska Republican, to the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

  Among this year's 32 grants, funds will go toward distance learning
for rural school aides, CD-ROMs and books about Yup'ik culture,
vocational training, development of Athabascan- and Inupiaq-oriented
math and science curricula and family literacy.

  The Juneau School District received a $497,613 grant to expand its
Tlingit-oriented classrooms at Harborview Elementary School to the
fifth grade and to prepare more schools to add such classrooms. The
classes, which include non-Natives, incorporate Tlingit language and
culture in the curriculum.

  The program, now in its fourth year, has 48 students from kindergarten
to fourth grade in two multi-age classrooms. The fifth-grade expansion
could take place next school year, and the program could start up in
other district schools two years from now, said Assistant
Superintendent Bernie Sorenson.

  A recent study of the program's first three years showed that most of
its students read at the appropriate grade level, and on average the
classes do as well as, or better than, other classrooms in the district
on reading and writing tests.

  The Juneau schools also received a $455,806 grant to continue Camp
W.A.T.E.R. - a science- and Native-oriented summer program in its
seventh year - and to offer academic help and after-school activities
to those students throughout the school year.

  The summer camp serves about 40 middle school students a year, about
half of whom are Native. The camp's name stands for wilderness,
adventure, traditions, exploration and research.

  Both grants are the first year of a three-year appropriation.

  "The grants that we're trying to target are ones where we're looking
at successful programs or at least promising practices, and figure out
how to make them continue beyond the life of the grant," Sorenson said.

  The Southeast Regional Resource Center, a statewide nonprofit
educational organization based in Juneau, received $520,000 to continue
its ANSWER Camps, a summer program for rural seventh- and
eighth-graders.

  The camps, now in their seventh year and held in Sitka, have offered
science, math and Native ways of knowing to about 180 students a year
in recent years.

  The latest grant is the first year of a three-year grant. But it's
smaller than usual, and unless SERRC finds more funds, the program will
serve fewer students next summer, said Sheryl Weinberg, the program
director and SERRC's associate director.

  "We have married traditional values and content - Native ways of
knowing - with Western academic content," Weinberg said.

  "We have data that shows that (ANSWER) camp makes a difference in
academic performance, success in high school, attitudes toward math and
science, and how they see themselves as students," she said.

  The Tlingit-Haida Central Council, whose services include Head Start
preschool programs, received $412,500, the first of three annual
grants.

  It will pay for a program called Creating Cultural Foundations, which
will develop a Tlingit-oriented curriculum for preschoolers at home and
in Head Start centers.

  The grant also will pay for home-based educational and social services
to preschoolers and their families in Juneau, Petersburg and
Craig/Klawock, said Jackie Tagaban, the Head Start assistant manager.

  "It's a wonderful opportunity for us at a time when the political
climate is looking at English-language acquisition," Tagaban said. "An
important foundation for young children is to be able to connect with
their culture in school, which typically has not been the case."

   Sealaska Heritage Institute in Juneau received $467,772 to develop
curriculum and teaching materials for Haida-language programs for young
children in Hydaburg, on Prince of Wales Island.

   The grant will allow the institute to work with all 10 Alaskans who
speak Haida fluently, said Rosita Worl, the institute's president.

  "The primary objective really is to develop the curriculum so it can
be taught in schools," Worl said. "Students who have the opportunity to
study in their Native heritage language do better academically."

   In other Southeast grants, Hoonah schools received $269,128 for a
program in which parents teach their children. And Craig schools
received $353,168 for a math teacher who will work with struggling
children and their caregivers, and for parenting education, day care
and transportation.

  • Eric Fry can be reached at efry at juneauempire.com.