Indian schools struggle to improve performance (fwd)

[Phil Cash-Cash]

Date posted online: Monday, January 26, 2004

Indian schools struggle to improve performance
http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2004/01/26/news/education/d3b03aa0485ad60886256e270018e657.txt

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act has
called for sweeping education reform in the nation's schools.

But the heightened standards are putting more pressure on American
Indian schools in South Dakota, where students already struggle to
succeed.

In South Dakota, more than 7,000 students attend 21 reservation schools
funded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Collectively, these students
have the lowest test scores in the state.

Economic conditions, a shortage of preschool opportunities, rural
locations and funding shortfalls contribute to poor student performance
in BIA schools.

While the 2-year-old No Child Left Behind Act requires all children to
meet standards in reading and math by 2014, the federal government does
not have the same leverage to force change at BIA schools as it does
with low-performing public schools.

"If the federal government is holding states' feet to the fire on
achievement for Native American students, is it holding the same
standards to itself?" asked Kevin Carey, policy analyst with the
Education Trust, a nonprofit group.

BIA schools educate about 47,000 students, nearly 10 percent of the
total school-age Indian population. Educators predict that many of
those schools are not going to meet the proficiency standards. It will
take more time and a different approach if Indian schools are going to
catch up, school officials say.

"There are some qualities of that law that are unattainable," said Larry
Gauer, superintendent at St. Francis Indian School on the Rosebud
Indian Reservation. "Some of those kids aren't going to be proficient.
It's our job to educate them as much as we can. And we will do that."

At the Wounded Knee School on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation,
officials are taking corrective actions that are required under the No
Child Left Behind Act.

School officials are planning changes that include aligning their course
offerings with South Dakota's state curriculum standards. They hope to
offer more teacher training if they get financial help. For a while,
school staff members worried that they would be replaced under a
complete restructuring, but they have since found out they will stay.

The Wounded Knee school is one of three BIA schools in South Dakota, and
19 around the nation, that are listed in the worst performance
category. That means the school has failed to make the prescribed
academic progress for five years in a row, including failures under a
previous school accountability law.

The BIA plans to provide additional money and technical assistance to
its lowest-performing schools, said Sharon Wells, special assistant to
the director of the Office of Indian Education in Washington.

When money becomes available, Wounded Knee could get more than $200,000,
said John Cedarface, education supervisor at Wounded Knee School.

With an enrollment of about 150, Wounded Knee struggles with high
teacher turnover and a lack of continuity in the classrooms, Cedarface
said. In the 1960s and 1970s, Black Hills State University offered a
program to train Indian teachers, but the program was ended, Cedarface
said.

Wells agreed that it is difficult for BIA schools to recover from high
staff turnover, which is 30 percent or higher at some.

In order to make adequate progress next year, nearly one-fourth of
Wounded Knee students have to show improvement. That is unlikely, as is
attaining a required 90 percent attendance rate. Currently, attendance
rates of 70 or 80 percent are typical.

"We are going to make improvements," Cedarface said. "We're just pressed
for time.

"It's kind of like a losing game," he said. "It's like being a bull
rider and the bull is already down inside the chute before you come
out."

Poverty is the biggest factor preventing Indian children from achieving
at a higher level, said William Demmert Jr., education professor at
Western Washington University in Bellingham, Wash. Poor children do not
have an opportunity to develop a language base. They have less access
to preschools and fewer learning opportunities. Combine that with a
native language other than English, and those children start out
behind, he said.

Demmert, a former director of the Office of Indian Education in the BIA,
has been researching Indian learning for decades. One of the most
successful education models, he said, is to allow children to learn in
their native language.

Educators at schools such as St. Francis are trying to do that. All
students learn about Indian culture and language, and one elementary
class is taught in Lakota.

The consequences for public schools that fall short of the new federal
standards are serious. The schools can be taken over by the state or by
a private company if test scores do not improve.

But there is no similar provision for BIA-funded schools, said Carol
Barbero, a Washington lawyer representing tribes.

Without the threat of takeover, Barbero asked, how will there be true
accountability? What happens if the BIA schools run by the tribes do
not improve? Will their federal funding be held up?

"I don't know. A lot of these things may have to go to court," Barbero
said. "There's nothing in the law that says the state can come in."

That either leaves the law open to interpretation or means there simply
is a hole in it, she said.

It's a question that will need to be answered soon. Nineteen of the BIA
schools already are in the second year of corrective action, a point at
which public schools face the prospect of restructuring.

Education department officials say no matter how daunting the task, the
new law aims to deliver a quality education to every child. Even though
Indian children in BIA and public schools have not performed well
historically on standardized tests, they are capable, said Darla
Marburger of the U.S. Department of Education's elementary and
secondary education office.

Progress starts with clear and rigorous standards followed by
accountability, Marburger said. BIA schools can meet the prescribed
goals by 2014 but might have to ask for help, she said.

"When it says No Child Left Behind, that's exactly what it means," she
said. "They are in no way forgotten schools."