Education leader decries 'No Child Left Behind' (fwd)

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Education leader decries 'No Child Left Behind'

© Indian Country Today August 05, 2005. All Rights Reserved
Posted: August 05, 2005
by: Rick St. Germaine / Indian Country Today
http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096411362

GREEN BAY, Wis. - David Beaulieu, president of the National Indian
Education Association, lobbed a bombshell in his keynote address before
the opening general assembly of the annual National Indian School Board
Association conference July 18.

''The Title VII Indian Education Act programs, meant to serve the
special unique cultural needs of American Indian students, are getting
to look more like Title I [compensatory education] and may soon
disappear,'' noted Beaulieu, who cautioned hundreds of delegates
assembled at the broad gathering of Indian school leaders to guard
against the loss of their heritage in the school curriculum.

''Issues of tribal culture, language, cognition, community and
socialization are central to learning,'' added Beaulieu, ''and [they
are] being dangerously overlooked as the federal government rushes to
push Indian schools to meet the artificial standards of the No Child
Left Behind mandate.''

The Indian Education Act program, to which he referred, has historically
been the most dependable resource for ''culturally based education,'' a
broad-based Indian school-wide approach to meet the special needs of
Native children.

Beaulieu, director of the Arizona State University Center for Indian
Education, warned that schools for American Indians are increasingly
re-orienting their course offerings away from culturally based
education in favor of programs in reading and math.

The No Child Left Behind initiative of the Bush administration aims to
make schools accountable for the academic progress of every child.

The U.S. Department of Education pointed out that total NCLB funding for
American Indians and Alaska Natives has increased by $94 million, or an
added 47 percent, to more than $297 million. NCLB grants awarded by the
department are increasing Indian students' achievement, increasing the
high school graduation rates and preserving and teaching the Native
language and culture, according to a recent posting on the NCLB Web
site, www.nclb.gov.

But Beaulieu and the National Indian Education Association disagree.

Beaulieu cited numerous voices crying out for relief from NCLB mandates
in field hearings conducted by NIEA throughout the country.

''NCLB is crowding out the broader purposes of Indian education,''
exclaimed Beaulieu, ''and the danger to our students is very real.''

''Witnesses are telling us that the formula Title VII grant programs are
being told they can't offer Native language or culture in their
schools,'' Beaulieu continued.

''The [government] has completely overlooked the Native Languages Act of
1990 and the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978 to preserve
and protect the rights of Native Americans to use and develop Native
American languages,'' he added.

Among the handful of recommendations recently proposed to the Bush
administration, NIEA called for ''the development of a doctrine of
'trust' in the area of education and the convening of meaningful
intergovernmental cooperation as indicated within the purposes of the
Indian Education Act,'' according to Beaulieu.