Indians criticize No Child Left Behind (fwd)

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Indians criticize No Child Left Behind

Tribal College News
by Associated Press
Aug 13, 2007, 22:36
SANTA FE
http://www.diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/article_9066.shtml

The No Child Left Behind law fails to recognize native cultures and
languages, American Indian officials and educators told a U.S. Senate
committee.

The law also restricts the ways schools can use native cultures and
languages in their curriculums, the committee was told Friday.

"I've come across nothing that would enable me to be a proponent of the
act," said San Ildefonso Pueblo Gov. James Mountain.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee held the hearing
to seek public input on renewal of the law and how it affects American
Indian students.

The law requires annual math and reading tests in grades three through eight
and once in high school. Schools that miss progress goals face consequences,
such as having to offer tutoring or fire their principals.

Mountain said he has heard from teachers in the Pojoaque school district
that the act does not take into account cultural differences and has forced
schools to focus on English, leaving no room for native languages.

"Once we lose our language, we lose our culture," Mountain said.

Maggie Benally, principal of the Navajo Immersion School in Fort Defiance,
Ariz., said her school is an example of what can happen when schools use
native language as a tool.

Students in grades K-2 there learn only in the Navajo language and gradually
switch to an English-language curriculum after that.

The school has made adequate yearly progress under No Child Left Behind for
the past three years, Benally said. "Language and culture have a positive
effect on student achievement," she said.

If lawmakers reauthorize the act, they need to leave room for schools to
incorporate language and culture, Benally said.

The government also should encourage and fund ways to ensure American Indian
schools have enough high-quality teachers, she said.

State Secretary of Education Veronica Garcia said schools in isolated rural
areas, where many tribal and pueblo schools are located, often have
difficulty recruiting teachers.

The government needs to support ways to encourage American Indians to become
teachers so they can return to teach in their tribes and pueblos, Garcia
said.

The law also disregards tribal sovereignty by forcing schools to adhere to
state academic standards, said Samantha Pasena, a recent graduate of the
Santa Fe Indian School.

The legislation is a priority for President Bush, who pushed for its initial
passage in 2001.

The law has been widely scorned by teachers who argue it does not provide
schools the money needed to meet federal standards.

A majority of Americans want the law to be renewed as it is or with minor
changes, according to a poll released July 30 by Harvard University's
Kennedy School of Government and Education Next, a publication of the
Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

Information from: The Santa Fe New Mexican, http://www.sfnewmexican.com
- Associated Press

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