Article: Minneapolis schools set path of success for Indian students

[Beth Brown]

 *Minneapolis schools set path of success for Indian students*

Article by: STEVE BRAND, Star Tribune, January 21, 2012

Paul Bownik admits that, as a Polish kid from the North Side, he may not be
the obvious guy to infuse a classroom of 25 mostly Indian kids with the
Dakota and Ojibwe tongues of their forebears.

Yet despite Bownik's roots in a far different culture, his classroom is
what educators describe as language-rich, from the numbers in Dakota and
Ojibwe on the wall to the way that Bownik weaves native words and phrases
into everyday tasks, such as getting coats before bus time.

In its bid to raise dismal school outcomes for Indian students, the
Minneapolis School District is staking money and staff on techniques such
as those that Bownik and fellow teachers employ at mostly native Anishinabe
Academy.

The district and Indian leaders this month approved a new five-year
agreement with specific student achievement goals, which is a change from
their first such pact. The latest agreement came just as Gov. Mark Dayton
and Indian educators pledged at a summit to work together on improving
Indian education statewide.

Access full article at:
http://www.startribune.com/local/minneapolis/137830763.html


Related article:


*Relationships built from scratch: Minneapolis Public Schools and American
Indian community members sign new
agreement<http://tcdailyplanet.tumblr.com/post/15242520364/relationships-built-from-scratch-minneapolis-public>
*

Article by: Alleen Brown, Twin Cities Daily Planet, January 3, 2012

For decades, American Indians have not trusted schools, and why would they?
American Indian kids went to boarding school to unlearn language and
culture. Indian schools were established to make sure the Indian community
wouldn’t get to teach. As Minneapolis Indian Education director Danielle
Grant put it, “Education was something that was happening to us.”

In January, the Minneapolis school district will sign a revised Memorandum
of Agreement, renewing a 2006 commitment by the Metro Urban Indian
Directors and Minneapolis Public Schools to work together at changing those
old dynamics. The agreement is likely the only one like it in the nation.

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