New Help for Native American Students: How to Rethink School Design and Culturally Relevant Classrooms for the Next Generation

Native American students’ unique needs for too long have been poorly served, but culturally relevant charter schools could help change that. And the federal government is poised to fund their expansion.

A new handbook on how to open and sustain charter schools for these students shows how charters can work with Native communities to make sure their culture and traditions are included in the classroom through challenging coursework.

The National Indian Education Association this month released its first Native Community Schools handbook, “Sovereignty in Education: Creating Culturally Based Charter Schools in Native Communities.” It provides an overview of how to start charter schools with strategies and examples of innovation that fit the academic and cultural needs of Native Indian students. It was funded by the Walton Family Foundation.

And new federal funds may be available to open charters in Native communities. Last month, the Department of Education published a federal notice proposing new grants to support charters for underserved student groups, including Native Americans.

“Charter schools also allow Native people the freedom to tailor education as they see fit, including integrating language and culture into educational experiences, and refocusing on specific learning needs of Native students,” Anna Nicotera, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools’ senior director of research and evaluation, noted in the handbook.

“Our communities are capable and able to provide for the education of their citizens – charter schools are one option for them to utilize, and we’re happy to provide them foundational knowledge,” association president Jolene Bowman said in a news release about the handbook. “Our students do best when they see themselves reflected in the classroom and in their curriculum, any opportunity that can make this a reality for them is critical.”

Only 1 in 4 schools on Native American reservations overseen by the Bureau of Indian Education met state proficiency standards in 2013, and students at those schools performed lower than their peers in traditional schools. That federal agency oversees about 182 schools serving roughly 48,000 students at reservations across the United States.

The challenges for educating Native students include finding qualified teachers who understand the culture and sovereignty of Native lands, said Ahniwake Rose, executive director of the association and moderator of the panel “Data & Accountability: Education in Indian Country” at the National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ annual convention last month in Miami.

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