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American Indian Students

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This Department of Education brief provides a blueprint outlining the reforms made in response to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.  According to the blueprint, four improvements for American students are:  “(1) Improving teacher and principal effectiveness to ensure that every classroom has a great teacher; (2) Providing information to families to help them evaluate and improve their children’s schools, and to educators to help them improve their students’ learning; (3) Implementing college- and career-ready standards and developing improved assessments aligned with those standards; and (4) Improving student learning and achievement in America’s lowest-performing schools by providing intensive support and effective interventions.”

President Obama’s 2015 Budget proposes a more than $3 billion increase in support to tribal communities, American Indians, and Alaska Natives, as compared to 2009.  According to this White House website, "The Department of the Interior’s (DOI) BIE educates 48,000 American Indian students across 23 states at 183 elementary and secondary schools and dormitories.  The Blueprint for Reform will redesign the BIE to achieve one overarching goal: for tribes to deliver a world-class education to all students attending BIE schools."  The President has also issued a Secretarial Order to "transform the BIE into a School Improvement Organization." Other tenants of the reform include: "Connecting BIE schools and dorms to high speed Internet and support digital learning. To accelerate the speed at which students in BIE schools experience the benefits of the President’s ConnectED vision and provide National Board Certification (NBC) training to existing BIE instructional staff."  

  • McKinney-Vento Education for Homeless Children and Youth Program - Federal Grants for U.S. States (edited June 3, 2014)

    • This Department of Education website describes formula grants which are made to the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico based on each state’s share of Title I, Part A, funds. The outlying areas and the Bureau of Indian Affairs also receive funds. Among other things, the program supports an office for coordination of the education of homeless children and youths in each state, which gathers comprehensive information about homeless children and youths and the impediments they must overcome to regularly attend school. These grants also help SEAs ensure that homeless children, including preschoolers and youths, have equal access to free and appropriate public education (FAPE).

  • National Partnership Formed to Address Dropout Crisis NEA and Boys & Girls Clubs of America to develop initiative to collectively

    • This 2009 NEA Today article announced, "In a groundbreaking alliance, the National Education Association (NEA), the nation’s largest professional organization representing 3.2 million educators and Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA), one of the nation’s leading youth organizations with more than 4,300 Clubs that serve 4.5 million young people announced plans to join together to advance dropout prevention efforts, promote high school graduation, and increase public engagement.   According to estimates, approximately one million students or 30 percent of the high school population drops out before graduation each year. Only five in 10 Black and Hispanic students graduate on time with a standard diploma and less than one-half of American Indian and Alaska Native youth complete high school."

  • Office of Indian Education: Ensuring No American Indian and Alaska Native Child Is Left Behind

    • This Department of Education website houses the Office of Indian Education whose mission is to support the efforts of local educational agencies, Indian tribes and organizations, postsecondary institutions, and other entities to meet the unique educational and culturally related academic needs of American Indians and Alaska Natives so that these students can achieve to the same challenging state standards as all students.  The No Child Left Behind Act amends Indian education reforms in 4-ways, (Title VII, Part A) establishes the use of federal funds; more choices for parents of children from disadvantaged backgrounds; and an emphasis on research-based instruction that works.

  • Title VII: A Path to Education Equity

    • This December 2013 Education Weekly article cites Title VII as the” stand-alone Native education program under the No Child Left Behind Act, has been one of the most important pieces of legislation for reforming Native education.”  Title VII mandates,” Native education stakeholders work with schools and higher education institutions to ensure that culture-based education is included in school curricula and that it meets the educational needs of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian students.”

  • U.S. Department of Education Tribal Consultations

    • This Department of Education website is for the purpose of promoting American Indian Tribal Consultations and Listening Sessions.  On the site, current events are posted, such as, “President Barack Obama signed Executive Order 13592, which established the White House Initiative on American Indian and Alaska Native Education (Initiative). The President's Initiative committed the Federal Government to working closely with tribal governments to close the achievement gap between Indian students and non-Indian students, decrease the alarmingly high dropout rates of all American Indian and Alaska Native students, and help preserve and revitalize Native languages."