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From: ErthAvengr@
Subj: [NativeNews] OpEd: ‘No Child (even Native Americans) Left Behind’
Date: 1/31/2003 10:44:30 AM Mountain Standard Time
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guest commentary
‘No Child (even Native Americans) Left Behind’
Richard B. Williams
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0%2C1413%2C36%257E158%257E1147405%257E%2C00.
html
Friday, January 31, 2003 - In April 2001, No Child Left Behind was launched
as the Bush administration's sweeping new educational initiative that was
hailed as "revolutionary" in bringing our nation's public school systems into
the 21st century. It was promoted as "the great equalizer" in transforming
underperforming schools into models of educational efficiency and academic
excellence. "Accountability" was the clarion call across the country in
raising test scores in math and reading.
For Indian children and their parents on reservations across the country,
however, this unfunded federal mandate has the potential for disaster. In a
population that already has a 56 percent high-school dropout rate and more
than a century of educational failure, the "corrective actions" imposed by
NCLB are unrealistic and prohibitive in helping reservation schools achieve
educational parity with their non-Native peers.
Indian children are not only being left further behind than before, but
legislation without Indian consultation further illustrates the systemic
failure of the federal government to uphold its responsibility to provide
education to Indian tribes.
Consider the sanctions. Under NCLB, parents now have the right to transfer
their children to a "successful" school within the same district. But the
reality for Indian parents in remote areas like Pine Ridge, S.D., and Rock
Point, Ariz., where there is likely only one school, busing and transfers are
simply not viable alternatives.
Removing underperforming teachers also presents a problem. On the
reservations, the annual turnover rate is as high as 70 percent. How will
these school districts replace underperforming teachers when turnover is
already a chronic issue?
Additionally, changing administrations or shutting down the schools in
communities with very limited resources and trained personnel is simply not
an option for a population with the least access to education of any racial
or socio-economic group in the country.
"If you're a parent with a child in an underperforming school on a
reservation, where are you going to go?" said John Cheek, executive director
of the National Indian Education Association. "This act doesn't address the
government's treaty obligations to the tribes at all."
Another mandate by NCLB is the training and educational requirements of
teachers' aides, now known as "paraprofessionals." Under current law,
paraprofessionals have until the 2005-06 school year to obtain at least an
associate's degree. But many aides working for just above minimum wage on the
reservation do not have the resources, the access to a local college or even
the technology for long-distance learning to obtain their certificates.
Funding for tuition and training went out to states as block grants, but
tribal schools are not eligible for these grants. Consequently, many Indian
paraprofessionals in the ineligible schools may lose their jobs, although
entities such as Lumina Foundation for Education are stepping forward to help
them meet the higher education requirements.
"The law doesn't take into account the practical application of these
requirements," said Verne Duus, legislative consultant for NIEA. "But the
biggest problem is that the government has not even made a pretense of fully
funding this initiative, and we simply cannot achieve these results without
resources. This is going to be devastating for the schools, especially those
on reservations."
But the main concern of those in Indian education is the long-term impact of
inadequate education on Native communities. According to the 2000 Census,
American Indians are the fastest-growing racial group in the country. As the
population continues to grow, producing a skilled local workforce will become
nearly impossible. Jobs will become even more critical in the areas of tribal
law, accounting, medicine, education, technology and business in the decades
to come.
NCLB has the promise of hope and recognizes the need for reform. The missing
piece, however, is real change. The building blocks of success for Indian
students include replacing competitive classrooms with cooperative ones;
teaching to students' learning styles; modifying curricula so that children
see themselves in stories and in the math assignments; and connecting culture
and language as core components of the student's experience.
Most importantly, reform means caring about the children in the classroom.
Let's stop the systemic failure and meet the needs of the students in a
positive learning environment. Let's make changes that will reform our
schools so that we can be proud of the good that is happening. We know what
is possible based on the success of the tribal college movement. Let's make
No Child Left Behind a reality for all of America's children.
Richard B. Williams is executive director of the American Indian College
Fund, a historian, educator and the founder of the Upward Bound Program at
the University of Colorado at Boulder. He is also a former member of The
Post's Compass panel.
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