[Senate Hearing 112-43]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 112-43
IN OUR WAY: EXPANDING THE SUCCESS OF NATIVE LANGUAGE AND CULTURE-BASED
EDUCATION
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
MAY 26, 2011
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Indian Affairs
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COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS
DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii, Chairman
JOHN BARRASSO, Wyoming, Vice Chairman
DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii JOHN McCAIN, Arizona
KENT CONRAD, North Dakota LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska
TIM JOHNSON, South Dakota JOHN HOEVEN, North Dakota
MARIA CANTWELL, Washington MIKE CRAPO, Idaho
JON TESTER, Montana MIKE JOHANNS, Nebraska
TOM UDALL, New Mexico
AL FRANKEN, Minnesota
Loretta A. Tuell, Majority Staff Director
David A. Mullon Jr., Minority Staff Director and Chief Counsel
C O N T E N T S
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Page
Hearing held on May 26, 2011..................................... 1
Statement of Senator Akaka....................................... 1
Statement of Senator Barrasso.................................... 2
Statement of Senator Franken..................................... 3
Statement of Senator Udall....................................... 25
Prepared statement........................................... 26
Witnesses
Beaulieu, David, Professor of Education Policy and Community
Studies; Director, Electa Quinney Institute for American Indian
Education, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee................... 44
Prepared statement........................................... 46
Harcharek, Jana, Director of Inupiaq Education, North Slope
Borough School District, Barrow Alaska......................... 38
Prepared statement........................................... 41
Kanaiaupuni, Shawn, Ph.D., Division Director, Kamehameha Schools. 55
Prepared statement........................................... 58
Lasley, Sr., Larry C., Member, Meskwaki Settlement School Board.. 13
Prepared statement........................................... 15
Parker, Alvin N., Principal, Ka Waihona O Ka Naauao Public
Charter School................................................. 20
Prepared statement........................................... 21
Rawlins, Namaka, Liaison, `Aha Punana Leo, University of Hawaii,
Hilo College of Hawaiian Language.............................. 5
Prepared statement........................................... 7
Shendo, Kevin, Education Director, Pueblo of Jemez............... 27
Prepared statement........................................... 28
Appendix
Cherokee Nation, prepared statement.............................. 74
Inouye, Hon. Daniel K., U.S. Senator from Hawaii, prepared
statement...................................................... 73
Johnson, Florian Tom, Principal, Rough Rock Community School,
prepared statement............................................. 92
Kippen, Colin, Executive Director, National Indian Education
Association, prepared statement................................ 78
Sheather-Wise, Taffi U`llel, Executive Director, Kanu o ka Aina
Learning `Ohana prepared statement............................. 90
IN OUR WAY: EXPANDING THE SUCCESS OF NATIVE LANGUAGE AND CULTURE-BASED
EDUCATION
----------
THURSDAY, MAY 26, 2011
U.S. Senate,
Committee on Indian Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:15 p.m. in room
628, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Daniel K. Akaka,
Chairman of the Committee, presiding.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. DANIEL K. AKAKA,
U.S. SENATOR FROM HAWAII
The Chairman. Good morning. I call this hearing of the
Committee on Indian Affairs to order.
Aloha, and thank you very much, all of you for being with
us today. On this day, we think about language and culture-
based education. I think it is only fitting to begin with an
example of what we are trying to save, to advance and move
forward. With that in mind, I want to set the tone for this
hearing, and ask Namaka Rawlins of Aha Punana Leo to do an
opening protocol in our Native Hawaiian language to open this
hearing.
Namaka?
Ms. Rawlins. [Greeting and opening protocol in native
tongue.]
The Chairman. Aloha. Mahalo nui loa, Namaka.
Today's hearing is called In Our Way: Expanding the Success
of Native Language and Culture-Based Education. This hearing
will explore the trends and achievements in Native language and
culture-based education, identify barriers to greater success
and key strategies to meeting student and Native community
needs through education.
You may know that I started my career as a young Native
Hawaiian teacher. I worked to implement the Native Hawaiian
perspective into the curriculum and learning environments of my
students, because I believed that was the best way to ensure
their success. I really believe that one way to get to these
young people is through their culture.
I remember with a big smile that when I was learning to
read in Hawaii, just think the years back there, and the big
words, big letters, and what do I read about? Snow.
[Laughter.]
The Chairman. And I wondered, gee, what is this? But
anyway, that is what I mean when I say culture. In Hawaii, we
do have snow on our mountains, but not in the villages and
towns there. This is why I have always believed to get students
at their roots and their culture is when we are really getting
to the spirit of learning and education.
It is troubling to know that of the 300 plus Native
languages that were once spoken in this great Country that only
175 remain. And many are at risk of being lost. Native
languages are vital to the Native peoples to whom they belong.
There are numerous examples of where their continued existence
has benefitted the United States as a whole.
As a World War II veteran, I can assure you--and there are
just three of us left in the Senate today, Senator Inouye,
Senator Lautenberg and I--I can assure you we learned the value
of the Navajo language then, in World War II, and of the
bravery of the Navajo people.
I commend the work of many of our witnesses today. You have
been committed and innovative in solving the challenges and
laying a foundation for achieving academic excellence in a way
that honors the unique Native cultures of America.
I want to extend a special mahalo, or thank you, to all of
those who have traveled from Hawaii, Alaska and other places in
this Country to join us today. I appreciate your presence at
these proceedings.
My good friend, and I am so happy to be able to work with
him, Senator Barrasso, I would like to ask him to make an
opening statement. Senator Barrasso?
STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN BARRASSO,
U.S. SENATOR FROM WYOMING
Senator Barrasso. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman, for
holding this hearing. When you start talking about your earlier
days as a teacher, I would think that Senator Franken would
join me in saying, you continue to be a teacher, a teacher to
us in the Senate, a teacher to your colleagues, to any of the
staff on both sides of the aisle, to people in this room, we
continue to learn from you in so many ways. You talk about your
service in World War II, we just had 104 World War II veterans
from Wyoming here as part of an honor flight. There is so much
to learn, for all of us.
I just wanted to take the time to thank you and just let
you know that you continue to be an exceptional teacher. In
medical school they always gave the best teacher what was
called the golden apple. Students would take an apple to a
teacher. And I know in the Senate you would be the deserved one
to receive a golden apple.
So I am very, very privileged to serve with you, Mr.
Chairman. I wanted to be here today because of the significant
work that we all need to continue to do as we deal with the
consideration of Indian education in the reauthorization of the
No Child Left Behind Act. We all know that quality education is
really a key component to any healthy and thriving community.
It is also an area where there is, as we all know, much work to
be done and much room for improvement.
In the past, this Committee has received discouraging
testimony about dropout rates, poor achievement rates, from our
Indian students. We see that in Wyoming. According to the
trends found in the Bureau of Indian Education report card for
the past three years, graduation rates of Indian students
ranged between 53 and 57 percent. Dropout rates ranged from 8
to nearly 10 percent for the same three years.
So we need to hear how we can close the achievement gaps
and build upon some of the successes that have been achieved in
Indian education. So I am happy that we are having this hearing
today. It is important that we give attention to, and careful
attention to those elements that support and advance academic
achievement. All of us, Congress, the Administration, the
tribes, the Indian education community, parents, families and
the students themselves need to work together at improving the
quality of Indian education and the quality of student
performance.
So this will have to be a collaborative effort on all
levels. I suspect that the best ideas will be found at the
local level. I want to thank the witnesses, I look forward to
the testimony.
And to you, Mr. Chairman, I just want to thank you for the
leadership and the guidance that you have continued to show on
this Committee and in this Senate and for this Nation as a
tremendous teacher for all of us. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Senator Barrasso, thank you so much for your
kind words. I look forward to continuing to work with you on
this.
Senator Franken?
STATEMENT OF HON. AL FRANKEN,
U.S. SENATOR FROM MINNESOTA
Senator Franken. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In Hebrew, I
don't know if we have a word for snow.
[Laughter.]
Senator Franken. I think maybe our Native Alaskans have
more than one word.
And I too want to associate myself with what the Vice Chair
of this Committee said about you as a teacher. I really
appreciate that. By the way, the word rabbi in Hebrew means
teacher. So thank you, Rabbi, and Chairman, for holding this
hearing. I appreciate your continuing efforts to improve
educational opportunities for Native students.
It is painfully clear that our current education strategies
are not working for Native students. As Senator Barrasso was
saying, we have all heard the statistics. Indian students
perform below their peers in standardized tests, in reading and
math. Approximately one out of every two Indian children fail
to make it through high school. In Minnesota, actually, the
high school graduation rate for Indian children is only 41
percent.
But there are also success stories. At the Nay Ah Shing
school in Minnesota, students are learning about their language
and culture, which will strengthen their school's climate and
its ability to engage students, which we know is so important.
Everything on the Help Committee that we have been looking at
in terms of No Child Left Behind says that when kids are
engaged, they do well.
In Minnesota public schools, pre-K students in the High
Five program spend the morning learning English and in the
afternoon they have a Dakota or Ojibway immersion classroom.
Over the last four years, this program has produced a 16 point
gain in kindergarten readiness. Last night in Minneapolis, 65
Native students participated in the Indian graduation
celebration. It is up from 35 last year.
We know that Indian children do better in school when they
have opportunities to learn their language and culture. There
are good models in Native communities across the Country that
are producing results. It is vitally important to highlight
these success stories, and I want to thank the witnesses for
being here so we can learn from you. You will be teaching us as
well.
So I look forward to listening to your testimony on the
strategies that work and learning what we can do to expand
success. One of the most moving things I find when I do Native
events in Minnesota is the drumming and the singing. It is so
beautiful. To see these kids, in some cases pretty little kids,
drumming and speaking in their ancestral tongue or singing in
it, it is absolutely gorgeous. And you just can't help but go,
like, well, of course. Of course, learning your language, of
course, being proud of your culture, being proud of your
heritage is going to do wonders for every aspect of your being,
including your academic well-being. Of course.
So thank you, Mr. Chairman, thank you, Rabbi, for today's
hearing.
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Senator Franken. Again,
thank you for your kind words and I look forward to continuing
to work with you. I of course seriously hope that I can measure
up to the honor of being a rabbi.
[Laughter.]
The Chairman. Education is the foundation of all progress
for our communities. As Native peoples, our futures are
strengthened when we can employ educational practices that help
our children thrive and excel. There is an old Hawaiian adage I
think is instructive on this topic. It is, A`ohe pau ka `ike I
ka halau ho`okahi, and it means, all knowledge is not taught in
the same school.
I am looking forward to hearing from the witnesses on the
different strategies they have employed to help our Native
students achieve and succeed, and their perspectives on how to
expand on current successes and promising trends. We want to
build on the basics.
We only have limited time to conduct the hearing and
therefore, had to limit the number of witnesses we invited. But
as Chairman, it is my goal to ensure that we hear from all who
want to contribute to the discussion. So we have ways for you
to let us know how you are feeling. The hearing record will be
open for two weeks from today, and I encourage everyone to
submit your comments, your written testimony. I want to remind
the witnesses to please limit your oral testimony to five
minutes today.
I would like to invite the first panel, and you are all
here, and I welcome you to this hearing.
Joining us today is Namaka Rawlins, a liaison of the `Aha
Punana Leo of the University of Hawaii College of Hawaiian
Language at Hilo. Larry Lasley is a member of the Meskwaki
Settlement School Board in Tama, Iowa, where the tribe operates
a BIE school.
Alvin Parker is the principal of Ka Waihona o ka Na`auao
Public Charter School in Waianae, Hawaii. Our fourth panelist
is Kevin Shendo, the Education Director for the Pueblo of Jemez
in New Mexico. So again, welcome to all of you.
Ms. Rawlins, please proceed with your testimony.
STATEMENT OF NAMAKA RAWLINS, LIAISON, `AHA PUNANA LEO,
UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII AT HILO COLLEGE OF
HAWAIIAN LANGUAGE
Ms. Rawlins. Mahalo. Chairman Akaka, Vice Chairman
Barrasso, Senator Franken and members of the Committee on
Indian Affairs, my name is Namaka Rawlins. I am past Executive
Director of `Aha Punana Leo, served as Chairperson of the
Native Hawaiian Education Council, and just recently completed
my term as board member of the National Indian Education
Association.
Today I represent the `Aha Punana Leo Language Nest and Ka
Haka `Ula O Ke`elikolani, Hawaiian language college at UH Hilo.
Together, these entities, with laboratory school programs,
represent Hawaii's P-20 vertical alignment of Hawaiian Language
Medium education system. It is the most developed program in a
Native American language. P-20 refers to an education pipeline
from early childhood through the doctorate. Our successes
include 100 percent graduation rate and 80 percent college
enrolment, due to the rigorous academics of our program.
It is an honor to testify before you on Native American
education with a particular emphasis on the crucial role of our
Native American languages and cultures in the education of
Native Hawaiians, American Indians and Alaska Natives. It is
also an honor to be here with my colleagues from our National
Coalition of Indigenous Language and Culture-Based Education
Research Group. My full testimony is provided. I will highlight
a few things.
There is overwhelming support in Native American
communities throughout the Country to revive and restore long-
suppressed native languages and cultures to the children of
those communities. Those languages are crucial to Native
American literature, ceremonial life, spirituality, kinship
practices and overall indigenous identity.
It is possible to restore these languages to communities to
assure the continuity of Native American identity and to
bolster the academic achievement and college and career
readiness of Native students. There is much research on the
effectiveness of immersion as a language teaching methodology.
Immersion is not only the most effective method of restoring
Native languages, it is also a most effective program
academically for Native American children. Well-established
Native American language immersion programs currently exist in
Arizona, Montana, Wyoming, Oklahoma, New York, Minnesota,
Wisconsin, Montana, Oregon, Alaska and Hawaii. Lakota-speaking
tribes in North and South Dakota and others have started
immersion projects or are working to do so.
Senator, the Native American Languages Act, NALA, was
passed in 1990, over 20 years ago, with policies and provisions
that assure Native American language-speaking children the
right to use their languages in federally-funded public
education. These provisions are absent in the No Child Left
Behind Act. It is crucial that the most egregious conflict
between NALA and No Child Left Behind relative to our highly
endangered Native American languages be eliminated now.
The harshest barriers to Native American immersion are in
Title I, as they relate to testing and teacher qualification,
disregarding the distinctiveness of Native American language
immersion. The results of measures of student performance in a
language other than the language of instruction threaten our
programs and force them to abandon immersion prematurely. Fear
of Title I is what prevents many programs from even starting.
I ask that you consider allowing our consortium in Hilo to
serve as a federally-mandated center for excellence for any
school that meets the definition of a Native American language
nest or a Native American language survival school, to serve
parallel to a State education agency for the U.S. DOE. It would
be an option for these schools. It would build on our existing
national coalition of indigenous language and culture-based
education network of researchers and practitioners in Native
American language immersion and culture-based schools. The
center will support highly-qualified language schools and
highly-qualified teacher programs, opening the doors for other
Native communities.
Through the U.S. policy and support of Native American
languages, NALA in 1990, we were able to create programs to
support immersion and Native American languages and demonstrate
academic success through language programs. Thank you for that
opportunity.
Now we ask that you further provide us empowerment by
creating this center for excellence, so we can share with the
Nation our model of academic success and its proven impact on
Native student achievement. This concept is aligned with the
Obama Administration's educational blueprint in support of
Native American language education. It solidifies the U.S.
endorsement of the United Nations' Declaration of the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples. That document includes numerous references
to the rights of indigenous peoples, such as Native Americans,
to continue education in languages, culture and traditions
which are proving to have positive impacts academically on our
children. We need support for changing Federal education
legislation, to make access to quality education through Native
American languages a reality, as an educational optional for
all Native Americans throughout the United States, based on the
proven successes of our model.
Mahalo.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Rawlins follows:]
Prepared Statement of Namaka Rawlins, Liaison, `Aha Punana Leo,
University of Hawaii, Hilo College of Hawaiian Language
The Chairman. Mahalo nui, Ms. Rawlins.
Mr. Lasley, please proceed with your testimony. May I say
that all of your full testimony will be included in the record.
Mr. Lasley?
STATEMENT OF LARRY C. LASLEY, SR., MEMBER, MESKWAKI SETTLEMENT
SCHOOL BOARD
Mr. Lasley. Chairman Akaka and distinguished members of the
Committee, thank you for this opportunity to provide testimony
on a topic critical to the Meskwaki people. My name is Larry
Lasley, and I serve on the Meskwaki Settlement School Board.
I am here today because our language is our identity, and
our language is dying. Like many of my people, I am concerned
about the dwindling number of fluent Meskwaki speakers on our
settlement. Today fewer than 16 percent of tribal members
identify themselves as fluent in Meskwaki. The vast majority of
these fluent speakers are over the age of 50. Virtually no
tribal members under the age of 40 are fluent in our Native
language.
For this reason, we are implementing a program to more
aggressively halt this language loss. Since the early 1980s, we
have supported a language and culture program in our school
authorizations. However, the program remains more of a special
project than an essential part of our education curriculum.
Today, we seek to apply a language and culturally based
curriculum on a much broader scale, so that our students may
perform at higher levels of academic achievement. To that end,
we believe the Committee should prod the Government to act in
several areas that would assist tribes in implementing language
and culture preservation programs.
First and foremost, we feel the Committee should support
culturally-based education best practices and language
immersion in early childhood education. In addition, we
recommend the Federal Government take the lead in developing a
centralized repository of knowledge, something akin to the
Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development.
Storing fact-based material, proven methods and documented
experience in one central repository would permit tribes to
immediately access reliable, evidence-supported data for their
language and cultural programs.
Next, language revitalization requires technical expertise
that tribes may lack. The Government should assist tribes in
establishing capacity in a host of areas, including
linguistics, documentation, data collection and analysis to
ensure an effective approach to language preservation.
Moreover, the Government should partner in the design of a core
culturally-based curriculum that could be modified to meet the
specific needs of any tribe.
Third, a particularly important area for capacity building
is teacher training. The skill set for teaching a language like
Meskwaki to second language learners is not an innate ability,
but rather, a learned set of skills. Native language speakers
require advanced training to become successful teachers. This
training must be rooted in Research and evidence-based
instructional practices.
Fourth, teachers must meet certain requirements to be
certified, such as the highly qualified requirements found in
No Child Left Behind. However, in Indian Country, these
requirements may undermine schools' ability to employ Native-
fluent speakers as teachers. We recommend the Government
mandate a policy to enable tribes to establish their own
requirements for Native language teachers. Those best qualified
must be able to teach these vital subjects.
Finally, tribal language programs have dozens of
initiatives that must be implemented to reestablish a safe
state of the language and culture. These initiatives require
significant resources; resources that are too often lacking in
tribal economies where scarce necessities such as clean water,
health care, care for our elders, public safety and other
priorities, must make the priority. We are dedicated to
preserving our language and our cultural heritage. We seek to
strengthen our spiritual connections to our Creator, to renew
our ties to our ancestors and to provide this uniquely Meskwaki
gift to our descendants.
To this end we value bi-cultural education and intend to
maintain high standards for both the education and evaluation
of our youth. We also intend to implement research-based
approaches in language and culturally-based learning to best
position our students for success. We believe these initiatives
will strengthen our tribal nation and enhance our ability to
contribute to the American story, as our history always has.
However, we cannot implement these initiatives on our own.
While the programs must be driven by tribal leaders, we believe
the Government can and should play a meaningful role in their
design and implementation. We appreciate the Committee's
interest in preserving our Native languages and look forward to
working with you in this regard.
[Expression in native tongue.] Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Lasley follows:]
Prepared Statement of Larry C. Lasley, Sr., Member, Meskwaki Settlement
School Board
Chairman Akaka, Vice Chairman Barrasso and distinguished Members of
the Committee, thank you for this opportunity to provide testimony on a
topic critical to the Meskwaki people. My name is Larry Lasley, and I
serve on the Meskwaki Settlement School Board, which oversees our
Tribe's Settlement School, a BIA grant-funded school serving students
from early childhood through the 12th grade. I am also the Tribe's
Economic Development Director, a position which uniquely qualifies me
to address the importance of educating our young people.
I come before you today to speak on the significance of an
education rooted in our traditional language and cultural values. Like
many of my people, I am concerned about the dwindling number of fluent
Meskwaki speakers on our Settlement. With each passing generation,
fewer of our tribal members possess the ability to converse in the
language provided by our Creator. This situation threatens to
extinguish our language from our Settlement. Such a loss of language
would carry profound and tragic consequences for my people. For this
reason, our tribe is acting aggressively to stop this language loss,
implementing programs in our school and our community to the best of
our abilities. Without this concerted intervention, our youngest fluent
speakers will soon be too old to effectively teach the Meskwaki
language to a new generation.
Over the past decade, we have implemented two comprehensive surveys
of our Tribal members to better understand the status of the Meskwaki
language on our Settlement. According to these surveys, the 1960s
marked the beginning of a language shift--one which continues to this
day. When I speak of language shift, I speak of a shift away from the
heritage language of Meskwaki and a strengthening of the English
language among my people. In essence, fluency in English began to
replace fluency in Meskwaki. As a result, each subsequent decade since
the 1960s has yielded decreased fluency among tribal members; now,
unfortunately, it has advanced to the point where our children are not
mastering the Meskwaki language. More troubling, this language shift
has undermined the Tribe's very ability to teach our children our
native tongue.
The most recent survey, conducted during the tribal membership
audit of 2010, found that only 16 percent of tribal members identify
themselves as ``fluent'' in the Meskwaki language. On the other hand,
63 percent said they understood only a few words or no words at all.
While it is fortunate that almost all tribal members (90 percent)
understand something of the language, the age distribution of these
figures exhibits the critical situation we face. The majority of fluent
speakers are 50 or older. Virtually no tribal members under the age of
40 are fluent in the Meskwaki language.
These facts carry profound implications for the strength of the
Meskwaki nation. Our language is a key component of our identity. It
provides an important link to our history, our story, our spirituality.
Our language is integral to our way of life and to our sovereign
identity. Alarmingly, our language is in peril.
The Importance of the Meskwaki Language
For our people, the Meskwaki language is a gift from the Creator.
We know that this language is the only language that our deities use.
This is the language that our souls know--this is the language we are
meant to use from the time we are born until we journey on to the next
world. The Meskwaki language is central to our identity--it carries the
most meaningful and deepest levels of our selves. It carries our
spirituality, our religion, our connection to the Earth, and our
connections beyond the continuums of time and space.
Our language provides an important connection to our Creator and to
the other spirits we know. These connections must never be broken, as
to be broken from those spirits is to experience the end of all things.
Similarly, our connections to our past--our ancestors--and our future--
our descendants--serves as another key tenet of our spirituality. Our
language is a key tie that binds those connections for all time. The
loss of our language threatens these sacred ties.
Even today, the Meskwaki culture permeates our daily life, from the
food we eat, to hunting and gathering, to harvesting, clothing, and
home making. Our games, songs, athletics, and dances incorporate our
tribe's original cultural attributes. Our kinship system, a critical
component of our way of life, is not anything like that of mainstream
Western culture. To be a part of the Meskwaki tribe means being
responsible to family and extended family, to the clans, the leadership
systems, and the unique duties each of these roles are given. Most
important, all of our cultural attributes and the resulting thought
processes, feelings and ideas are uniquely Meskwaki. As such, they
cannot be equated or fully expressed in any language other than the
Meskwaki language.
Languages vary from society to society, and often the meanings and
implications of statements cannot be simply translated. When
translations occur, critical knowledge and meaning becomes lost or
lessened. These interruptions in the continuum of language, culture,
spirituality, religion, and understandings cause disruptions in our
social wellbeing. Our people have naturally suffered for generations
from the unfortunate events in our history. The disconnection from
culture, language, and spirituality makes recovery even more
challenging for many of our people--as individuals, as families, and as
a tribe.
For our nation to be successful, we must keep an open connection to
our past, our future, our spiritual beliefs, and our cultural ways. Our
tribe needs the freedom to remain who we are and preserve our identity.
We hope to be afforded a chance for survival. But it will not be
possible for the Meskwaki people to endure with broken pieces. Without
our language and culture, we will perish.
Challenges to a Language-Based Curriculum
As a Tribe, we have prioritized the education of our young people
as a critical piece of our strategic development. To this end we value
bicultural education and intend to maintain high standards for the
education and evaluation of our youth. We also intend to implement
proven research-based approaches on language and culturally-based
learning in an effort to best position our students for success.
Since the early 1980s the Tribe has supported a language and
culture program within school operations. However, the program remains
more of a special activity than an essential element of our education
curriculum or a tribe-wide mandate. We desire to apply a language and
culturally-based curriculum on a much broader scale--along the lines
that have been expressed by tribal people and educational professionals
alike--so that our students may progress and perform at higher levels
of academic achievement. Implementing this ambitious agenda, while
critically important, remains difficult.
To this end, we have secured grant funding to develop a tribal-wide
language preservation program. Our language coordinator has begun
holding language roundtables three times a week--sessions that bring
together Meskwaki speakers and learners. We have begun to develop
technologies to support classroom instruction and independent studies.
Still, additional training and support is needed to build the capacity
to teach the Meskwaki language. As the tribe is the sole tribe in
Iowa--and as Indigenous languages are particularly difficult to learn--
language instruction proves especially challenging.
We must connect our tribal-wide language preservation program with
our schools. This effort will prove especially challenging with the
approximately 310 Meskwaki students that attend the public school
system. However, the Committee could help remedy this situation by
supporting culturally-based education best practices and language
immersion in early childhood education.
With regard to challenges to language programming, we have
identified the following:
I. Timely Access to Supporting Information
Currently, there is helpful information available to tribes who are
just starting out with building language revitalization programs.
However, this trend of creating programs is still relatively new and is
being enacted by tribes, who almost always have restricted resources.
As a result, access to the most helpful information is limited. There
is not an overabundance of information--and much of the information is
not directly on point. One must first locate the information, which is
somewhat of challenge when first starting out, and then the useful must
be separated from the useless.
We believe funding allocated toward a centralized repository of
knowledge--something analogous to the Harvard Project on American
Indian Economic Development--would benefit all tribes, as tribes need
their culture, language and identity as much, if not more, than
economic development. Fact based material, proven methods and
documented experience all in one central repository would both save
time and money for all new and existing language programs.
The very nature of language loss essentially means that there is a
limit in the number of years in which a solution can be completely
implemented. Language loss can occur in little as one generation. The
information that we need in order to be successful must be available to
us immediately, it must be supported by evidence, and it must be
reliable. Government support for a centralized repository for such
research would be of great assistance to all tribes.
II. Funding for Tribal Language Programs
Language Revitalization is an expansive and expensive project that
attempts to halt the shift away from the native language. Tribal
Language Programs have dozens of initiatives that must be implemented
in order to reestablish a safe state of the language and culture,
including staffing, education, documentation, equipment, and teacher
training. These initiatives require significant resources, resources
that are too often lacking in tribal economies where scarce necessities
such as clean water, access to health care, care for our elders, public
safety and other essential services must take priority.
Staffing
Tribal language programs have myriad tasks to accomplish. Common
goals necessary for success in any tribal language program include:
Assessment of the Language (surveying or thinking groups),
Documentation, Program Planning, Community Building, Teacher Training,
Understanding Second Language Acquisition, and Establishing Educational
Systems that include Cultural Standards and Culturally Based
Curriculum. Many of these tasks lend themselves to a standardized
approach. By assuming a lead role in identifying the best practices in
applicable areas, the Federal Government could substantially lessen the
burden of designing and implementing these initiatives. Moreover, as a
repository of such practices, the government could provide training in
order to establish and enhance Tribes capacities to successfully
operate language preservation programs.
Education
Similarly, the federal government should assist tribes in
establishing capacity in the areas of linguistics, data collection and
analysis, language teaching, second language acquisition, community
building and curriculum design to ensure an effective and focused
approach to language preservation.
Documentation
Language Revitalization cannot have instantaneous results.
Therefore, one key priority in all language programming must be to
preserve the existing cultural knowledge. This preservation is referred
to as Documentation. Language and Cultural Documentation is critical
for future reference and often relies on the leadership of tribal
elders.
Documentation as a linguistic data collection activity can take
years. It can include thousands of pages of transcriptions, hundreds of
hours of video and audio recording, dozens of hours of cataloguing, and
ample media to collect and store such information. While documentation
is time consuming, utilizing state of the art technologies can reduce
the time and expense associated with these activities. The Federal
Government should work to ensure that Tribes have access to these
technologies as well as to properly trained staff to provide support to
these efforts.
Equipment
As noted above, a basic amount of equipment is necessary to
accomplish many of the goals of language programming. Setting up a new
department is difficult to fund, and modern equipment required for such
things as Documentation can become costly. Equipment needs include
printing capabilities for large numbers of booklets, handouts, and
awareness building materials for community building. Computers are
required for daily tasks as well as long-term projects such as
surveying, documentation, and training. Native language teaching and
learning materials are often made from scratch by program staff and
language teachers. Creating language learning resources often requires
the capabilities of creating graphics, printing large documents, and
lamination or other finishing.
Training for Teachers
The skill set for teaching a language like Meskwaki to second
language learners is not an innate ability, but rather a learned set of
skills. Native language speakers must be trained in order to become
successful teachers. Due to the unique methods of teaching Native
languages, training often requires travel or immersion--which is not
widely available in local areas.
III. Mandate State Support of Tribal Language Programming in Schools
In every state, teachers must meet certain requirements before
being certified as a teacher, with good reason. However, in Indian
Country these requirements may undermine the ability of schools to
employ native fluent speakers as ``teachers.'' Too often, such native
speakers receive lower pay and a lower status in the school as a result
of the failure to meet certain requirements.
This poses a dilemma, as there are a limited number of speakers,
and therefore there are only a limited number of people who can teach
the native language. Moreover, the likelihood of a native fluent
speaker pursuing a teaching certificate is significantly lowered by the
aging population of fluent speakers and by the unique lifestyle and
belief systems of tribal people.
Some states have passed amendments to allow for tribes to establish
their own requirements for certifying a ``Native Language Teacher.''
This type of amendment must be made available for the benefit of every
tribe. We recommend the Federal Government mandate such a policy across
the board. The presence of Native Language Teachers is essential to
allowing the Native Languages to be taught to students.
For example, although the Settlement School seeks to employ Native
Americans, primarily enrolled tribal members and descendants who are
speakers and have knowledge of the Meskwaki culture, the ``Highly
Qualified'' requirements in NCLB impede the ability to fill positions
with Tribal members. If these ``Highly Qualified'' requirements are not
addressed, funding will be needed to send tribal members to school to
seek further certification and to create a local certification and
training program for Tribal and community members so that they can gain
employment in the school and support our Meskwaki language and culture
programs.
IV. Assistance and Support for Culture-Based Standards and Curriculum
We have a great need for educational standards and curriculums both
in the school and our community. Standards would put into effect a
minimum amount of tribal, traditional, linguistic, and cultural
knowledge among each learner, each student, and each community member.
This is an overwhelmingly enormous task that requires the involvement
of traditional elders, experienced educators, and program planners.
Tribes are short on the number of fluent speakers who are experienced
in the areas of education, standards and curriculum design--let alone
teaching language and culture in a classroom environment. Culture
teachers are often not trained teachers, so they have limited access to
courses and even less access to courses specific to Native language and
culture instruction. We have found traditional methods are no longer
effective enough to push and revitalize the language. Therefore,
language and culture teachers need advanced and state-of-the-art
training-training in research-based instructional practices and
evidence-based practices like in differentiation of instruction and
sheltered instructional practices.
History of the Meskwaki Language
As demonstrated below, the Meskwaki language is tied to and
integral in the history and life of our Tribe and our Nation. Our
language falls into the Algonquian language family, one of the five
major language families into which the majority of North America's
Indigenous languages can be categorized. Algonquian is not a tribal
name or identification, but rather the name of the language family
itself.
1800s--Reservation era: The Federal Government established the Sac
and Fox Reservations in Kansas and Oklahoma. While some of our
relatives went to the Sac and Fox reservations, a small bunch, refused
to be placed on the reservations. This group of Meskwakis wished to
settle and remain along the Iowa River--lands that more closely
resembled the home we once had. The tribe gathered and pooled their
resources to purchase its first 80 acres of land in 1856. By 1857 our
agreement with the State of Iowa was firmly in place to be established
as a tribal group, owning land in common. Each parcel of land was
subsequently purchased with common funds. The land that was purchased
was bought with the tribe's primary priority in mind-the well being and
livelihood of our people. The purchase of land in common serves as
evidence of our unity as a tribe, our sense of community, and our
reliance upon one other for the benefit of the whole. Through this
period, our language and cultural practices served as both unifying and
motivating factors.
1880s--Emergence of the Written Meskwaki language: Earliest
documented use of reading and writing.
1900s--Boarding Schools: Our people were subject to the boarding
school era--many of our surviving elders were sent to boarding schools
as children and forced to abandon their usage of the Meskwaki language.
They were compelled to speak English and faced physical and verbal
abuse for the use of the Native tongue. Despite this treatment, or
perhaps in part because of it, the Meskwaki language remained a vibrant
and integral part of our Tribal community.
1900s--Linguistic Studies: Franz Boas and Leonard Bloomfield, two
of history's most influential linguists, conducted some of the first--
as well as the most important--studies on the various Algonquian
languages, Meskwaki included. Their works serve as the baseline to any
further study of Algonquian languages and have contributed substantial
knowledge to the linguistic analysis of Meskwaki. In the early 1900s a
Meskwaki linguist by the name of William Jones, himself a disciple of
Franz Boas, conducted further study on his language--advancing the
understanding of the importance of the language relative to the
Algonquian family. In furtherance of this work, the Bureau of American
Ethnology commissioned a year-long study of Meskwaki language and
culture, collecting thousands of pages of data on the Meskwaki language
and way of life. These studies reflect the amount of interest in the
Algonquin languages--particularly Meskwaki--and provide an important
historical baseline.
1940s--Language in Service of the United States: 16% of our Tribal
members enlisted in the Army in the wake of Pearl Harbor. Ultimately 8
Members of the Tribe were recognized by Congress for their contribution
to the war effort as Code Talkers. Relying on our unique language,
these Meskwaki helped successfully direct efforts against the Germans
in North Africa.
1940s-1980s--Infrastructure Enters the Meskwaki Lifestyle: The
Meskwaki were selfsufficient and self-sustaining in the days of hunting
and gathering and the days of freedom of migration. However, by
purchasing our land in Iowa, and therefore committing to this location,
we surrendered to the reality of our new lifestyle and its limitations.
To gain water, food, materials, sanitation, housing, and other
resources, increasingly we were forced to utilize the English language.
As this increasing utilization of the English language grew, the tribe
experienced, perhaps inevitably, a decrease in the use of Meskwaki.
1990-2000s--Linguistic Studies--A Growing Appreciation of the
Meskwaki Language: Many prominent contemporary linguists have
conducted, and continue to conduct, analyses of the Meskwaki language.
For many of these scholars, the Meskwaki language holds a special
mystique among the Algonquian languages. In a 2008 Culture Symposium at
the Meskwaki Settlement, Dr. Amy Dahlstrom explained the Meskwaki
language's significance to linguists. Often linguists compare the
distinct languages within a language family for their similarities in
an effort to trace them back to the original language, or a ``proto''
language. Dr. Dahlstrom explained that of all Algonquin languages, the
Meskwaki language is most similar to the Proto-Algonquian language.
This implies that over the past 200 plus years of history, the Meskwaki
language has changed the least from its original form. So there lies
special significance of this language as to why it didn't change, a
particular link to our ancestors who spoke the Meskwaki language much
as it is today, and important potential insights as to why other
Algonquian languages deviated more from the original proto-language.
Conclusion
Like many of our fellow Tribes we have dedicated ourselves to
preserving our language and our cultural heritage. In so doing, we seek
to strengthen our spiritual connections to our Creator, to renew our
ties to our ancestors and to provide this uniquely Meskwaki gift to our
descendants. We believe these initiatives will strengthen our Tribal
nation and enhance our ability to contribute to the American story as
we have throughout our history. While the programs must be driven by
Tribal leaders, we believe the federal government can play a meaningful
and constructive role in their design and implementation. On behalf of
the Meskwaki Tribe, thank you for the opportunity to present our
thoughts in this regard.
This concludes my prepared statement. I welcome any questions you
may have.
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Mr. Lasley.
Mr. Parker, will you please proceed with your statement?
STATEMENT OF ALVIN N. PARKER, PRINCIPAL, KA WAIHONA O KA NAAUAO
PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL
Mr. Parker. Aloha, Chairman Akaka and Committee members. My
name is Alvin Parker, and I am the Principal of Ka Waihona o ka
Na`auao Public Charter School, which is located on the Waianae
Coast, the western side of the Island of Oahu.
The school is situated in an economically depressed
community that is predominantly Native Hawaiian or part
Hawaiian. The Waianae community, as many Native American
communities, has experienced rapid alcohol, sexual and
substance abuse, early teen pregnancy, a large percentage of
Native Hawaiians incarcerated, and the disintegration of family
and Native Hawaiian values due to these social maladies.
The mission of Ka Waihona o ka Na`auoa is to create
socially responsible, resilient and resourceful young men and
women by providing an environment of academic excellence,
social competence and cultural awareness. This environment
offers a moral compass molded by the students' early
experiences with Native educators who understand and pass on
all that is good in our Native cultural values.
The school has purposefully sought out highly qualified
Native Hawaiian educators who come from the community. Of the
school faculty members, 63 percent have advanced degrees and 20
of 41 members are graduates of the Kamehameha Schools. Ka
Waihona thrives on the premise that this type of role modeling
empowers the student body to believe that they can achieve, and
that all things are possible.
Ka Waihona embraces a curriculum that is academically
rigorous and culturally sensitive. The school is in good
standing with the No Child Left behind Federal mandate and has
made annual yearly progress for four of the last six years. Ka
Waihona embeds cultural values in everyday education by
displaying visual prompts in the classrooms and referencing
them consistently. These Native values include Ho`ihi, be
respectful, Kuleana, be responsible, Malama, be safe, Ha`aha`a,
be humble, Lokahi, unit, and Ho`omau, persevere.
Students also participate in a host of cultural vents and
activities throughout the school year. These include honoring
the Native rulers of the past at the royal mausoleum,
displaying their knowledge in a cultural show for the
community, participating in a day of festivities which include
activities ancient Hawaiians conducted on a daily basis for
survival, weekly hula lessons, daily Hawaiian language lessons
for the middle school students and a daily school-wide protocol
that includes Native Hawaiian chants and songs.
Ka Waihona is founded on the belief that exposing the
students to Native Hawaiian values and offering them
opportunities to participate in the culture is imperative to
their social maturation. The exposure and substantive support
by the faculty to make these values a part of everyday lessons
and behavior expectations is integral to the school's approach
to education and ultimately the school's mission.
The combination of a cultural component and intensely
rigorous academic curriculum provides the students with a solid
base that allows them social mobility that is often not a
reality for Native Hawaiians. Education, whether it be cultural
or academic, plays a vital role in nurturing and sustaining our
Native people.
Finally, I would like to thank Senator Daniel K. Akaka for
extending the invitation to provide testimony on this important
subject. Senator Akaka embodies all that is good and possible
for Native Hawaiians and part Hawaiians. His leadership in the
United States Senate has set a precedent for indigenous people,
and I believe every Hawaiian and part Hawaiian says Mahalo to
Senator Akaka.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Parker follows:]
Prepared Statement of Alvin N. Parker, Principal, Ka Waihona O Ka
Naauao Public Charter School
Ka Waihona o ka Naauao (KWON) is located on the Wai`anae Coast, the
western side of the island of O`ahu. The Wai`anae community, as many
Native American communities, has experienced rampant alcohol, sexual
and substance abuse, early teen pregnancy, a large percentage of Native
Hawaiians incarcerated, and the disintegration of family and Native
Hawaiian values due to the above listed social maladies. The mission of
Ka Waihona o ka Na`auao is to create socially responsible, resilient
and resourceful young men and women by providing an environment of
academic excellence, social confidence and cultural awareness. Because
of this, KWON embraces a curriculum that is both academically rigorous
and culturally sensitive.
KWON houses opened ten years ago in an educationally altered
chicken coop with 60 students in grades kindergarten through three.
Currently, there are 572 students in 24 classrooms in grades
kindergarten through eight on a traditional school campus. Of our
students, 93 percent are Native Hawaiian and 62 percent are
economically disadvantaged. Each class has an educational assistant in
addition to a classroom teacher which allows for a lower student-
teacher ratio and more effective classroom management. KWON provides a
core curriculum of language arts, social studies, science, and math
along with resource courses that include music, art, language, physical
education, and culture.
The school is in good standing with the No Child Left Behind
federal mandate and has made Annual Yearly Progress for four of the
last six years. KWON's founder formed the school with the strong belief
that education is the most effective way to remedy the maladies of a
community. This belief is at the heart of the school's efforts to
foster a more community inclusive form of education, an integrated
curriculum, and an academically rigorous educational experience, along
with measurable outcomes set at the highest standard. KWON offers a
schooling experience that is a viable alternative to the existing
conventional public school model. KWON is structured to be responsive
to the learning styles, cultural values, and future desires of the
families of the community. It emphasizes a caring, collaborative
environment for all persons within the school community. This includes
students, teachers, parents, staff, volunteers, and community members
who, together, implement an effective and relevant educational
experience.
KWON is founded on its Na Mea Waiwai or Core Values: Ho`ihi
(respect), Kuleana (responsibility), Malama (safety), Ha`aha`a
(humility), Lokahi (unity), and Ho`omau (perseverance). A set of
posters displaying these school values is displayed in every room on
campus to allow for easy reference and frequent discussion. The
exposure and substantive support by the faculty to make these values a
part of everyday lessons and behavior expectations is integral to the
school's approach to education and ultimately the school's mission.
Students participate in a host of cultural activities throughout the
school year. These include honoring the native rulers of the past at
the Royal Mausoleum (burial place), displaying their knowledge in a
cultural show for the community, participating in a day of festivities
which include activities ancient Hawaiians conducted on a daily basis
for survival, weekly hula classes, daily Hawaiian language classes for
middle school students, and a daily schoolwide protocol that includes a
variety of Native Hawaiian chants and songs including Hawaii Ponoi, our
state song. KWON exposes students to native Hawaiian values and offers
them opportunities to participate in a culture which is beneficial to
their social maturation. The combination of a cultural component and an
intensely rigorous academic curriculum provides the students with a
solid base that allows for a social mobility that is often not a
reality for native Hawaiians. Education, whether it be cultural or
academic, plays a vital role in nurturing and sustaining our native
people.
KWON's Hawaii State Assessment scores have steadily improved since
the school's first taking of the HSA in 2005. In the most recent state
assessment data (2009), where 300 is passing, KWON scored a 303 in
reading and a 288 in math. This is an improvement from 296 in reading
and 280 in math in 2008. KWON was able to meet AYP this year and is now
in School Improvement Year One, Good Standing, due to the consistent
gains in each class and grade level, especially in mathematics. This is
remarkable considering only one other public school in the district met
AYP. The surrounding community's schools house eight of the 10 lowest
scoring schools in the state. The schools in the same district have
consistently struggled to make gains on state tests. In SY 2009-2010,
KWON met the school's goals set in SY 2008-2009. KWON moved 10 percent
of students in each reading standard up to higher standard by moving 8
Students move from Well Below standard to Approaching standard, 6
Students move from Approaching standard to Meets standard, and 11
Students move from Meets standard to Exceeds standard. We were also
able to move 10 percent of students in each math standard up to higher
standard by moving 12 Students move from Well Below standard to
Approaching standard, 7 Students move from Approaching standard to
Meets standard, and 6 Students move from Meets standard to Exceeds
standard. All teachers use the same assessments and are using the data
from those assessments to drive instruction.
KWON implements Guided Reading Groups and Literature and Inquiry
Circles in grades Kindergarten through eight. KWON supports these
Guided Reading Groups and Literature and Inquiry Circles with a number
of Big Books, Shared Reading Kits, Internet Sources through SmartBoards
and other technology rich sources, the Accelerated Reader Program (a
daily progress monitoring software assessment for monitoring the
practice of reading), STAR Reading (standardized computer adaptive
assessment) from Renaissance Learning (which works hand in hand with
Neo IIs and Notebook software), A to Z Readers (materials to teach
guided reading, phonemic awareness, reading comprehension, reading
fluency, alphabet, and vocabulary through professionally developed
downloadable leveled books, lesson plans, worksheets, and reading
assessments), Leveled Reading Libraries for grade levels K-8, and many
Hawaiian culture books, which assist in teaching our curriculum's
cultural component.
All teachers, parents, and students sign an annual school compact
and middle school parents stay in close contact with instructional
staff through the TeacherEase program. The middle school implements
Teacherease, which systematized our 7th and 8th grade classrooms
through standards-based lesson plans, curriculum mapping, gradebooks,
report cards, and parent communication/access. The website enhances
teacher collaboration and improves communication between
administrators, teachers, parents, and students. We also use the
portion of the system that provides demographics, attendance, and
scheduling assistance. The various supports for KWON students include
the following: in class technology tutoring through Accelerated Reading
and Math, Reading Fluency Software, skill specific online programs,
daily grade updates and communication with parents, counseling
services, and Title I and IDEA support. Kindergarten through sixth
grade employs a Standards Based report card.
During instruction, lower elementary teachers focus on phonemic
awareness, phonics, and differentiation with pre-decodable and
decodable books. KWON employs Small Group Instruction through Guided
and Shared Reading on a daily basis. Teachers also use listening
centers, Author's Chair, and Reader's and Writer's Theatre daily as
another teaching strategy that easily allows for differentiation.
Literature and Inquiry Circles are used for focused critical thinking
sessions to introduce and break down new material and allow students to
learn from one another through collaborative groups. Middle and upper
elementary teachers create project-based, interdisciplinary,
independent research projects in order to promote non-fiction reading
and writing, internet familiarity, and independent work. Science, math
and reading journals are conducted daily in classrooms. Students also
work in small groups using strategies such as role playing, think/pair/
share, and jigsawing.
Teachers differentiate using multi-sensory, multiple intelligence
lessons in order to engage each student in the classroom. Teachers also
differentiate according to student ability using skill specific work
they have created or by using differentiated items provided by KWON's
curricular programs. Formative assessments are employed frequently in
the form of self-assessment and goal setting, peer assessments,
observations, reviews, summarizing, and exit cards.
KWON uses software and online programs such as Lexia, My Reading
Coach, Reading Plus, and Fluent Reading Trainer as supplemental
supports for students in order to instruct in a differentiated, skill-
specific format. These programs are scientifically proven and data
driven allowing students to be frequently assessed and support students
until mastery. Teachers are able to access assessments and further
drive instruction through worksheets and 1:1 or small group
instruction. The programs are designed to support students experiencing
difficulty with reading. In addition, low achieving students
participate in one-to-one sessions with teachers and educational
assistants using skill specific, leveled readers, computer programs,
and manipulatives. During the summer prior to kindergarteners beginning
school at KWON, students attend a mandatory session in which teachers
assess students and meet with parents in order to introduce the entire
family to KWON's expectations.
Singapore Math is implemented in grades kindergarten through eight
as a core math curriculum. Singapore Math's method of teaching
mathematics is based on textbooks from the national curriculum of
Singapore. It is based primarily on time-tested traditional mathematics
instruction methods. Singapore Math frequently uses word problems and
the strategies towards solving them, rather than repetitive drilling.
Singapore Math also frequently uses models in teaching problem-solving
(a form of pre-algebra) rather than the trial-and-error methods. This
method is a problem solving strategy which simplifies the list of 11 or
more problem solving skills suggested by the National Council for
Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM).
KWON supplements the curriculum with Accelerated Reading and
Accelerated Math which are research-based computer programs that
produce high gains in reading and math for students of different
achievement levels in all grades. The program creates custom-designed
practice assignments for students based on a computerized diagnostic
test, scores their work, and reports the results immediately. The
classroom teacher is then able to work with individual students on
their particular skill strengths and weaknesses. Students work at their
own individual levels and are given practice time to achieve
proficiency. Teachers set realistic, achievable math goals with
students for optimum growth using this program. Teacher use program
reports and feedback for planning instruction, diagnosis of student
needs, and also to provide information for parents.
KWON's technology rich supports include MacBooks, listening
centers, Samsung doc cameras, I-Pod Touch System, MacBooks, Elmos,
Ipads, Neo II Boards, and SmartBoard Techonology. The programs are used
for reading & math instruction which increases test scores through
multi-sensory literacy and math comprehension strategies, vocabulary
and language development, and repeated reading/math practice. Programs
are scientifically proven, skill specific, differentiated, and current,
best practice.
KWON uses a three tiered RTI model. Tier I consists of general
education (curricula, grading, and testing). KWON concentrates on Tier
II which is an individualized, intervention level. Tier III is an
intensive, skill specific intervention designed for each student. This
includes Title I, Special Education, and one to one sessions conducted
with teachers. All students participating in Tier II and III are
monitored to ensure students' progress over time and close the
achievement gap with their peers.
Highly Qualified Status of Instructional Staff
32 of the 33 instructional staff are licensed and Highly Qualified.
The last teacher is currently in the process of finishing her State
Approved Teacher Education Program (SATEP) and completing her Praxis
tests in order to obtain licensure and is scheduled to obtain her
license by the end of SY 2010-2011. 50 percent of KWON teachers hold
graduate degrees in education from schools such as Gonzaga, Chaminade,
and the University of Hawaii.
KWON's environment molds students' early experiences through native
educators who understand and pass on all that is good in our native,
cultural value system. The school has purposefully sought out highly
qualified, Native Hawaiian educators who come from the community. Of
the school's faculty members, 63 percent have advanced degrees, and 20
of 41 members of the staff are graduates of the Kamehameha Schools, a
private school exclusively for Native Hawaiians which is difficult to
gain acceptance from. KWON thrives on the premise that this type of
role modeling empowers the student body to believe that they can
achieve and that all things are possible.
Professional Development Activities
All KWON Professional Development (PD) activities are geared toward
the increase of effective instruction. The focus of PDs at KWON is
enrichment, differentiation, and skill specific instruction that is
scientifically proven and data driven.
Cultural workshops connect our staff and students to the wealth of
ancestral knowledge available to us. The cultural workshops also enrich
the relationships among our staff and students through the focus on our
Na Mea Waiwai (core values: respect, responsibility, safety, humility,
unity and perseverance). Activities such as creating kikepa (Hawaiian
garb), kahili (Hawaiian version of a flag), and learning new `oli
(Hawaiian songs) are conducted on a consistent basis. Historical
background, personal and academic connections, and staff unity are
always at the forefront of all cultural workshop activities.
KWON teachers attend Kamehameha Schools' professional development
days in order to learn and implement new strategies in their
classrooms. KWON teachers attended an I Teach K Conference, Singapore
Math Training Conference and a Differentiation Conference for which all
teachers completed a collaborative project and presented statistical
and anecdotal results reflecting the worth of attending the conference.
All strategies and trainings are conducted within the framework of
student achievement in order to close the achievement gap and increase
academic achievement.
All teachers participate in Professional Learning Communities on a
weekly basis. These communities work toward (1) recognizing a need
(with a focus on leadership training), (2) organizing for change (with
a focus on leadership and infrastructure), (3) working on the building
blocks (with a focus on infrastructure, school philosophy, and vision),
(4) moving as a whole school (with a focus on the standards based
change process), (5) sharing results within a professional learning
community (with the focus on assessment results), (6) implementing the
curriculum (with a focus on teacher-developed curriculum guides), and
(7) engaging students and families (with the focus on portfolios,
student self-assessment, and goal setting). Initially, the communities'
meeting topics began with an assessment (by way of surveys, focus
groups, and individual interviews, along with data collection) of three
components of our school: infrastructure, classroom practices, and
student outcomes. According to the results of the assessment,
consistent professional development workshops were created and
conducted. These workshops cover topics such as standards-based
education, formative assessment to inform instruction, and the
employment of instructional strategies across the schoolwide
curriculum, all in the context of Professional Learning Communities.
These communities are created and fostered not only to affect change
through a partnership among the teachers but to sustain that change
through grassroots involvement. We are continuing the growing process
of refining our school curriculum, benchmarks, and anchor pieces for
each benchmark. The communities also determine the expectations for
each grade level through specific methodologies that are
scientifically-proven to be effective. Through these Professional
Learning Communities, teachers who are effective/knowledgeable in
different areas instruct other teachers through professional workshops.
These Grade Level PLCs also function as the teacher mentoring program
through consistent meetings that discuss each teacher's strengths and
needs in order to allow seasoned and beginning teachers to learn from
one another. These learning communities allow teachers to receive the
support they need to improve their classroom practices and give them
adequate time to work together, both scientifically-proven necessities
for classroom success.
KWON has an extensive Support Services System that supports
underperforming students with skill specific, individually designed
instruction. The support system provides current, best practice reading
and math strategies in the following areas: sustaining improved reading
outcomes through phonics interventions, data analysis/data driven
instruction from formative and summative assessments in order to target
core reading and math strands for increased test results, RTI/Tier III
reading interventions, teaching creatively to increase standardized
test scores, metacognitive and multi-sensory interventions, motivating
reluctant learners, and the use of technology in the classroom. KWON's
closed circuit television plays professional development DVDs that
contain Best New Practices and innovative teaching strategies for
teacher utilization on a consistent basis. KWON also continues to build
a professional development library available for the KWON staff in the
Curriculum Room. This room houses texts, CD's, and DVD's that equip
teachers with current strategies and methods that engage students in
order to increase student achievement.
KWON also offers Apple Institutes for Mac Software and Internet
Programs Training for instructional staff. Training is for Apple
Software and Internet Programs for supplemental, differentiated, skill
specific, data driven reading and math instruction in the form of
project based digital storytelling which increases test scores through
multi-sensory literacy and math comprehension strategies, vocabulary
and language development, and repeated reading/math practice. These PD
days cover best instructional strategies by instructing teachers in how
to best use the programs for differentiating for each student using
skill specific software and internet reading and math programs.
Partnerships and Collaboration
Kamehameha Schools--Kamehameha Schools' Ho`olako Like Program as
well as Kamehameha Elementary School (KES) supports KWON by financially
supporting the school's initiatives and providing the staff with
opportunities for professional development (teacher trainings at the
KES campus on literacy, conferences for Math and English Teachers, and
workshops concerning topics such as differentiation). The Public
Education Division of the Kamehameha Schools supports KWON through a
longitudinal study that will track the long term effects of KWON's
educational efforts through High School and beyond. This will help KWON
address academic strengths and/or weaknesses that appear later in our
students' academic career. KS also donated $5000 in cultural books for
our Backpack Program to begin in SY 2010-2011.
Hawaii Association of Independent Schools--is partnering with KWON
to assist in the process of accreditation with the Western Association
of Schools and Colleges. KWON began the process in SY 11-12.
Na Lei Na`auao Native Hawaiian Charter School Alliance--KWON is a
member of the Na Lei Na`auao which offers support among 12 Native
Hawaiian Charter Schools.
Hawaii Charter School Network--The 31 charter school network
provides opportunities for KWON to learn from other charter schools
throughout the islands.
University of Hawai'i at Manoa, College of Education, Center on
Disability Studies--Collaborates with KWON through the financial
support of four free after school reading and math tutoring programs.
These four programs focus on reading and math fluency. Currently, 200
of the 572 students at KWON attend these programs on a daily basis.
Hawaii State Teachers Association--Supports the teachers of KWON
through union labor representatives that keep the staff aware of
changing state laws that affect teachers.
Department of Education--Provides Financial Management Services for
payroll, SPED services and trainings, as well as counseling referrals
that require Department of Health involvement.
University of Hawaii Curriculum Research Development Group--
Provides core science curriculum (DASH)
PDERI (Professional Development and Educational Research
Institute)--provides opportunities for professional development for our
staff.
Alu Like--collaborates with KWON by donating hundreds of books to
build our school library.
Office of Hawaiian Affairs--financially supports KWON through
grants that allow for our free bus service.
Department of Hawaiian Home Lands--agreed to a minimal cost, 30
year lease agreement with KWON to ensure KWON's long term support and
success.
Disney--granted KWON a 2500 sq. ft. playground and a 1,000 sq. ft
garden in the 2010-2011 school year. Disney continues to support KWON
through additional grants and school visits from Mickey and Minnie.
HeadStart--applications are distributed during the school year for
siblings of students to encourage pre-school attendance.
Queen Liliuokalani Children's Center, The Institute for Native
Pacific Education and Culture (INPEACE), Parents and Children Together
(PACT), and Families for R.E.A.L. (the State Student Support Services
Program)--are all resourced as needed.
The Chairman. Mahalo nui. Thank you for your testimony, Mr.
Parker.
Before I call on our next witness, I would like to say that
we are happy to have with us another member of the Committee,
Senator Udall. Thank you for being here. I am going to ask him
to introduce our next witness.
STATEMENT OF HON. TOM UDALL,
U.S. SENATOR FROM NEW MEXICO
Senator Udall. Thank you, Chairman Akaka. I really
appreciate that and have enjoyed very much hearing the earlier
witnesses here.
I want to welcome Kevin Shendo to our Committee. He is the
Director of the Department of Education at the Jemez Pueblo.
Kevin chairs in New Mexico a very important committee that is
called the New Mexico Indian Education Council that gives
significant advice. He is also a leader in the field of Indian
education across New Mexico. I think you are going to see by
his testimony that Jemez Pueblo and Kevin Shendo have a lot to
offer in terms of the subject of this hearing.
Welcome today, Kevin, and thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Senator Udall. I also
want to thank you so much for chairing the hearing on
stereotypes.
Senator Udall. It was my pleasure to do. You have a very
able staff to support me here. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Senator Udall follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Tom Udall, U.S. Senator from New Mexico
Mr. Chairman,
Thank you for convening a hearing on this important topic,
Expanding on the Success of Native Language and Culture based
Education. I have been a strong supporter of preserving native
languages and culture, recognizing both the historical and cultural
significance of language preservation, in addition to the inherent
value and sense of identity that comes from the recognition of native
cultures. Native languages are a treasure in and of themselves, and we
must ensure their survival.
We cannot deny the role the United States government has played in
the loss of Native languages. We remember the cruel history when
students at government boarding schools were prohibited from using
their native languages. Our policies of relocation and assimilation
further diluted native languages and strained the ability of many
tribes to pass their language and culture down to their children.
Thankfully, the days of denying native language and culture are ending.
I am proud to have helped create the Esther Martinez Native
American Languages Preservation Act in 2006, which authorized funding
to tribes for new programs to revitalize native languages and prevent
the loss of their heritage and culture. This program has helped fund
language nests, survival schools, and restoration programs. For
example, in my own State of New Mexico, these funds have helped support
such programs as the Mescalero Apache Language Immersion School, and
Pueblo of Pojoaque and Ramah Navajo School Board Native Language
Preservation and Maintenance programs.
I'd like to say a word about Esther Martinez. Esther Martinez was a
94-year-old language instructor and storyteller. She was killed on her
way home to Ohkay Owingeh in 2006, a pueblo in northern New Mexico. Ms.
Martinez had just been honored with the National Heritage Fellowship
award here in Washington, D.C. for her role in teaching Tewa to
generations of students.
Ms. Martinez was dedicated to preserving her Native language. She
was known by her Tewa name, Poe Tsawa, which means Blue Water. Among
her former students, both young and old, she was simply referred to as
Ko`o, or Aunt.
Many of us also honor the Navajo Code Talkers, those World War II
soldiers who used their language to create an unbreakable code, helping
the Allies win the war. Because the Navajo language had survived and
been passed down, Americans had a code that the Japanese were never
able to crack. Their success in that mission helped the Marines capture
Iwo Jima. It contributed to American victory. And it saved untold
numbers of Allied soldiers. This legacy, and these languages, must not
be lost.
According to the Indigenous Language Institute in New Mexico, of
the more than 300 languages spoken in the U.S. at the time of European
contact, only 175 remain, and by 2050, only 20 will be spoken with
regular use, unless efforts are taken to teach the languages to new
generations. We must not let this happen.
I'd like to welcome the witnesses today, and look forward to
learning about their experiences and hearing their advice on how we can
further honor and preserve native language and culture for our children
and future generations.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Udall.
Mr. Shendo, will you please begin with your testimony?
STATEMENT OF KEVIN SHENDO, EDUCATION DIRECTOR, PUEBLO OF JEMEZ
Mr. Shendo. [Greeting in Native tongue.] Good afternoon,
Chairman Akaka, Senator Udall. Thank you for the invitation to
be able to provide testimony to you here today on this very
important subject of Native language and culture-based
education.
Again, I am Kevin Shendo, Education Director for the Pueblo
of Jemez. The Pueblo of Jemez is situated in north central New
Mexico. We have a population of about 3,700. What is
significant about Jemez is it lies in a rural mountainous area
of north central New Mexico. The last survey we did in 2006
showed that 80 percent of our membership are still fluent in
the Jemez language. It is an oral language that is not written.
So this is very vital for us to continue to teach our young
people and raise them within the context of the language and
the Jemez community, within where language is learned. So I
truly do appreciate the opportunity to share our story and our
success with the work we have done in education.
The Pueblo of Jemez in 1999 began its reorganization
efforts and had a visioning session which they entitled Vision
2010 and asked the community to come together and share what
they envisioned Jemez looking like in the year 2010. From that
visioning session came three main priorities. The first was to
build capacity within our young people to be able to assume
responsible leadership roles within our community as well as
beyond our community boundaries. Second was to take ownership
over the education systems of our young people.
And third was to redefine education, redefine it so that
Jemez language and culture are at the heart of what we teach,
how we teach and where we teach our young people. So that whole
redefining education movement began 10 years ago in Jemez,
looking at the importance of language and culture and it being
at the heart of how we educate our young people and looking at
how we move forward in the educational process.
Through that visioning session and the three themes that
emerged, one of the most important things that came out of that
was building what today we know as the Jemez Collaborative
Education Group. That is the tribal program managers and
coordinators working with our local schools: public, charter
and Bureau, and really looking at bringing them together to
begin to coordinate our school systems and really looking at
how we can best serve the needs of our students, looking at the
unique curriculum that each school offers, looking at the
transitions that need to be put in place, and honoring language
and culture across all school systems. And rather than
competing for students, because we come from a small community,
but are very rich in school choice, looking at how we can best
meet the needs of our students as they transition from one
school system to the next.
From that collaborative effort came the growth of our joint
professional development days with all our educators and our
annual Education retreats. From which we have been able to
develop our Jemez language and culture curriculum, K through
8th, that we are now looking at implementing and integrating
within our school systems. This really has enabled us to evolve
with the work we have been doing on our language, looking at
how important it is and the retention of it. Currently at our
Head Start, early childhood level, over 60 percent of our
children coming into our Head Start program are Jemez language
speakers. So it does become really important that not only the
education but the transitions that take place within our school
systems are responsive to the priorities and needs of the
community. So this collaborative work has become a key piece in
the work that we are able to do.
Through that works, the growth of the curriculum and
development of it; what we have realized now, is that as we
begin to look at laws like No Child Left Behind and Head Start
mandates, that a lot of the Research-based curriculum and
assessments and evaluations do not fit the model that we are
trying to build that is rooted in an oral language within our
community. So we are really looking at now beginning to define
Research that supports the work that we are doing, Research
that is owned by the tribe, directed by the tribe, working with
institutions of higher education.
Two of the posters you see displayed here are from a
Research project that was conducted by our Head Start in
partnership with Arizona State University. The title of the
Research was Becoming Jemez: Looking at the Early Childhood
Experiences of Jemez Children, where language is learned, how
it is learned and whether Head Start supports the language
learning of our young people or not.
So this whole step and process of really looking at how
language has become an integral part of how we move forward in
our educational system and looking at the importance of oral
language learning, I think that has made language and culture
integration in the school systems very key. When you look at
the report by the common core that was developed looking at the
countries where student performance is very high, they are
offering an education that is deeper and going wider, whereas
the United States has been looking more of narrowing the
curriculum and really looking at a monolingual system.
What we are hoping to prove is that a multilingual effort
is vital and for multilingualism to be seen as an asset rather
than a deficit with English language learners. That is why this
hearing is important for us in looking at language and culture
and how it is integrated throughout all our school systems, and
also allowing the ability for tribes to develop our own
research based methods, and giving tribal education departments
and tribal governments more authority, similar to that of State
education agencies over the education of our children.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Shendo follows:]
Prepared Statement of Kevin Shendo, Education Director, Pueblo of Jemez
The Pueblo of Jemez, is located in north central New Mexico and we
have a tribal membership of approximately 3,788. Jemez is a very
traditional Pueblo and we have maintained our cultural and religious
practices. We are the only Pueblo where the Towa language is spoken, a
language that is unwritten. In 1999, the Pueblo of Jemez, through its
Vision 2010 community sessions, asserted our authority and desire to
determine what is most important to the education of our tribal
members.
Jemez began our re-organization efforts in 1999 as part of the
Visioning and Planning sessions for our community. From Vision 2010 and
the community planning sessions, emerged three overriding themes that
have been at the core of our Redefining Education Movement; one of
these themes is to Redefine Education--so that Jemez Language and
Culture are at the heart of how, where and what we teach our children
to ensure the survival and advancement of our Jemez people.
After a series of organizational changes, the Jemez Department of
Education was redesigned to reflect a comprehensive approach to
education which begins with our most precious resource, our infants and
works up to our adult learners and college students. Encompassing all
support programs, schools and services from our different tribal
programs and local schools: bureau, public and charter. The Jemez
Department of Education is a part of the Jemez Tribal Government and
Administration. The Education Director reports to the Tribal
Administrator who in turn, reports to the Jemez Governors and the Jemez
Tribal Council.
The Pueblo of Jemez is pleased with the progress it has made in
creating a tribal education system that engages with State, Tribal and
Federal institutions. Markers of success for the Pueblo of Jemez
Educational System include:
Creation of the Jemez Education Collaborative, a coalition
of Tribal Education Program Managers, Coordinators, and School
Administrators from the Public, Bureau and Charter schools
serving Jemez students. The Education Collaborative meets
monthly to discuss critical education issues impacting our
student population. Rather than compete for students, funding
and resources, the collaborative works cooperatively to ensure
that the best educational services, transitions and supports
are provided to our students to ensure their success.
As part of this collaborative began the development of a
Jemez Language and Culture Curriculum from Early Childhood to
8th Grade through the annual Teacher Retreat and the Joint
Professional Development Days involving all teachers from the
local community schools and tribal programs.
Further, the involvement of the tribe in the schools has
resulted in an integration of our tribal language, culture and
priorities directly into the curriculum. This was done in
coordination with the teachers, community schools, the Jemez
Language Team, and the Jemez Education Department. We are, in
essence, developing an indigenous pedagogy that best meets the
academic needs of our student population.
Conducting research to support the Jemez educational
initiatives focused on developing Jemez Educational Standards,
complete with assessments and evaluations, rooted in Jemez
Language, Culture and Tribal priorities that integrate State,
National and International educational standards.
-- ``Becoming Jemez PhotoVoice Project--the early childhood
experiences of Jemez children and the context within which
language is learned'' is a prime example of one such research
project being directed by the tribe in collaboration with
Arizona State University.
The Pueblo of Jemez Tribal Education Department has developed
meaningful relationships with our community and State partners:
Jemez has established two public charter schools within
reservation lands with Tribal Council approval in collaboration
with the local public school district, as New Mexico initially
set up a dependent charter school law, listing LEAs as the
authorizing agents; but the charter law was reauthorized to now
allow the State of New Mexico to become a second authorizing
agent, making two options available and honoring the
government-to-government relationship between NM and its 22
tribes.
Jemez has entered into an MOU with the State of New Mexico
for alternative licensure for Jemez Language and Culture
Instructors. Jemez will determine which of its tribal members
are viable to teach Jemez Language and Culture within the local
schools and the state will honor the tribe's authority by
granting the recommended individuals an alternative license to
teach within the public school systems.
Jemez also has an Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) with
the NM Public Education Department--Indian Education Division
for grant funds awarded to the Jemez Department of Education to
support language programs and student support services.
The work of the Jemez Education Department has had and continues to
have an impact on increasing the academic performance of our students:
The Jemez Valley Public School District was only one of two
school districts in the State of NM to make Adequate Yearly
Progress (AYP) as a district in the 2009/10 school year based
on the academic achievement of the students within their
respective schools.
Jemez on average has over 80 percent of its high school
graduates going on to 2 and 4 year institutions.
Through its different programs, the Jemez Education
Department is directly reaching and impacting over 450 students
per month, and over 100 students per day.
The four and five year graduation rates for Jemez Valley
High School and Walatowa High Charter School are above the
state averages and significant for schools with high Native
populations.
Recommendations to strengthen tribal control and to ensure language
and culture based education models are funded and made a priority are
as follows:
ESEA Reauthorization needs to be inclusive of tribal
priorities: Opportunities for integrating language and culture
based programs have been overlooked because of No Child Left
Behind. Focus has been on Reading and Math, because our Native
children are unique, a lot of them have succeeded but are we
losing our Native identity along the way.
NCLB English only legislation needs to be repealed and be
made inclusive of home languages other than English. A greater
value and acknowledgement of multilingualism as an asset is a
must.
Recognizing that ``Top Down'' mandates don't work and
western education models are not the answer to tribal
communities working to develop educational standards that are
rooted in Language and Culture and that integrate local
priorities.
Parent's are a child's first teacher--a financial investment
and focus needs to be put on parent support and education
programs/services. Without strong parental support and
intervention, a child often struggles and is more prone to
experiment with and participate in risky behaviors.
Bureau of Indian Education mandate on background checks for
all classroom instructors takes up to six (6) months.
Revisiting policy to expedite the process or work with local
police departments for community educators, some of which are
certified language/culture instructors and respected elders.
Invest in ``Grow Your Own'' programs: Each community has
unique needs and challenges so they need to develop their own
programs. This empowers community members and develops a sense
of ownership, ``when we ``Grow our Own'' we then take pride in,
and want, need, and value what we produce. This brings
ownership and local responsibility.''
Increasing the role of Tribal Education Departments to that
of State Education Agencies and giving Tribes more authority in
the education of their children through the ESEA
Reauthorization: ``Jemez people know best, what is best for
Jemez children.''
Legislation needs to address federal and state educational
funding going directly to the tribes, helping to build
capacity, thus enabling them to best meet their community's
educational needs and priorities.
Invest in research that supports Native language and
traditional community based learning models. These are
``Education Best Practices'' and legislation should support
best practices in Native Communities and research that is
driven by tribal communities and their research partners.
Invest in holistic education models that incorporate all
aspects of a child's learning, to meet the needs of the whole
child: Educationally, Socially, Culturally, Spiritually,
Emotionally, Physically and Nutritionally. A healthy, well
child can be taught to learn and master most anything. ``It
takes a village to raise a child.''
As Tribes and Tribal Education Departments, we have a
responsibility to hold the Federal and State Governments, public school
districts and schools that serve our students accountable, to ensure
that our students are readily prepared for college or a career. So
Jemez echoes that the burden of education for our young people not to
be the responsibility of one, but that it truly becomes a joint,
collaborative effort, which creates a win-win situation for all; thus
ensuring the educational sovereignty of tribes and our right to self-
determination.
The Pueblo of Jemez has always been and will continue to be a
strong supporter of educational initiatives. Diverse educational
opportunities, together with traditional knowledge, fluency in our Towa
language and a strong cultural foundation have empowered us and
education has opened doors of opportunity. The Pueblo of Jemez realizes
that education is a lifelong journey and that it is critical to meet
the needs of our community at all levels: educationally, culturally and
socially.
The Pueblo of Jemez Department of Education is central to providing
different educational opportunities, services and programs to all
tribal members. Because of its partnerships and collaborations with
higher education institutions, community schools and organizations,
state and federal agencies; It is a place from which one is able to
access a multitude of services within the educational arena.
In closing, I would like to quote the National Congress of American
Indians and the National Indian Education Association's Tribal
Priorities for Indian Education. ``The health, well-being, and success
of Native children are central to Tribal Sovereignty. Tribal
Communities, supported by strong tribal governments, are responsible
for raising, teaching and caring for children. Native children in turn
form the back bone of future tribal success.''
Thank you for the opportunity to provide Testimony before the
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Mr. Shendo, for your
testimony.
Now we will move into questions for our witnesses. My first
question is to Namaka Rawlins. Your consortium has done work
with other Native peoples to assist in their own language
perpetuation efforts. Can you describe the work that you do and
the impact that work has had on other Native communities?
Ms. Rawlins. Mahalo. Yes, let me see, I wrote it down. Our
consortium, with the two partners as I explained earlier, has a
full P-20, preschool through the doctorate degree. Within the
consortium, we are providing, and with our laboratory school,
we are providing technical assistance to others that are
looking at our model and wanting to replicate the model. So we
have had visitors, over 350 indigenous visitors annually, that
come to see our model, on the ground.
So they are able to see firsthand what language nest looks
like, with our preschoolers, and then able to see what the K
through 12 looks like, education, what teaching in our
language, all subject areas, what that looks like. Then onto
the Hawaiian language college, where you have the bachelors,
masters program and the doctorate degree, along with the
teacher certification program, indigenous teacher certification
program, and the curriculum development center and
technologies. So we have offered this technical assistance for
many years. We were able to get the support of private
foundations to help us, so that we could provide this sort of
support.
And in particular, we were able to support the Cherokee
Nation in the development of a similar model to have the
eastern, I think it is called North Eastern University, the
similar model, working with the Cherokee immersion program
there. So having that integrated elementary and university
component to support that, we were able to demonstrate that and
support taking that model to that community as well.
The Chairman. Mr. Lasley, you talked about the challenges
associated with teacher certification in your written
testimony, and a desire to see tribes have the authority to
certify Native language teachers. Can you explain what minimum
qualifications tribes might adopt if such authority was made
available?
Mr. Lasley. I think the qualifications clearly have to be
one, that the teacher is a tribal member who is very familiar
with the language itself and also cultural values pertaining to
child-rearing. Many of our children have to begin learning the
language almost from birth. Beyond that, I think something akin
to an associate's degree, whereby they are provided enough
training in modern teaching techniques to be able to apply
those or refine them in a tribal setting, so that indeed, they
do meet some minimum qualifications, but also that they are
acknowledged and recognized by tribal standards that they are
adequately trained to provide the instruction.
So it would be up to the tribes to develop that criteria. I
believe we can successfully do that if in fact we have the
mandate or the means, the opportunity to be able to do that
without being stifled by other Federal regulations that
emphasize the most recent ways of judging or certifying
qualified teachers.
The Chairman. Thank you. We will have another round of
questions.
Senator Udall?
Senator Udall. Chairman Akaka, thank you very much. This
has been an excellent panel.
I am very interested in strengthening the pipeline for
tribal students to become professionals, and returning to their
communities, especially as teachers and health care providers.
What suggestions do any of the panelists have for growing our
own Native teachers and how do we encourage college students to
pursue a career in teaching, especially in Native communities?
Kevin, do you want to start?
Mr. Shendo. Thank you, Senator Udall. One of the things we
have done in our community actually, is looking at growing our
own, starting a college internship program, that we have had
our tribal programs invest resources and funding in, so that
they are able to set aside funding through their regular
budgets to hire college students coming back into the
community, both giving them the opportunity to work in the
field that they are studying within the local community, but
also then, to build a pipeline to reintegrate them back into
the community once they receive their degrees.
This has been a tremendous program that we have put
together. That is one. The other partnership that we
established is with the AmeriCorps Vista program, looking at
volunteer service to our community and giving young people the
professional experience they need, but also the resources to be
able to continue to pursue their education. I think
opportunities as such have been very beneficial to us. One
thing that has been a real focus for a lot of our college
students is learning about the tribal government, tribal
programs and how they function within the context of the
community. That is something that cannot be taught in a college
classroom, but one that has to be learned and experienced
through those professional experiences that we are able to
provide our young people.
Senator Udall. Do any of the other panelists want to weigh
in on that?
Ms. Rawlins. I would like to. I was thinking about your
question. In our experience, over the 30 years that we have
been in the development of programs based on our language and
our culture, it has brought up from within our own communities
the empowerment from within our communities to return, that is
part of the education. We talked about Kuleana earlier,
responsibility, so it is innate, it is a part of the way we do
things.
So today's hearing, the way we do our language and culture
education, it fosters and it builds upon that strength of our
Native communities to want to be a part of solutions and coming
back and giving back. So when we look at the Punana Leo, when
we started our language nest, we had parents that got involved
that went on to become teachers themselves, because they were
becoming involved in the education of their children and sought
to get their teaching certification so they could be a part of
this education in our language and through our language.
We have now, because of being around this long, 30 years,
we now have students that have graduated from our education
system that are now returning and contributing back. It is just
part of the way our education and how we are building within
our communities that idea of Kuleana, responsibility, and
coming back and contributing back to your community. You just
don't take away, you come back and give back, too.
Mr. Lasley. We would agree. I think our tribe sees that as
an opportunity, grow your own programs, things of that nature.
We see glimmers of hope at the earliest grade levels now, when
we introduce Meskwaki speakers into those classrooms as teacher
aides. So we also have certified teaching staff in certain
classrooms that also voluntarily implement some of our Meskwaki
language, even though they are non-Indian. We still see the
students responding and learning phrases and words.
So we believe it can be done, and we also would like more
support in the reauthorization to promote those practices to be
seen as continued opportunities.
Mr. Parker. May I say something? Curiously, where my school
resides in Waianae, the major problem it had is retaining
teachers. So that was used as a reason for educational failure.
At the school that I am the principal at, 21 of my 40 teachers
are of Hawaiian ethnicity. And the school has 93 percent
Hawaiian, so obviously the role modeling automatically takes
place in this community. We have found it to be a very powerful
component in that a number of our students go on to private
schools after they leave our public school. Private schools are
obviously the elite of the educational system in the State of
Hawaii.
Senator Udall. Thank you. Thank you very much.
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Senator Udall.
My question now is directed to Alvin Parker. Can you
discuss how the Native Hawaiian community in Waianae has been
involved in the design and goals of your school? And also
whether or not you think that contributes to student
achievement?
Mr. Parker. Yes, Senator. Waianae coast is made up of three
mokus, Makaha Moku, the Waianae moku, the Maili moku, excuse
me, four mokus, and Nanakuli moku. These are four individual
communities that are along the 17-mile Waianae coast. We have
students from every one of these mokus. So a total student body
of about 600 children, ranging from K to eighth grade.
So we get a lot of input from our families. But what we
basically return to them is a high-quality educational
facility. That is what they appreciate. Why I am using the four
mokus to identify how we work together, if just one Nanakui
moku provided all 600 students, then you wouldn't be getting
this cross-section. But we get a lot of people.
I will give you an example. We recently put this project
Kaboom together, with the help of the Disney Corporation. In
one day, 250 family members and about 50 students showed up and
built a $250,000 playground in one day. It was the most amazing
sight. I never could have believed it if I hadn't seen it, it
was a fantastic sight. That is one way I can indicate to you,
physically indicate to you that it is being done in the Waianae
coast.
We were one of only two grants that Disney allocated. And
the other allocation came from the NFL Players Association in
the State of Hawaii. That is my most recent example. This
happened on April 28th.
The Chairman. Mahalo. Mr. Shendo, despite their different
structures, how has the Pueblo been able to successfully
integrate cultural language programs in each school? What
recommendations can you provide the Committee?
Mr. Shendo. I think the overriding theme has been staying
true to the vision of the community and honoring that. Even
regardless of the school system or the educational system that
is in place, when serving the needs of our tribal students,
every school system within its leadership has come to
understand and honor the vision of the community and honor the
priority of language and culture in its educational system. I
think with that, and the tribe prioritizing and pushing that
has enabled the different educational systems to stay true to
the vision of the community and honor it.
There have been barriers or challenges in certain school
systems. But we have been able to come together as a
collaborative and work through them to ensure that language and
culture are integrated. In some schools it is more present than
others. But it is present in every school system. I think that
is the important piece, that the schools have come to the table
with the tribe and honor and respect the priority of language
and culture that the tribe is integrating.
The other piece that has made this collaboration possible
is the State of New Mexico has an Indian Education Act. Through
the Indian Education Act, the State recognizes the authority of
the Tribe with the ultimate control or authority of tribes over
the education of their children. So through that, there are
different avenues and ways. One is the alternative licensure
where each tribe is able to enter into an agreement with the
State of New Mexico, so that the tribe becomes the authorizing
agent to decide which of its tribal members they can license to
be able to teach language and culture within the public school
systems, Bureau or charter, and then the State will recognize
them by giving that individual an alternative licensure to be
able to come into the school systems.
So there are different avenues that have been put in place
at the State level. But also at the local level, it is just the
coming together and recognition of honoring the tribe and its
priorities. But really also, teaching from the perspective of
honoring and validating the prior knowledge that children bring
into the classroom, and relating education to the experiences
that children bring from their respective communities, because
in our school district, we have the Pueblo of Jemez and also
the Pueblo of Zia.
I think the recommendation that I would make to the
Committee is, the Indian Education Act really helped to propel
Indian education within the State of New Mexico. So maybe
looking at legislation that forces the different entities and
agencies to come together in a sense. But I think through a
collaborative process, because if it is not written in law,
there are lost opportunities where the collaboration won't
happen. But if the mechanisms are put in place to enable the
collaborations to happen, they become key to the success that
can be realized.
The Chairman. Thank you very much for your response.
Ms. Rawlins, could you provide the Committee with
additional information on English language outcomes for
immersion programs? Do students educated in Native American
languages face challenges when they move on to higher education
taught in English?
Ms. Rawlins. Thank you. Our model is that English is
offered, or English Language Arts is introduced in grade five
for an hour a day. At the end, I reported that we have 100
percent graduation rate. When our students graduate, they are
100 percent bilingual, biliterate, both in Hawaiian and in
English. They are, at senior year, they are concurrently
enrolled in local university courses or the community college.
So they are taking courses in English in the 12th grade.
So the system that we have is a rigorous acquisition of
both Hawaiian language as your prime language of instruction
and prime target language in the early years, and then the
gradual grade five, your hour of English in grade five. Then of
course, there is the research that students do in intermediate
high school or like you Google your regular researches in
English. A lot of the textbooks that they have in high school
and intermediate school are English textbooks. But the medium
of instruction remains Hawaiian.
So this model has proven to have the, like I said, 100
percent graduation rate, 80 percent of them entering college.
In addition to this, our students have graduated from the
university, both our local universities, University of Hawaii
at Hilo, at Manoa, our community colleges in Hawaii, as well as
colleges on the mainland, including Loyola and Stanford. We
just had our first Punana Leo graduate receive his Ph.D. from
Oxford.
So these are examples of the success of English language,
positive English language outcomes for our students that are
grounded in their language in Hawaiian that are then moving
into English and all of the other support that, like I said
earlier, they are having to research and everything is in
English. So they are well prepared.
I think I answered the question.
The Chairman. Thank you very much.
Mr. Lasley, you mentioned the need for a central repository
of knowledge pertaining to language programs. Please describe
the challenges you face due to the lack of a central
repository. And any suggestions you may have regarding how a
repository would function.
Mr. Lasley. I think first and foremost this centrally-
located repository of knowledge and resources would be certain
amassed and would be the responsibility of either that
institution or an organization which has frankly, a huge amount
of resources, financially and human, in order to bring all the
resources and materials, for example, that have been developed
by the Native Hawaiian population to the broader Native
American or tribal audience or consumer. I think across the
United States there are varying levels of success taking place.
But in our case, for example, with me, over 40 years ago, being
brought up in immersion, in the Meskwaki language was simply
part of our life, our lifestyle.
Over that amount of time, lifestyles have changed,
technologies have changed. And the influences on our young
people are much more mainstream, as opposed to tribal. So an
organization that has a huge amount of resources and the
ability to travel to touch each and every one of these Native
communities with regard to whatever stage they are in in
development of language preservation from those that are the
most advanced, that have been doing this for 30 years, to those
that are only starting but may have a strong culture and
heritage still intact. The raw material is there within the
community. But it simply has to be organized based on effective
and proven models that have been developed over a long period
of time by other tribal cultures.
It will take a fair amount of work, it will take a fair
amount of time. But I think it can be accomplished to the
betterment of not only Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, but
also Native American tribes here on the mainland, so to speak.
But again, I think it has to be very business-oriented, it has
to be very structured. But I do believe it can be accomplished.
The Chairman. Thank you for your response.
Mr. Parker, how are your students performing as compared to
the other schools in the communities that you serve? Can you
identify what you believe to be the key factors in their
success?
Mr. Parker. That is a loaded question, Senator. We are the
only school on the Waianae coast that has passed AYP. And we
have done it four out of six years.
I believe it is because one of the key ingredients is we
have a sustainable faculty. We don't lose teachers. The
majority of my teachers, except for two of them, have been with
me for five years or longer. There is only one teacher that is
not HQTd, and she is in the process of getting her highly-
qualified status.
Another reason would be that the students, when they enter
in kindergarten, which is our entry point, they don't leave
until they, if they get into Kamehameha from sixth to seventh
grade, then they will leave, or eight and ninth, but they
normally stay the entire nine years. I think the consistency of
faculty, the stability of the student body, it matters quite a
bit.
I wrote a masters project on how do you build a sustainable
school, a successful sustainable school. Part of it was design.
So the school has been in existence for, it is going on its
11th year. We have done pretty well.
Another thing is the faculty is predominantly Hawaiian. So
the children, they look at their teachers and they realize that
anything is possible. The only two Caucasian teachers I have,
one was born in Hawaii and her name is Noni, and the other has
been living there for 35 years. So that is the type of faculty,
I think it really does matter to the students, especially in a
socioeconomically depressed community. And these people travel
as far as Hawaii Ke to get to Nanakuli to work. You know the
geographics, that is quite a distance to travel every morning.
The Chairman. Mr. Shendo, the Pueblo's charter school has a
graduation rate of 89.4 percent. This program has been very
successful compared to the national rate for Native students of
49 percent. Can you describe why you think the charter school
is so successful in graduating students? Also, how can we
translate that success to other schools through legislation?
Mr. Shendo. The graduation rate at Walatowa High Charter
School, again, one of the key factors is the zero, minimal to
zero turnover of staff. That is key. The other thing that has
been key and I have expressed is the honoring of the language
and culture, and really teaching to the students within the
context of the communities they come from. It is taking the
academic subjects and knowledge, but putting them and teaching
them from a perspective where it relates back to the community,
then education really means something. And working with our
community professionals that are serving the tribe as well as
elders and community members that carry key knowledge and
integrating them as co-teachers, as facilitators, as part of
the learning process.
So it is really taking the school and integrating it into
the community and teaching from the perspective of the
community, so, as the different subjects are taught, they
relate back to the community that the students come from and
also, they honor the prior knowledge that young people bring
into the classroom. That has been one of the biggest keys of
success.
Walatowa High also received an early college grant. So we
are trying to transition it now. We have been working the last
four years, implementing an early college program, and really
raising the expectations of our students. Looking at multi-
lingualism as an asset, looking at models internationally that
have been successful and integrating what has been successful
with those international models that integrate multi-lingual,
multi-cultural programs into the school systems. The motto of
the school is think globally, create locally.
So it really affords the opportunity of the staff to look
at diversifying the curriculum. Doesn't look at the subject
matter singly. But looking at integration of experiential
learning processes that are across disciplines, so that one
project may involve all the different disciplines in the
schools and contribute to that student's learning of that
particular lesson from the different subjects. But they all
interrelate. I think that has been one of the biggest successes
of the school, of its success rate and graduation rates, that
have helped really to benefit the students and their success.
And how can we translate that to other schools and areas?
It is really helping, I think, and I don't know how we can do
this through legislation, but helping communities to define a
vision. That has been one of our biggest benefits, having a
vision, a common vision that we can all work toward, and
everyone understanding that vision. And through the
reauthorization, some of the proposed legislation is to develop
the capacity of tribal departments of education within
different Native communities. Maybe that may be an avenue to
begin to address this, and looking at what ways which can be
utilized to help to replicate a similar model.
But it is really looking at validating the prior knowledge
that young people bring, it is integrating the educational
system into the communities and communities into the schools.
The Chairman. I want to thank you very much, our first
panel, for your responses to our questions. Without question,
your responses will help us refine what needs to be in our
education programs for Native peoples. That is the intent of
all of this. The thing is, we want to make it the best.
What has been coming out also is that there have been
successes. There is a reason for that. We would like to take
advantage of this and as I have said earlier, want to build on
the basis of what we have done that has been successful and
make it better. All for the sake of retaining and keeping our
culture and language alive for the people of our Country.
And for me, without question, this will help the United
States also. So this will help our peoples to be more
productive. Because the future is there, and there are so many
new things that are coming up and our young people need to be
educated to the point where they can begin to contribute to
this production. This Committee will be taking up some of
these, like energy and other areas, that can help the tribes as
well, to help them be productive.
Again, mahalo nui loa, thank you very much for your
responses and I want to tell you, we are very indebted to you
for helping us achieve a better future for education in our
Native languages. Mahalo. Thank you.
I would like to now call the second panel, and invite the
second panel to the witness table. Mahalo nui for the lei, and
this really honors me. We are so happy to have all of you.
We have Jana Harcharek, Director of the Inupiaq Education,
with the North Slope Borough School District in Barrow, Alaska.
David Beaulieu, a Professor with the University of Wisconsin At
Milwaukee, will speak second. And our final witness, Shawn
Kanaiaupuni, with the Kamehameha Schools, in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Welcome to the Committee, and to this hearing.
Ms. Harcharek, will you please proceed with your testimony?
Your full testimonies will be included in the record.
STATEMENT OF JANA HARCHAREK, DIRECTOR OF INUPIAQ EDUCATION,
NORTH SLOPE BOROUGH SCHOOL DISTRICT, BARROW ALASKA
Ms. Harcharek. [Greeting in Native tongue]. Chairman Akaka,
and distinguished members of the Committee, thank you for the
opportunity to provide comments.
My name is Pausauraq Jana Harcharek. I am the Director of
Inupiaq Education at the North Slope Borough School District. I
have lived in Barrow, Alaska, all of my life save for when I
had to leave home to attend high school.
I have devoted my entire professional life to language and
cultural preservation and perpetuation. The North Slope Borough
School District is comprised of 11 public schools, situated in
8 communities spread across 88,000 square miles. Our district
serves 1,816 students from preschool and kindergarten through
grade 12.
Founding North Slope Borough Mayor Eden Hobson was an
astute man who knew that we had an unprecedented opportunity to
direct our own destiny. In 1975, he said, ``Today we have
control over our educational system.'' He wanted an assessment
of whether or not our school system was truly becoming an
Inupiat school system, reflecting Inupiat educational
philosophies, or if in fact, we were merely theoretically
exercising political control over an educational system that
continued to transmit white urban culture.
Thirty-six years later, our school board continues to
strive for the realization of Mayor Hobson's vision for
education. The mission of the district as defined by the board
is that learning in our schools is rooted in the values,
history and language of the Inupiat. Our board wants our
students prepared to excel as productive citizens of the world,
able to integrate Inupiat knowledge and values with western
ways.
Five years ago, the North Slope Borough School District
finally decided that it was time to go to the people, it was
time to forego the abysmal philosophical underpinnings of the
district to impose a system created in white urban America for
white urban children on Inupiat children, because it was
failing. It was time for a change. It was time to begin
building the bridge of trust between school and community. So
the District went to the people, and the people spoke.
The people said loudly and clearly that they want their
children's schools to reflect who they are. They said their
children no longer should have to leave their identities
outside when they walk into their schools. They should know
their history and who their leaders are. They should see
Inupiat art forms in their buildings. They should learn to
think like Inupiat, because they are Inupiat.
Two years ago, the District formed a committee called
Ilinniagnikun Apqusiuqtit. They are the people who break the
trail for learning. It is through their efforts that the
Inupiat learning framework was born. This framework, adopted by
the board last summer, is now the foundation upon which Inupiat
culture and language-based academic curricula and assessment
processes are being developed.
The prospects for increasing academic achievement as a
result are very, very promising. The goal is for all North
Slope students to reach their intellectual potential and
achieve academic success through the integration of Inupiat
knowledge into the core content areas of reading, writing,
mathematics and science.
The District is actively mapping its curriculum and
aligning it with the Alaska State Content and Performance
Standards, adapting a nationally-recognized curriculum
development methodology, referred to as understanding by
design. The process includes the engagement of our communities,
elders, parents, leaders, business and governmental partners,
teachers and students. We all know that students perform better
academically when parents are involved.
The development of Inupiat language and culture-based
curriculum, written from the perspective of the Inupiat, will
have long-term positive outcomes for increased academic
performance and local teacher hire and retention. This is
supported by research. Through community ownership of education
and investment in new educational practices now, we increase
the relevance and viability of the teaching profession from the
perspective of our students. When our students see themselves
honored in the classroom with curriculum that is written from
their perspective, they will see that teaching is an honorable
profession.
Seems Mayor Hobson had figured out what needed to be done
to make our schools more effective decades before the
mainstream did. Thank you very much.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Harcharek follows:]
Prepared Statement of Jana Harcharek, Director of Inupiaq Education,
North Slope Borough School District, Barrow Alaska
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Ms. Harcharek.
And now we will receive the testimony of Dr. Beaulieu.
Please proceed.
STATEMENT OF DAVID BEAULIEU, PROFESSOR OF
EDUCATION POLICY AND COMMUNITY STUDIES; DIRECTOR, ELECTA
QUINNEY INSTITUTE FOR AMERICAN INDIAN
EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MILWAUKEE
Dr. Beaulieu. Mr. Chairman, members of the Committee, I am
David Beaulieu. I am an enrolled member of the Minnesota
Chippewa Tribe from the White Earth Indian Reservation in
Northern Minnesota. I am a former director of the U.S. Office
of Indian Education and a past president of NIEA, the National
Indian Education Association.
Between 2002 and 2005, I was involved, along with William
Demmert and other research partners, in an effort funded by the
U.S. Department of Education to consider whether it was
feasible to conduct experimental or quasi-experimental Research
to determine the impact of culturally-based education on the
academic achievement of Native American students, and if so, to
propose a Research design to do that.
The need for such Research originated in President
Clinton's and President Bush's executive orders on American
Indian and Alaska Native education. Our Research group proposed
a quasi-experimental design that ultimately was not funded, nor
was there a request for any other design to answer the Research
question.
There has not been any Federal support for this type of
research or Research concerning best practices in culturally-
based education also required by the executive orders since the
request for feasibility in 2002. The importance of doing
Research on this subject, outside of the fact that Native
American educators and leaders wish to have the kind of
information that allows for effective development of
educational programs for Native American students, is a
realization that all of our Native American education-related
statutes in part suggest a relationship of meeting what is
known as the special educational and culturally related
academic needs of Native American students with academic
achievement.
The theoretical literature in this area focuses on the need
for social-cultural congruency between the expectations of the
school and the dispositions of learners for education-related
discourse. For example, Research related to cognition or the
ability to acquire knowledge has focused on what is known as
elaboration, or the process of forming associations between new
information and prior knowledge. For learning to occur, the new
information must undergo some form of processing that focuses
on conceptual characteristics of the new information, such as
its meaning, personal or social relevance or relationship to
prior knowledge and experience. Culture and language provides a
basis for such associations.
An area known as cultural historical activity theory looks
at language vocabularies and routines acquired by the learners
through the process of socialization as children through
language exchanges and social activity as a primary cognitive
tool for individual and group problem-solving and adaptation.
The processes of schooling result in positive outcomes when
they are congruent with the learner's cognitive and linguistic
tools.
Positive learning also occurs when school participation
structures are congruent with the learner's. Examples include
turn-taking, wait time, observational learning versus trial and
error, and other various courtesies and conventions of
conversation unique in many cultures.
William Demmert and John Towner, as a part of the
feasability study, conducted a literature review to identify
all the experimental and quasi-experimental research on
culturally-based education and academic achievement that had
been accomplished. Starting with over 10,000 documents, only
two directly looked at the relationship of culturally-based
education to academic achievement. This type of Research simply
has not been done. There are many studies of less scientific
rigor that demonstrate potentially positive relationships. It
is noted that the literature does not suggest the opposite is
true.
The achievement and education progress data of Native
American students in school programs without culturally-based
efforts indicate the current educational strategies are not
effective for many Native students. Where there is a
comprehensive focus on Native language and culture, as the core
of the school's approach, the results are significantly
different. Dr. Teresa McCarty from Arizona State University in
a 2009 report to the U.S. Department of Education describes the
educational approach and results of a number of schools,
including those that focus on students where the home language
is other than English, or where the objective is language and
culture revitalization as well as focused culturally-based
education programmatic efforts.
Summarizing the results of her report, she stated that
there is compelling empirical evidence that strong, additive,
academically rigorous Native language and culture programs have
salutary effects on both Native language and culture
revitalization and student achievement as measured by multiple
types of assessments. Time spent learning the Native language
in a strong program, regardless of Native language expertise,
is not lost in developing academic English.
She also noted other aspects of what is considered a strong
program: enhanced self-esteem, motivation, ethnic pride are
evidenced as factors, improved attendance, and college-going
rates, and unique and varied opportunities for involvement of
parents and elders in the children's learning is associated
with enhanced achievement. Both of these factors are noted for
strong Native language and culture programs.
There is ample evidence that well-developed efforts work.
My testimony elaborates on these points, and I have provided
the Committee with both the reports I have mentioned. My
testimony also suggests areas where existing statutory
language, if utilized, could be a basis for more success. We
need more research and programmatic support that assists in
developing strong Native language programs.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Beaulieu follows:]
Prepared Statement of David Beaulieu, Professor of Education Policy and
Community Studies; Director, Electa Quinney Institute for American
Indian Education, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Dr. Beaulieu.
Now we will receive the testimony of Dr. Kanaiaupuni. Will
you please proceed?
STATEMENT OF SHAWN KANAIAUPUNI, Ph.D., DIVISION DIRECTOR,
KAMEHAMEHA SCHOOLS
Dr. Kanaiaupuni. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and aloha,
Members of the Committee.
My name is Shawn Kanaiaupuni, and although the Kapuniai's
did live down the street from me growing up, it is a real honor
and privilege to be able to share research with you today about
new research on Native language and culture that very much is
consistent with those of my colleague, David Beaulieu, about
improving educational outcomes for Native students.
I am currently the Director of the Public Education Support
Division and formerly the Research and Evaluation Division of
Kamehameha Schools, and have also served on the National Indian
Education Association as a board member and sit on the Native
Hawaiian Education Council.
I represent Kamehameha Schools, which is a 125-year old
private charitable trust in Hawaii, dedicated to educating our
Native children. We operate several private campuses, but also
spend some $25 million to $30 million annually in support of
our public schools and public education, because they educate
about 85 percent of the 70,000 Native Hawaiian youth in our
State.
Data trends over time within our DOE indicate that although
proficiency rates for all race and ethnic groups have increased
over time, and you can see this busy slide really shows an
increasing trend since 2003 in proficiency rates. But what we
see is that there is a very large achievement gap. I want you
to focus on the red line there at the bottom, compared to the
top performing groups in our State, which tend to be Japanese,
Chinese and Korean. The State average is somewhere in the
middle. But basically that achievement gap has existed over the
last 50 to 60 years, based on our research.
This chart is for math. The same is true in language arts.
The concerning thing about this is that our Native students
comprise the largest single race and ethnic group in our State
public school system, about 25 percent. So one in every four.
Our Samoan youth also fare very poorly. They comprise about 3
percent of our public school system.
The other important thing that is concerning to us besides
the enduring nature of the achievement gap is that based on the
data, conventional methods of educating our Native students
have not worked. It is not a gap, it is a gaping hole.
So really I want to share with you some of our research
results of a recent study on what works for Native students.
The study specifically addresses culture-based education and
the resulting impact on student outcomes, including academic
student outcomes. It is the first large-scale empirical study
of its kind that we know of, including data from 600 teachers,
some 3,000 students, about 2,000 parents, from 62 participating
schools that include conventional DOE schools, the DOE has been
a partner in this study, culture-based charter schools, which
have been very promising in terms of Native education and
conventional charter schools as well, also language immersion
schools in our State (we have 17 public language immersion
schools) and our own private campuses.
We ran lots of analyses, from very simple descriptive
analyses to multi-variate analyses to very sophisticated multi-
level statistical analyses run by national experts in the
field. In the interest of time, the key findings are the
following.
We find a very consistent, enduring, positive impact of
culture-based education on student outcomes. Higher CBE use is
related to higher socio-emotional development for students,
things like identity, self-efficacy, aspirations, the things
that lead to positive academic achievement. We find that higher
culture-based education use is related to higher student civic
engagement, not only feeling connected to your community and to
civic issues in your area, but also taking action on those
issues, like getting out there to protect the environment, to
share with others and educate others about how fragile our
environmental system is, about getting out there to attend
public meetings about community affairs. These are what our
students do.
And these are the students that we want to see taking care
of us when we grow older.
Higher culture-based education use is also related to
students spending more time on homework, to their feeling a
sense of belonging in school, a sense of having trusting
relationships, like teachers really care about them. Some may
call that the soft fuzzy stuff of education, but in reality, if
you are familiar with many of our Native communities that have
sustained multiple generations of marginalization in public
schools, feeling a sense of connection to school is really the
single most leading indicator of future educational success, of
wanting to go to college, of being successful in your career.
In fact, our data show that from culture-based charter
schools, 90 percent of students graduate and go on to their
successful careers in college. That is compared to our State
average of 80 percent and for Native Hawaiians, around 60
percent.
We find that higher culture-based education use is also
related to students expecting to graduate from college, not
just high school, but also college. And finally, higher
culture-based education use, in our fancy, nested, multi-level
hierarchical linear models, controlling for all kind of other
explanatory factors, is related to student academic success in
both reading and math test scores. That is kind of what
everybody wants to hear. It is a smaller but statistically
significant effect in the positive direction. For Native
students, that is the right direction. So we want to build on
those successes.
Put very simply, research shows that culture in the
classroom matters. We need more funding and support at the
Federal and State levels to promote culture-based education,
rigorous and relevant culture-based education. Because these
investments have demonstrable benefits for Native students. As
we like to say in our State, what is good for Native students
is good for all students.
Mahalo.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Kanaiaupuni follows:]
Prepared Statement of Shawn Kanaiaupuni, Ph.D., Division Director,
Kamehameha Schools
The Chairman. Mahalo. Thank you very much for your
testimony.
Ms. Harcharek, you mentioned that the Inupiaq learning
framework, in particular you mentioned that as the foundation
for the development of an academic curricula and assessment
processes. Can you elaborate on how the Inupiaq learning
framework was developed and how the school district trains its
teachers in this framework?
Ms. Harcharek. Thank you, Senator.
The Inupiaq learning framework came about as a result, as I
mentioned earlier, of going to the people. We initially
traveled to each of the communities and said to the people, we
have imposed our school system on our people for far long
enough. It is now time for us to hear from you what it is your
expectations are of our school. And what we heard them say is
that they wanted to see themselves in school.
As a result of that, and they even wanted to see Native
foods served in school in the lunch program. So we heard a wide
range of suggestions, ranging from curriculum content to food
that is served in schools to the aesthetics of the building.
In terms of the content piece, we again convened a group of
people from across the district, comprised of elders, and we
included people who were in the younger age range, the young
parents, and worked them through a process that lasted over a
year, asking them what it is they believe the 18 year old well-
grounded, well-educated young person looks like today. And they
arrived at quite a list, as you can imagine.
It is from that list, then, we derived what we are
referring to as the Inupiaq learning framework. It is divided
into realms that are realms important to the Inupiaq world
view. And from that, then, we have proceeded into the process
of a curriculum mapping and alignment process.
At first, when we present the Inupiaq learning framework to
our cadre of teachers, 98 percent of whom, of course, at not
from the North Slope, who are from the lower 48, we knew we had
the daunting task of first of all, convincing them that this is
the way to go, and secondly, to provide them with the level or
comfort that they need in order to be able to effectively
utilize the Inupiaq learning framework. We have done that
mainly through in-servicing.
The next piece in the plan is to, rather than in-service
teachers, where they are passive receivers of information, we
are going to again engage the community in a dialogue about
different facets of the Inupiaq learning framework, and have
the teachers surrounding them so that the teachers are learning
from the community people. We continue to search for other ways
to do the training and have tried a variety of different ways,
many of which haven't worked. So we are hoping that this new
way of bringing in the community into the conversation will aid
us in that process. Not only will it train teachers, but it
will also continue to engage the community in the education
process.
The Chairman. Thank you very much for that response.
Dr. Beaulieu, your testimony points to several best
practice Native language programs throughout the United States.
To what extent have Native communities been able to utilize
these so-called best practice programs to develop their own
language programs? Are there ways to expand the success of
these best practice programs to new and emerging Native
language programs?
Dr. Beaulieu. Senator, Mr. Chairman, yes, there is. One of
the issues we have, of course, with Native language programs,
immersion and others, is that there is a lot of need and little
resources out there. It is very difficult to focus on attempts
to develop approaches and to bring through to fruition.
There are many good examples, and I think the Department of
Education study that I alluded to that Dr. Teresa McCarty
submitted is an effort to try to bring together a listing of
what are those best practices, best practices for school
programs where the home language is other than English or
programs that emphasize language revitalization immersion.
Aside of documenting the results of those schools, which
are all similar to the ones just reported by Shawn, is that
they also indicate what is the strong program, how do you
define a strong program, what do you need to work on. That is
encouraging, to have that kind of information to develop
programs.
There are opportunities, I believe, in the Indian education
statutes, to begin to look at ways of doing more comprehensive
approaches to language and culture education in schools which
educate Native American students. There are areas of the
statute which are under-utilized or not used, which could show
some potential.
There is a requirement in the Title VII formula grant
program that talks about the development of a comprehensive
Indian education plan, both local and State, that responds to
the assessed needs of American Indian students regarding their
special education and culture-related needs, and to align them
with State and local education plans. We don't do that. I think
if we did, I think that there would begin to be an ability to
focus on language and culture education.
We know from the research literature that the school-wide
programs are more effective than programmatic interventions. We
also know the social linguistic approaches are more effective
as well. We need better dissemination of results and we need
more opportunity to accomplish good programs. Thank you.
The Chairman. Thank you for your response.
Dr. Kanaiaupuni, can you describe some of the gains that
are being made by Native Hawaiian focused charter schools, and
how they are using culture-based education to reach children
who may have otherwise fallen through the cracks in the regular
school system? Is there data showing that progress is being
made for these children in the standard math and reading
categories using this approach?
Dr. Kanaiaupuni. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Yes, there is data. Our organization supports 17 culture
based charter schools in our State. So we are very committed to
collecting and gathering and assessing data, so that we can
continue to make good, wise choices in how we invest our
monies. And supporting those schools in an environment of very
scarce resources for charter schools in our State has been
paramount to our leadership.
Knowing a little bit about the context matters, as you
suggested. The proportion of low income students in our
culture-based charter schools is about two-thirds, so one out
of every three. In some schools, 100 percent are low income
students. Also, in the schools that are middle and high
schools, the students tend to come in several grade levels
below the entering grade that they are starting in a charter
school. So there is sometimes an academic gap to make up for in
charter schools.
What we have seen is some amazing progress. These are
community-based schools that employ culturally-relevant,
rigorous learning. So they engage students right off the bat.
Eighty percent of our Hawaiian focused charter schools using
culture-based education met or exceeded proficiency in reading
on our State assessment scores last year. Math is an area of
concern for the entire State and Nation. Of the schools that
did not meet proficiency on last year's State assessment in
math, 80 percent of them made improvements in their gains (so
moving kids from starting point A to ending point B in a single
year) of between 6 and 15 percent. According to our State DOE,
9 percent is exceeding expectations in the amount of a gain in
a single year. That is what our charter schools are doing.
The other really important thing to us is far beyond math
and reading test scores. It is actually about graduation and
kids making it through high school on a timely basis. As I
mentioned before, 90 percent of our students in culture-based
charter schools are graduating on time from high school, which
is an amazing feat. Many of them go on to college. And many of
the charter schools are very innovative on building that
college credit momentum by starting college in the last year of
high school, while they are at the culture-based school.
We also have very high percent of family involvement. That
is a leading indicator, again, of achievement, of math and
reading test score achievement for students. And students are
seven times less likely to be chronically absent in culture-
based education in charter schools. So those are some of the
statistics that I can share with you today. Thank you.
The Chairman. Thank you very much.
Jana Harcharek, how has the focus of the North Slope
Borough School District shifted over time with respect to
teaching Inupiaq language and culture? What best practices can
you share with other public school districts who want to
embrace culture-based curriculum development and
implementation?
Ms. Harcharek. Thank you, Senator.
I believe that initially, as I mentioned in my testimony,
the vision was there to have local control over our educational
system operate in such a way that we also had local control
over content. That dream hasn't been realized. And it hasn't
been until recently that we have put a concerted effort into
making that happen.
So historically, what our district was doing was
perpetuating the assimilationist methodology. And so the major
shift has been in shifting to one of embracing the culture and
the language of the people. The results we are seeing initially
with the implementation of some of our culture-based units have
been absolutely phenomenal. We have students who are wanting to
come to school, we have teachers who are using our culture-
based units as reward for completing tasks in other areas, we
have students who don't want to put their reading texts down
that accompany the culture-based units because they are so
interested in the stories. We have students saying, we want
more of this, we have parents saying, we are learning about our
own culture from our kids, things that we never knew before.
So my response to that has been, the shift has been in one
of not continuing to shut out who we are in our schools, but
rather embracing it and using it as a mechanism by which to
promote and increase the academic achievement of our students.
In terms of best practices and sharing those, I am very
proud to share with you today a partnership that we have had
with our regional corporation, Arctic Slope Regional
Corporation, in the development of a unit that teaches about
the history of our regional corporation. So the unit is
designed to bring kids to an understanding about how the land
claims movement happened up through how a corporation can be
used as a tool to advance the Inupiaq agenda. It is through
these kinds of partnerships that I believe we can really
strengthen the responsibility that we all share, not only as
individuals, but as entities in our communities, for education.
Our hope is that we continue to build on these partnerships
and through these partnerships and the sharing of resources,
really, if you can imagine a school, or our school district, my
dream for our district is that there will be one day when we
don't have to order the textbooks that are produced in massive
quantities here in the lower 48 that really, by omission, do
our kids such an injustice. It is through the sharing of these
kind of methodologies, especially in curriculum development,
that I think we can make great inroads.
A suggestion was made to me this morning in Senator
Murkowski's staff that this is exactly the kind of thing that
we need to do in all of our public schools in Alaska in order
for us to understand the history of Alaska and the direction
into which our future is leading us.
The Chairman. Yes. And you did mention this, and I just
want an answer to this one, you mentioned that during your
time, you had to go to high school away from home. Now, how is
that today? Do they go to high school at home?
Ms. Harcharek. We can now say, we go to high school at
home.
The Chairman. Thank you very much.
Dr. Beaulieu, what role does research play in developing,
implementing and assessing the success of Native language
programs?
Dr. Beaulieu. It plays a great role, not only in terms of
doing national studies and other things, it sort of attempts to
document the success, because we need to document that success.
But it also is extremely important to guide the development of
schools. Typically that research is more focused on the school
at hand, where you can do Research in the context of actually
developing the school. So you develop the data that you need,
where you can discuss and interpret that data within the school
leadership and you can apply it where it matters. And you can
document results over time.
We find that that is a wonderful approach, of course, to
improving schools. And then of course, sharing that result. We
need research, we need to understand what works and to develop
programs which are strong and can get the job done.
So it is very important, both in terms of a national level
and in terms of understanding the approaches that sort of
generally work and then also more specifically, to guide school
improvement. We need to document this particularly for the
Senate and the Congress and others who have issues and need to
know the extent to which these practices work. We have not been
supported in that. I mentioned that in my remarks, that we
haven't had Federal support, typically, to do that type of
research. We have attempted to do that through the research
agenda that President Clinton had required under the executive
order and also President Bush had required in his iteration of
the executive order on American Indian and Alaska Native
education.
But outside of a few small efforts that were initiated
then, nothing has occurred since. We need that kind of support
for that effort. Thank you.
The Chairman. Thank you very much.
Dr. Kanaiaupuni, I would say that Hawaii is so fortunate to
have Kamehameha Schools support these charter school programs,
which has been a big help, as you said. They are working with
17 schools in Hawaii. Kamehameha is providing specific kinds of
assistance and investment into the culture-based charter
schools in Hawaii.
Do you think the kinds of support you are offering these
schools can be replicated around the Country? Are there
additional supports that your data suggests could help to
expand the success of these kinds of schools nationally?
Dr. Kanaiaupuni. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And thank you for your kind words about our support. We
have, as I mentioned, done so in an environment with scarce
resources and wanting to support our communities in educating
Native students in particular. The things that I think could be
taken into consideration to inform policy, to support culture-
based schools and language-based schools across the Nation
include things like leadership development; teacher education
and professional development for our culture-based and culture-
rich environments; and curriculum, instruction and assessment
resources for our culture-based education environments.
We need to support educational rigor, because a lot of what
we found is that communities are creating their own environment
in a dearth of not liking what they are seeing in a
conventional DOE school. So communities are creating our own
culturally relevant educational systems.
So supporting those efforts in systemic ways through
policies, through funding, through legislation, is highly
desirable, in particular around the areas that I mentioned,
leadership and teacher development, highly-qualified teachers--
in culture-based settings. Curriculum instruction and
assessment, especially for Native language-based schools that
always struggle with different assessment needs.
And further research, of course, to understand how we can
achieve the highest quality in educational rigor through
culture-based education. Those are just some of the ways.
We also support our schools, most recently, with an effort
to support all of them, all 17, through the accreditation
process. I am pleased to report that we have one that has
already been accredited, on the big island of Hawaii, and then
five more that are all Hawaiian-language based have just been
accepted for WASC candidacy last month, and will go through the
process next year.
So really important, systemic support for culture-based
education in general. I hope that helps. Thank you.
The Chairman. I thank all of you on our second panel very
much. Your response, without question, again, will be helpful
to us in trying to improve the Native American education
programs throughout our Country. That is the whole intent of
all of this. This Committee will continue to pursue that and
craft a bill that can continue to help you in your work as you
work with Native education in your areas.
Again, I want to thank our witnesses for participating in
today's hearing. I want again to thank you for your commitment
that you are demonstrating to Native education and for
exemplifying the principle of kulia i ka nu`u, striving for
excellence.
I will remind everyone that the record is open. Again, we
want to hear from you if you have feelings that you want to
express. We will be open for written testimony for two weeks.
So if you have others who may be interested in doing that,
please tell them they have two weeks to do it. We look forward
to all the responses we can get to put this together.
So I want to tell you, I really enjoyed this hearing, to
hear how you have done and to know that what you have been
doing has been working. I still believe that teaching young
people through their cultures and traditions helps them to
learn well, and it takes their interest. Because I think that
culture and traditions are the roots of their lives and if you
force or cut that root off, somehow it interferes with the
natural growth and progress of our Native people.
We have so much to work for, and I am so delighted and feel
it a privilege to be working with you on this and with you, I
look forward to trying to do a great job legislatively for the
Native education of our Country. This hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 4:15 p.m., the Committee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
Prepared Statement of Hon. Daniel K. Inouye, U.S. Senator from Hawaii
Mr. Chairman, thank you for holding this oversight hearing on
expanding the success of Native Language and Culture-Based education. I
would also like to extend a special welcome to Ms. Namaka Rawlins from
the University of Hawaii Hilo College of Hawaiian Language; Mr. Alvin
Parker, Principal of Ka Waihona o ka Na`auao public charter school; and
Dr. Shawn Kanaiaupuni, Division Director with Kamehameha Schools. Thank
you for taking time out to travel to Washington D.C. and personally
deliver your testimony in front of the Committee today.
In Hawaii, back in 1896 education through the Hawaiian language was
outlawed in both public and private schools. There were strict
punishments for those who taught or spoke Hawaiian in school. This led
to a rapid disappearance of the Hawaiian language, in fact by 1984
there were only a few elders and a tiny population on the island of
Niihau that were fluent speakers of the Hawaiian language. This is one
example of the delicate conditions indigenous native languages face
every day.
The story of the Hawaiian language did not end in 1984 but it was
the start of a new beginning. After many long discussions with the
elders and the Native Hawaiian community the importance of perpetuating
the language became imminent and the course was to re-establish
Hawaiian medium education schools. This was the beginning of Aha Punana
Leo a preschool that is based upon the language nest model where
students are taught solely in their native language and culture.
Today I am so proud to say that the Hawaiian language still lives.
In Hawaii today a student can choose to be entirely taught through the
Hawaiian language from the preschool level all the way up to a doctoral
level. Adding language or culture to the education of Native students
not only improves their test scores but it provides a sense of
belonging a sense of self-worth that they might not get in a
traditional educational setting.
I understand that while this has worked for the Hawaiians it might
not work for all the other indigenous native peoples across the
country. I also recognize that there have been many challenges along
the way. My hope is that you could work together, share with each
other, and speak with one voice, so that you can bring a fundamental
piece of your culture back to your people.
I look forward to continuing this discussion and working with my
colleagues on this most important issue.
______
Prepared Statement of the Cherokee Nation
______
Prepared Statement of Colin Kippen, Executive Director, National Indian
Education Association
______
Prepared Statement of Taffi U`llel Sheather-Wise, Executive Director,
Kanu o ka Aina Learning `Ohana
______
Prepared Statement of Florian Tom Johnson, Principal, Rough Rock
Community School