[Senate Hearing 112-328]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 112-328
S. 1262, THE NATIVE CULTURE, LANGUAGE, AND ACCESS FOR SUCCESS IN
SCHOOLS ACT--NATIVE CLASS
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HEARING
before the
COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
JUNE 30, 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 and Chief Counsel
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 June 30, 2011.................................... 1
Statement of Senator Akaka....................................... 1
Statement of Senator Barrasso.................................... 2
Statement of Senator Murkowski................................... 15
Statement of Senator Tester...................................... 2
Witnesses
Bowers, Amy, Staff Attorney, Native American Rights Fund......... 28
Prepared statement........................................... 29
Brave Eagle, Dana, Director, Oglala Sioux Tribal Education
Department, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation...................... 35
Prepared statement........................................... 37
Cromwell, Hon. Cedric, Chairman, Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe; Board
of Directors, United South and Eastern Tribes.................. 18
Prepared statement........................................... 20
Imotichey, Jessica, Senior Policy Analyst, Chickasaw Nation...... 38
Prepared statement........................................... 40
Mendoza, William, Acting Director, White House Initiative on
Tribal Colleges and Universities, U.S. Department of Education. 4
Prepared statement........................................... 6
Moore, Keith, Director, Bureau of Indian Education, U.S.
Department of the Interior..................................... 9
Prepared statement........................................... 11
Russell, Scott, Rocky Mountain Area Vice President, National
Congress of American Indians; Secretary, Crow Nation........... 24
Prepared statement........................................... 26
Appendix
Calica, Charles R., Secretary-Treasurer/CEO, Confederated Tribes
of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon, prepared statement.. 46
Kippen, Colin, Executive Director, National Indian Education
Association, prepared statement................................ 45
Pigsley, Hon. Delores, Tribal Chairman, Conferated Tribes of
Siletz Indians, prepared statement............................. 52
Response to written questions submitted to Amy Bowers by:
Hon. Daniel K. Akaka......................................... 54
Hon. John Barrasso........................................... 56
Response to written questions submitted to William Mendoza by:
Hon. Daniel K. Akaka......................................... 58
Hon. John Barrasso........................................... 60
Hon. John Cantwell........................................... 63
Hon. Kent Conrad............................................. 65
Stewart, Leo, Interim Chairman, Board of Trustees, Conferated
Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, letter of support... 54
S. 1262, THE NATIVE CULTURE, LANGUAGE, AND ACCESS FOR SUCCESS IN
SCHOOLS ACT--NATIVE CLASS
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THURSDAY, JUNE 30, 2011
U.S. Senate,
Committee on Indian Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:40 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. The Committee will come to order.
Thank you very much for being patient. We are expecting a
second vote but I thought I would come back and start this
hearing.
Aloha and welcome to the Committee's legislative hearing on
the Native Culture, Language, and Access for Success in Schools
Act. We call it the Native CLASS Act.
As a former educator, this issue is very dear to my heart.
The decisions we make today to improve the education system for
our young Native people are decisions about how we envision the
future of our communities. That vision of our future must be
grounded in our language, tradition and culture. These three,
language, tradition and culture, form our roots and to cut
those roots is to harm the Native peoples.
Education is what keeps our roots alive and it is the way
that we honor the knowledge and wisdom of our ancestors. Native
young people face steep challenges in attaining a quality
education.
Three major reports by the Federal Government on Native
education since 1928 have demonstrated little, if any,
improvement in the education people in the past 80 years. In
the States with the highest Native populations, the graduation
rates are below 50 percent and are the lowest of any other
racial or ethnic group. This is unacceptable, especially
because our Federal Government has a unique trust obligation to
provide a quality education to its Native people.
The Native CLASS bill presents a new comprehensive vision
of Native education, one that is grounded in culture, language
and local community control. The bill provides opportunities
for tribes to be partners in their own education systems. It
paves the way for innovative language and culture-based
instruction programs. It also provides much stronger
accountability of State and local agencies to Native
communities for the administration of their children's
education.
The provisions of the Native CLASS Act are the result of
consultation and input with a wide range of American Indian,
Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian stakeholders. We will
continue to work with those Native stakeholders to improve this
bill to ensure that it meets the unique needs of all our Native
students.
We anticipate that we will have amendments to improve this
bill as we move along in the process. We encourage you to
continue to submit your ideas. In fact, Senator Inouye and I
are working on an amendment to the bill that will address
improvements in Native Hawaiian education.
It is so timely and I am glad we have been working well
together with my colleague, Senator Barrasso, the Vice
Chairman, and we look forward to an opening statement.
STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN BARRASSO,
U.S. SENATOR FROM WYOMING
Senator Barrasso. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
It is indeed a privilege to work with you and to learn from
your leadership on this important Committee. I am so grateful
for the hearing we are holding today and you starting this
dialogue with this hearing on the extremely important subject
of Indian education.
This Committee has held several oversight hearings on
education and education-related topics. These hearings confirm
that the education and future of Indian children are among the
highest priorities for tribal leaders, for the parents of the
children, as well as for educators. We know that many Indian
children are leaders in their schools and will be future
leaders in their communities. Children who succeed and achieve
despite many challenges and many disadvantages.
These hearings have also shown that despite many gains in
education over the years, Mr. Chairman, as you and I know and
have discussed, there is still much work to be done. The
dropout rates, low academic scores and teacher retention are
some of the areas that need to be addressed. Parents, schools,
Indian communities, Congress and the Administration need to
work together to reach these children before they dropout,
before they fail. We need innovative approaches that will
prepare these children to be tomorrow's leaders.
I look forward to hearing from our witnesses and how this
legislation, Mr. Chairman, the bill before us, will begin that
work.
Thank you so much for your leadership.
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Senator Barrasso.
Senator Tester.
STATEMENT OF HON. JON TESTER,
U.S. SENATOR FROM MONTANA
Senator Tester. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the
opportunity to say a few things and thank you for holding this
hearing.
I want to recognize someone who is going to be on the
second panel, a good friend of mine, a fellow by the name of
Scott Russell who is here with the National Congress of
American Indians.
Scott is Secretary of Montana's Crow Tribe and an
incredible leader. With his service to that Tribe and southern
Montana, we thank you for being here. You understand how
important education is to a prosperous future in Indian country
and we look forward to hearing your perspective.
This is a critical hearing, Mr. Chairman. Education is the
key to improving life in Indian country. Education represents
hope in a place where we need more hope.
The purpose of this hearing is to talk about how we are
doing, to communicate and to collaborate to make sure that
Indian kids don't get left behind the next time we reauthorize
this Nation's education laws. I think we can all agree that
except for pointing out the achievement gap, NCLB hasn't worked
all that well in Indian country and we can do better.
Indian students will be successful when they get three
things--good schools, good motivated teachers and families who
support their students. My personal experience and past
committee hearings have pointed out that they are lucky if they
get one of those three, let alone all three.
We have had testimony about a lot of barriers from
crumbling schools that pose physical danger to lack of
preventive and emergency safety procedures to excessive
violence to overcrowded classrooms to chronic under funding,
lack of teachers, poor attendance, hungry students, the list
goes on and on.
Of course the biggest problem is the vicious, I say the
vicious, cycle of poverty that plagues Indian country.
Education and economic development are the only things that are
going to break that cycle. We need one to get the other.
Without good education, economic development projects will not
happen; they are simply not sustainable. We need a steady
supply of Indian country's best and brightest people, young
people, to run businesses that are successful.
Government can't do it all, but we need to do our part. Our
part is to provide good schools, do our best to recruit, train
and retain good teachers, but the community also has a
responsibility to provide good teachers and good families. In
Montana, 98 percent of the Indian kids attend public schools,
so my chief concern is to make sure that our public schools
work for our Native American students.
In Montana, we are lucky our Superintendent of Public
Instruction happens to come from the Black Feet Tribe. Denise
Juneau truly understands the challenges out there and she has a
lot of great ideas and has done a lot of great work.
She had three priorities she expressed to me and they are
as follows: close relationship between the Tribes and the
public schools; we need to make education a community, not just
a government responsibility; and wrap around services in
schools--counselors, social workers, mental health providers.
Oftentimes these services are overlooked but they are critical.
Lastly is parental involvement. Kids won't take education
seriously until or unless their parents do. We need to provide
incentives and motivation to get parents involved.
In Montana, we have cases where we are doing pretty good.
We have other cases where we can do a heck of a lot better. I
look forward to hearing from you about the opportunities to
provide success to our Native American youth because quite
frankly, if we are going to break the cycle of poverty, it is
critically important.
I want to thank you all for being here and look forward to
the first panel.
With that, thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Senator Tester from
Montana.
I welcome the witnesses. I appreciate that you have
traveled to be here with us today and look forward to hearing
your testimony on this very important matter.
We have on our panel Mr. William Mendoza, Acting Director,
White House Initiative on Tribal Colleges and Universities,
U.S. Department of Education. Also we have Mr. Keith Moore,
Director, Bureau of Indian Education, U.S. Department of the
Interior.
I ask that you limit your oral testimony to five minutes.
Your full written testimony will be included in the record.
Mr. Mendoza, please proceed with your statement.
STATEMENT OF WILLIAM MENDOZA, ACTING DIRECTOR, WHITE HOUSE
INITIATIVE ON TRIBAL COLLEGES AND
UNIVERSITIES, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Mr. Mendoza. [greeting in native language]. I greet you all
as relatives and extend my hand to you with a good heart. My
name is William Mendoza, the Acting Director of WHITCU.
I am also a father and an educator so I am very proud to be
serving in such a capacity. I was born and raised on the Pine
Ridge and Rosebud Sioux Reservations and I have attended our
BIE public schools and tribal universities. I will spare you
the details because it is a humble story in learning the
importance of education but I want to acknowledge the
complexity of these issues because on the one hand, I wouldn't
be here today without these institutions, but I also know that
we have great concerns regarding our American Indian and Alaska
Native students. This is important work and I am thankful and
honored to be a part of us all convening here today.
On behalf of Secretary Duncan, I would like to thank
Chairman Akaka, Ranking Member Barrasso and the entire
Committee for the opportunity to testify today.
Chairman Akaka, I also want to thank you, Senator Inouye,
Senator Johnson from my home State of South Dakota, for
introducing the Native CLASS Act, also known as S. 1262. We are
in the process of reviewing the bill and look forward to
discussing it with you to achieve the shared goals for Indian
students.
This Administration has taken great strides in implementing
a policy of Indian self determination and honoring the
government-to-government relationship with tribal nations.
President Obama has worked hard to reaffirm the Federal
Government's commitment to ensuring that tribal nations are
full partners in the Federal family.
The Federal Government has an important role to play in
improving the education of Indian students. Congress last
reauthorized the ESEA through the No Child Left Behind Act in
2002. Although flawed, NCLB deserves recognition for
highlighting the achievement gap between poor and minority
students and their middle class, white counterparts.
American Indian students are not only performing at levels
below their peers, they are also not graduating from high
school. In States with large Native populations, the graduation
rates of American Indian students falls behind all other racial
and ethnic groups. Under President Obama and Secretary Duncan's
leadership, the Department's focus on Indian country has
increased dramatically.
Secretary Duncan and senior officials have held
unprecedented amounts of listening sessions and regional
consultations with leaders across the country. In our meetings,
we heard specific ideas from tribal officials about the needs
of Indian country. Some common themes emerged including
collaboration with States in how Indian students are educated.
Many tribal leaders said the best way to promote Tribal-State
collaboration would be to elevate and fund tribal education
agencies.
Number two was the need for increased coordination and
collaboration between Tribes, States, and the Federal
Government to address the needs of Indian students. Number
three was preservation of Native languages, histories and
cultures.
We also heard several pressing concerns including the
following: one, many schools located on reservations are in
dilapidated condition and do not meet safety codes; two,
teacher recruitment and retention is a tremendous challenge for
reservation schools, highlighting the importance of grow your
own teacher programs and ESEA reauthorization; three, Indian
students face additional challenges such as violence, substance
abuse and high unemployment rates in their communities, which
hinder educational achievement.
We look forward to working with this Committee and the
House committee in a bipartisan manner to address these issues.
Our five goals for ESEA reauthorization include: preparing
college and career ready students by raising standards,
improving assessments and helping States and districts provide
a well rounded education; two, strengthen teacher and leader
preparation and recruitment; three, ensuring the needs of
diverse learners are met; four, raising the bar and rewarding
excellence through incentives such as Race to the Top; and
five, promoting innovative programs which support, recognize
and reward local innovation.
As ESEA reauthorization moves forward, we will continue our
dialogue with tribal leaders and look forward to working, in a
bipartisan way, with this Committee and the House committee to
achieve our goals for Indian students.
Thank you and I would be happy to respond to any questions
you may have.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Mendoza follows:]
Prepared Statement of William Mendoza, Acting Director, White House
Initiative on Tribal Colleges and Universities, U.S. Department of
Education
Framework: Increasing Partnerships with Tribes to Improve Student
Achievement
My name is William Mendoza, and I am the Acting Director of the
White House Initiative on Tribal Colleges and Universities at the U.S.
Department of Education. On behalf of Secretary Duncan, I'd like to
thank Chairman Akaka, Ranking Member Barrasso and the Full Committee
for the opportunity to testify today regarding one of our Nation's most
underserved student populations.
Chairman Akaka, I also want to thank you, Senator Johnson of South
Dakota, and Senator Inouye, for introducing the Native Culture,
Language and Access for Success in Schools Act. We are in the process
of reviewing the bill, and look forward to discussing it with you, to
achieve our shared goals for Indian students.
This Administration has taken great strides to implement a policy
of Indian self-determination and strengthen and honor the government-
to-government relationships with Tribal Nations. In December 2010,
President Obama invited tribal leaders, Cabinet Secretaries, senior
officials and Members of Congress to attend the White House Tribal
Nations Conference. Similar to the first White House Tribal Nations
Conference, held in November 2009, President Obama reaffirmed the
Federal Government's commitment to ensure that Tribal Nations are full
partners in the Federal family.
Educational Performance of Indian Students
It's important to note that only about eight percent of Indian
students attend schools funded by the Department of the Interior's
Bureau of Indian Education (BIE). The vast majority of Indian students,
more than 90 percent, attend public schools operated by their local
school districts. In these schools, there are few venues for
collaboration between Tribes and States, even in the case of school
district-operated public schools located on Tribal lands.
The Federal Government has an important role to play in improving
the education of Indian students. Congress last reauthorized the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) through the No
Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), in 2002. Although flawed, NCLB deserves
credit for highlighting the achievement gap between poor and minority
students and their middle-class, white counterparts. It has provided us
with statistically reliable evidence that Indian students perform at
levels far below their peers on academic assessments in grades 3-8 and
high school.
In addition, the National Assessment of Educational Progress
(NAEP), the largest nationally representative and continuing assessment
of math and reading, includes statistically reliable data on American
Indian students' progress. Using data from the NAEP, the Department's
National Center for Education Statistics produced The National Indian
Education Study 2009 \1\, finding that American Indian/Alaska Native
student scores in both reading and mathematics at both fourth- and
eighth-grade levels have not improved since the study was first
conducted in 2005. Specifically, in the 2009 assessment in reading,
fourth-grade American Indian students lagged behind the general
population by 18 points and eighth-grade students by 13 points. As for
math, American Indian fourth-grade students scored 15 points lower than
the general population and 18 points lower by eighth-grade.
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\1\ http://nces/ed.gov/nationsreportcard/nies
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American Indian students attending BIE-funded schools fared even
worse than the general American Indian student population. Fourth-grade
BIE students scored 25 points lower in reading than the general
population and 23 points lower in eighth-grade. In math, fourth- grade
BIE students score 20 points lower than the general population and
eighth-grade students lagged behind the general population by 19
points.
American Indian students are not only performing at levels below
their peers, they are also not graduating from high school. Estimates
from the U.S. Department of Education show that more than one third of
American Indian students from the Pacific and Northwest regions of the
U.S. fail to graduate high school on time. In States such as Alaska,
Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota,
Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, and Washington, American Indian
students' 62.5 percent graduation rate was behind all other racial/
ethnic groups, including whites (79.1 percent), Asians (91.7 percent),
African Americans (60.9 percent) and Hispanics (62.8 percent).
These statistics make one thing clear--in the area of education, we
must do more to help Indian students.
What the Department Heard on Its Regional Consultations
During this Administration, the Department has engaged Indian
Country in a meaningful way. I am pleased to report that, under
President Obama and Secretary Duncan's leadership, the Department's
focus on Indian Country has increased dramatically. In 2009, Secretary
Duncan and senior staff held several listening sessions at Tribal
schools in Montana, New Mexico and North Dakota. On January 11, 2010,
Secretary Duncan, along with other senior officials, participated in a
meeting with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Senior Policy Advisor for
Native American Affairs at the Domestic Policy Council, Kimberly
Teehee, and Indian education experts regarding ways to improve
education for Indian students. In March 2010, Secretary Duncan held a
teleconference with Tribal leaders from across the country,
specifically to get their ideas and input on reauthorization of the
ESEA.
Furthermore, senior Department staff, including Under Secretary
Martha Kanter, General Counsel Charlie Rose and Assistant Secretary
Thelma Melendez, held several regional consultations with Tribal
leaders across the country. Consultations were held on the following
dates and locations: April 16, 2010 at the Cook Inlet Tribal Council in
Anchorage, Alaska; April 19, 2010, in Shawnee, Oklahoma; April 28 2010,
on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota; on May 3, 2010, Santa
Clara, New Mexico; on June 30, 2010 at the Navajo Reservation in Window
Rock, Arizona; July 15, 2010 in Puyallup, Washington. In 2011, the
Department held listening sessions in cities where there are a large
number of Indian students, such as Denver, Los Angeles, and Green Bay.
I am also pleased to report that the Department of Education and
the Department of the Interior have continued to collaborate since
Secretary Duncan and Secretary Salazar had their first meeting
regarding Indian education on January 11, 2010. Since then, the two
Departments have worked to combine and coordinate resources to maximize
the benefits for Indian education. This is how we can improve student
achievement for American Indian students--by breaking down the silos
that stifle progress.
All of these efforts are part of the Department's commitment to
maintaining our engagement with Indian Country.
During our meetings with Tribal leaders on their lands, we heard
specific ideas from Tribal officials about what works for Indian
Country. Several common themes emerged during these meetings, including
that Tribes:
Want to collaborate with States about how Indian students
are educated. Many Tribal leaders testified that the best way
to promote Tribal-State collaboration would be to elevate and
fund Tribal Education Agencies (TEAs).
Want increased coordination and collaboration between
Tribes, States, and the Federal Government--to fully address
the needs of Indian students. In particular, we heard about the
importance of close collaboration between the Department of
Education and the Department of the Interior--to which we are
fully committed.
Want to preserve their Native languages, histories and
cultures.
Believe that language immersion programs are the best way to
increase fluency in Native languages and that we should
increase support for these programs.
Generally lack the capacity to compete with States or school
districts for competitive Federal grants and funding.
We also heard several pressing concerns, including that:
Due to high mobility, small numbers, and the fragmentation
of the education system for Indian students among school
district-operated, BIE-operated, and Tribal schools, there is a
lack of accountability for Indian education in the U.S.
Many schools located on reservations are in dilapidated
condition and do not meet safety codes.
Due to violence, alcohol and drug abuse, and high
unemployment rates on reservations, Indian students face
additional educational challenges, which ultimately hinder
their achievement.
Teacher recruitment and retention is a tremendous challenge
for reservation schools. Teacher and staff morale continues to
be extraordinarily low, which is why Tribal leaders recommend
that ESEA reauthorization should increase support for ``grow
your own'' teacher programs that train Tribal citizens to teach
in their own schools.
Finally, at every consultation, Tribal leaders emphasized the
importance of follow-up. One Tribal leader even said ``consultation''
had become a ``bad word'' in Indian Country because to ``consult'' only
meant to ``confer,'' and did not require true collaboration or
partnership. Several Tribal members stated that the current state of
Indian education was, in many ways, the same as it was in the Meriam
Report of 1928, the 1969 Kennedy report on Indian education, and the
1991 ``Indian Nations at Risk'' report. The facts have been clear for
generations--the time for reform is now.
Through regular consultation, maintaining a meaningful partnership
between the Department and Tribal leaders, and following through on
policy recommendations, we can help improve American Indian student
achievement.
Goals for ESEA Reauthorization
We look forward to working with this Committee as well as the
Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, in a bipartisan way,
to address these issues in ESEA reauthorization. We have five broad
goals for this reauthorization:
(1) preparing college and career-ready students, through
raising standards, improving assessments, and helping States
and districts provide a complete, well-rounded education;
(2) great teachers and leaders in every school, through
improving teacher and leader effectiveness, ensuring that our
best teachers and leaders are in the schools where they are
most needed, including schools that serve Indian students, and
strengthening teacher and leader preparation and recruitment;
(3) equity and opportunity for all students, through rigorous
and fair accountability at all levels, meeting the needs of
diverse learners, and greater resource equity;
(4) raising the bar and rewarding excellence, through
incentives such as Race to the Top, supporting effective public
school choice, and promoting a culture of college readiness and
success; and
(5) promoting innovation and continuous improvement, through
programs such as the Investing in Innovation Fund (which
supports, recognizes, and rewards local innovations) and
supporting student success by providing comprehensive services.
These 5 goals are critically important to improving education for
all students, and especially for Indian students. Our reauthorization
proposal also addresses the needs of schools that serve Indian
students. We know that Federal funding is crucial for these schools,
especially since they are generally small and remote. Our proposal
would continue foundational formula funding in Title I and Title II-A,
along with formula funding in the Rural Education, Indian Education,
and English Learner Education programs, among others.
For most schools serving Indian students, we want to promote Tribal
sovereignty by allowing these schools to implement locally designed
strategies, such as culturally based education and Native language
instruction, to improve student achievement. We want to give grantees
more flexibility under the Indian Education Program to carry out Native
language restoration and immersion programs, and we want to make it
easier for Tribes to apply and successfully compete for grants under
this program when districts choose not to.
But we also know that many schools with high percentages of Indian
students are among the lowest-performing. For example, a majority of
Montana's schools in ``restructuring'' status under ESEA are Indian
schools, and many BIE schools are in restructuring status, having
failed to make adequate yearly progress for five or more consecutive
years.
Our reauthorization proposal and fiscal year 2012 budget proposal
focus significant attention and support on persistently low-performing
schools, with $600 million in the School Turnaround Grants program to
support the implementation of one of four school turnaround models in
these schools--with the choice of which model left to the school
district. The BIE would receive its share of these funds to turn around
its lowest-performing schools.
Our proposal also addresses teacher and leader recruitment and
retention, especially for schools, like those in Indian communities,
where they are needed most. The Administration's budget proposal
includes $250 million for programs that create or expand high-quality
pathways into teaching, along with programs that recruit, prepare, and
retain effective teachers, principals, and other school leaders. These
programs will be focused on preparing teachers and leaders to work in
high-need areas.
We believe that we can best improve student achievement by
involving those who best understand the students' needs. Thus, in order
to further the Administration's policy of self-determination for
Tribes, and to further Tribal-State collaboration, the Department wants
to strengthen Tribal education agencies (TEAs) through a TEA Pilot
program that would create opportunities for Tribes to partner with
States and local educational agencies. TEAs are executive branch
agencies of sovereign Tribal governments that are responsible for
education-related matters (TEAs are not schools, and generally don't
deliver educational services directly to students.) Several Tribal
officials have testified that strengthening TEAs may provide a
mechanism for the Federal Government, TEAs, and State Education
Agencies to combine and coordinate Federal, Tribal, and State
resources, and develop partnerships that would promote Tribal
sovereignty, increase capacity, and improve accountability in schools
with high percentages of Indian students. Part of strengthening TEAs
must include the provision of targeted technical assistance, as well as
providing TEAs with data about Indian students--as we heard during our
consultations, there currently is a lack of such data.
Conclusion
As ESEA reauthorization moves forward, we will continue our
dialogue with Tribal leaders and look forward to working in a
bipartisan way with this Committee to achieve our goals for all Indian
students. Thank you, and I would be happy to respond to any questions
that you may have.
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Mr. Mendoza.
Mr. Moore, please proceed with your statement.
STATEMENT OF KEITH MOORE, DIRECTOR, BUREAU OF INDIAN EDUCATION,
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Good afternoon, Chairman Akaka, Vice Chairman Barrasso,
Senator Murkowski and Senator Tester.
My name is Keith Moore. I am a Rosebud Sioux tribal member
from South Dakota. I am the Director of the Bureau of Indian
Education.
I want to thank you for the opportunity to provide the
Department of Interior's views on the Native Culture, Language
and Access for Success in Schools Act.
The Administration is committed to providing high quality
educational opportunities for students who are educated in BIE-
funded schools throughout the country. The BIE is only one of
two agencies operating a federal school system. The other
entity is the Department of Defense.
The BIE funds 183 facilities on 64 reservations in 23
States consisting of 123 grant schools, 3 contract schools
controlled by Tribes and 57 schools directly operated by the
BIE. In addition, the BIE operates two post secondary
institutions, Haskell Indian Nations University and
Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute, with student
populations for the fall this past year of 4,200 students in
those two universities. The BIE also provides funds for 26
tribal colleges and universities and two tribal technical
colleges.
Federal funding for the education of American Indian
students comes from two entities, the U.S. Department of
Education and the Department of Interior. In 2006, the
Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs established the BIE,
formerly known as the Office of Indian Education Programs. The
BIE was renamed and reorganized on August 29, 2006 to reflect
its importance in the organizational structure of the Office of
the Assistant Secretary, Indian Affairs.
Over the years, there has been a transformation in how
education is delivered on tribal lands throughout the country.
From the Snyder Act of 1921 to the current No Child Left Behind
Act of 2001. When delivering education, the BIE takes into
consideration the whole person, taking into account the
spiritual, mental, physical and cultural aspects of the
individual within his or her family, and the tribal or village
context.
The BIE school system employs approximately 4,224 teachers,
administrators and support personnel in 57 BIE operated
schools, while many thousands more work in 126 tribal grant and
contract school systems.
The Bureau of Indian Education faces a complicated system
of accountability. The BIE uses 23 different definitions of AYP
crafted for each State's public schools and aligned to each
State's academic standards, not specifically to BIE schools. As
a result, there is not a consistent Bureau-wide measure of
academic progress.
BIE's current initiatives address this issue of
accountability system fragmentation by developing a single
accountability system that emphasizes common standards and a
single assessment to measure them. BIE's proposed system
concept mirrors the Department of Education's Blueprint for
Reform, which emphasizes measurement of and support for growth
in student achievement, reduced time and testing through the
use of sophisticated assessments, and increased transparency
through the improved use of data to guide school improvement.
Currently, the BIE has to maintain multiple MOUs where
States or schools are located. Each State has cut scores that
bring conflict to BIE schools because of differing AYP,
adequate yearly progress standards. Schools in State A can make
AYP while schools in State B cannot make AYP, but schools in
State B may be outperforming schools located in State A. This
is due to low cut scores, easier standards and possibly easier
assessments in State A.
A single accountability system alone is not sufficient to
address the capacity needs of the BIE. Many schools are not
merely rural but geographically isolated from population
centers and, as all of us know, are in some of the most
impoverished communities across this country. Consequently,
identifying, hiring and retaining high quality teachers and
administrators are common barriers to improving instruction in
rural BIE schools.
To help address this need, the BIE is partnering with
organizations across the country to recruit teachers and
administrators, it has been a priority for the BIE over the
last year and a half and will continue to be as we move
forward.
Some of our other continuing initiatives include Safe and
Secure Schools, High School Excellence, Strengthening and
Sustaining the Post Secondary Program, Family and Child
Education, the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance in Education,
the Statewide System of Support and engaging in partnerships
with other federal programs as well as private entities.
The BIE has partnered with Clemson University to
participate in a dropout reduction program through the National
Center for Drop-out Prevention and is starting work with the
Center for Disease Control and Prevention on a Healthy Schools
initiative.
Additionally, consistent with President Obama's initiative
to identify areas for improvements in government efficiency,
the BIE has commissioned a BIE-wide evaluation of processes and
regulations limited to a review of BIE's organization, health,
achievement, leadership and faculty.
In the meantime, the BIE has sought to bring distinct and
typically separate officials, offices and stakeholders to the
table to facilitate better communication. The results are
already being seen as the BIE's coordination and delivery of
services to schools has been greatly enhanced.
This last year and a half has seen a marked increase in
collaboration with the Department of Education. As we move
forward, we look forward to continued collaboration and strong
partnership in order to improve Indian education.
S. 1262 was introduced a week ago today. The BIE is still
in the process of reviewing the bill and cannot make specific
comments at this time. The BIE is committed to working with the
committee on S. 1262 in addressing the educational needs of
American Indians and Alaska Native students, especially in BIE
schools.
In conclusion, education in the United States is primarily
a State and local responsibility. However, tribal communities
have not been afforded appropriate control over education in
their own communities in the past. Outside interests have
historically imposed their will on tribal communities and
defined the futures of Indian communities through their
children.
Reauthorization of ESEA represents a unique opportunity for
all of us to ensure that the Act works for American Indian and
Alaska Native communities. The reauthorized ESEA can support
the self-determination of Indian Tribes and create an
educational system that values tribal cultures and languages
and also ensures accountability for student performance and
achievement.
Thank you for providing the BIE this opportunity to
testify. We are committed to working with this committee, with
tribes, with the Department of Education and other partners as
the reauthorization of ESEA moves forward through Congress.
I am happy to answer any questions the Committee may have.
Thanks again.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Moore follows:]
Prepared Statement of Keith Moore, Director, Bureau of Indian
Education, U.S. Department of the Interior
Good afternoon Mr. Chairman, Mr. Vice Chairman, and members of the
Committee. My name is Keith Moore and I am the Director of the Bureau
of Indian Education (BIE). Thank you for the opportunity to provide the
Department of the Interior's views on the Native Culture, Language and
Access for Success in Schools Act. The Administration is committed to
providing high-quality educational opportunities for approximately
42,000 students who are educated in BIE-funded elementary and secondary
schools throughout the country.
Background
The BIE is only one of two agencies operating a Federal school
system. The other entity is the Department of Defense. The BIE funds
183 facilities on 64 reservations in 23 States, consisting of 123 grant
schools and 3 contract schools controlled by tribes, and 57 schools
directly operated by the BIE. In addition, the BIE operates two
postsecondary institutions, Haskell Indian Nations University and
Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute, with student populations for
the fall through the summer semesters for 2009/2010 of 2,405 and 1,818,
respectively. The BIE also provides funds for 26 Tribal Colleges and
Universities (TCUs) and two tribal technical colleges.
Federal funding for the education of American Indian students comes
from both the Department of the Interior and the Department of
Education. The 183 elementary and secondary schools funded by BIE
educate approximately 42,000 students, or approximately 7 percent of
the total American Indian and Alaska Native student population in the
United States. The great majority (over 90 percent) of American Indian
and Alaska Native children are educated in non-BIE public schools under
the supervision of their local education agencies.
In 2006, the Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs established the
BIE. Formerly known as the Office of Indian Education Programs, the BIE
was renamed and reorganized on August 29, 2006, to reflect its
importance in the organizational structure of the Office of the
Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs. The BIE is headed by a Director,
who is responsible for the line direction and management of education
functions, including the formulation of policies and procedures, the
supervision of program activities and the expenditure of funds
appropriated for education functions.
There have been several major legislative actions that affected the
education of American Indians since the Snyder Act of 1921. First, the
Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 supported the teaching of Indian
history and culture in Bureau-funded schools (prior to 1934 it had been
Federal policy to acculturate and assimilate Indian people through a
boarding school system). Second, the Indian Self-Determination and
Education Assistance Act of 1975 (P.L. 93-638) provided authority for
federally recognized tribes to contract with the Secretary of the
Interior to operate Bureau-funded schools. The Education Amendments Act
of 1978 (P.L. 95-561) and further technical amendments (P.L. 98-511,
99-99, and 100-297) provided funds directly to tribally-operated
schools, empowered Indian school boards, encouraged local hiring of
teachers and staff, and established a direct line of authority between
the Education Director and the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs.
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) (P.L. 107-110) brought
additional requirements to the schools by establishing accountability
metrics and goals for improving their students' academic performance.
As stated in 25 C.F.R. 32.3, BIE's mission is to provide quality
education opportunities from early childhood through life in accordance
with a tribe's needs for cultural and economic well-being, in keeping
with the wide diversity of Indian tribes and Alaska Native villages as
distinct cultural and governmental entities. Further, the BIE takes
into consideration the whole person by taking into account the
spiritual, mental, physical, and cultural aspects of the individual
within his or her family and tribal or village context. The BIE school
system employs approximately 4,224 teachers, administrators, and
support personnel in the 57 BIE-operated schools, while many thousands
more work in the 126 tribal grant and contract school systems.
Bureau of Indian Education Student Achievement Initiatives
The Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) faces a complicated system of
accountability. The negotiated rulemaking process resulted in a joint
decision with the Department of Education that the BIE would implement
NCLB using State definitions of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for BIE-
funded schools based on the State in which the school is located. The
BIE uses 23 different definitions of AYP that are crafted for each
State's public schools and aligned to each State's academic standards,
not specifically to BIE schools. As a result, there is no consistent,
Bureau-wide measure of academic progress.
BIE's current initiatives address this issue of accountability
system fragmentation by developing a single accountability system that
emphasizes common standards and a single assessment to measure them.
BIE's proposed system concept mirrors the Department of Education's
Blueprint for Reform, which emphasizes, measurement of and support for
growth in student achievement, reduced time spent in testing through
the use of sophisticated assessments, and increased transparency
through the improved use of data to guide school improvement. Such a
system of accountability would enable better and faster responses to
weaknesses in school performance to improve student achievement. For
example, BIE has to enter and maintain 23 separate MOUs with each state
where schools are located. Each state has cut scores that bring
conflict to BIE schools because of differing AYP standards. Schools in
State A can make AYP and schools in State B may not make AYP, but may
be out performing schools located in State A. This maybe is due to low
cut scores and easier standards and assessments in State A.
Bureau of Indian Education Initiatives
A unitary accountability system alone is not sufficient to address
the capacity needs of the BIE. A unitary accountability system must be
enhanced through other focused efforts to improve staffing, and to
address other recognized issues facing the BIE. Many BIE schools are
not merely rural, but geographically isolated from population centers.
Consequently, identifying, hiring, and retaining high quality teachers
are common barriers to improving instruction at rural BIE schools.
To help address this need, the BIE has partnered with organizations
such as Teach for America to recruit teachers to work at rural schools
and this has been a priority for the BIE over the last year and a half.
Professional capacity, however, is not the only capacity that requires
development in the BIE schools.
Some of our continuing initiatives include Safe and Secure Schools,
High School Excellence, Strengthening and Sustaining the Postsecondary
Program, Family And Child Education, McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance
in Education, the Statewide System of Support, and engaging in
partnerships with other federal programs as well as private entities.
The BIE has partnered with Clemson University to participate in a drop-
out reduction program through the National Center for Drop-Out
Prevention and is starting work with the Center for Disease Control and
Prevention on the Healthy Schools initiative.
Additionally, consistent with President Obama's initiative to
identify areas for improvements in government efficiency, the BIE has
commissioned a BIE-wide evaluation of processes and regulations limited
to a review of BIE's organization, health, achievement, leadership and
faculty. In the meantime, the BIE has sought to bring distinct and
typically separate officials, offices and stakeholders to the table to
facilitate better communication. The results are already being seen, as
the BIE's coordination in the delivery of services to schools has been
greatly enhanced.
The last year and a half has seen a marked increase in the
collaboration between the Department of Education and the Department of
the Interior. With the BIE's increased responsiveness to the advice
offered by the Department of Education on program implementation
issues, and the BIE's increased capability and improved compliance with
the Department of Education's reporting requirements, the BIE has taken
considerable strides to increase its accountability for program
implementation. This collaboration between Interior and Education is
expected to continue into the foreseeable future as relationships
forged between the departments continue to strengthen.
S. 1262 was introduced a week ago today. The BIE is still in the
process of reviewing the bill and cannot make specific comments at this
time. The BIE is committed to working with the Committee on S. 1262 in
addressing the educational needs of American Indian and Alaska Native
students, especially in BIE schools.
Conclusion
Education in the United States is primarily a State and local
responsibility. However, tribal communities have not been afforded
appropriate control over education in their own communities in the
past. Outside interests have historically imposed their will on tribal
communities and defined the futures of Indian communities through their
children.
Reauthorization of the ESEA represents a unique opportunity to
ensure that the Act works for American Indian and Alaska Native
communities. The reauthorized ESEA can support the self-determination
of Indian tribes and create an educational system that values tribal
cultures and languages.
Thank you for providing the BIE this opportunity to testify. We are
committed to working with this Committee, with the tribes and with the
Department of Education as the reauthorization of ESEA moves forward
through Congress.
I am happy to answer any questions the Committee may have.
The Chairman. Thank you very much for your statement, Mr.
Moore.
I would like to defer my questions and ask Senator Tester
for his and Senator Murkowski for hers.
Mr. Tester. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for the
privilege.
Mr. Mendoza, you talked about language, history and culture
being important to be a part of the curriculum for Native
American students. Can you give me any sort of idea on how many
schools actually incorporate language, history and culture?
Mr. Mendoza. Unfortunately, I don't have that information
available right now, but we do know that throughout the
country, and Indian country especially, there is a concerted
effort through Department of Education funding, namely Title
VII, where we have both professional development and
demonstration grants that support efforts in this area, both in
terms of implementing culturally responsive pedagogy and also
from our language areas, we are focusing on looking at the
effectiveness of those programs as well in the schools. I can
certainly provide you with more detailed information.
Mr. Tester. I am sure it is a pretty small amount. I think
the language, culture and history is pretty important. Are you
able to monitor your grants you are putting out for that
purpose? That is where I think I heard you say there were
grants available for this purpose to see if it is making any
difference as far as testing goes and overall success.
Mr. Mendoza. As you know, the research is limited in this
area. One of the direct results of the consultations was
looking at how the Department of Education utilizes its ability
to conduct research on a national level pertaining to this.
This is an area that the Department of Education is looking at
to examine.
There are areas where we evaluate our programs of course.
We are looking at how we can contribute to the body of best
practices.
Mr. Tester. The other thing you mentioned, Mr. Mendoza, is
teacher recruitment and that retention is critically important.
I agree. You talked about home grown teachers. I couldn't agree
with you more. Are there any efforts in the Department to
encourage this and how are you doing it if there is?
Mr. Mendoza. Of course it is a key area for us. Again, I
mentioned within Title VII we have professional development
that goes towards institutions conducting this kind of work. I
think of Montana and the rich tribal college and university
system that is thriving there, this is an example of that and
partnerships with schools like Montana State and the University
of Montana are key to that and also tapping into the community
colleges to make sure our teachers are coming from those
communities and understand those communities best but are
addressing the level of teaching we want to generate the
outcomes.
Mr. Tester. Let me ask more specifically. Poverty reigns
pretty high, on Montana reservations anyway, and if you have a
student who wants to go to school and become a teacher, and
they have the skills, the desire, the drive, but don't have the
money. Are there any programs out there that might help and
encourage them to go into education?
Mr. Mendoza. If this is an Indian student, yes, there are
monies available. I can provide you with that program
information.
Mr. Tester. Hopefully it is obtainable without too much red
tape but enough to make sure that we are spending it wisely.
Mr. Moore, you talked about working on the ESEA and making
sure that it works for Indian schools when the final product
comes out. Are you working with the Department of Education and
are you giving them input on ESEA from a Native American
student standpoint? What are some of the things you are
advocating for in ESEA, if you are doing that?
Mr. Moore. We have and continue to work closely with the
U.S. Department of Education on ESEA and Indian education as we
move forward. I don't want to sound standoffish, Senator, but
the specifics are obviously being discussed and vetted and
trying to become clear in terms of what it is that we would
like to see from the BIE standpoint in terms of what would
specifically be in ESEA.
We think we are close to having some of our stances in
place, but I would like to be cautious in terms of talking
specifics at this point.
Mr. Tester. It is no problem.
The Secretary of Education was in northern Cheyenne about a
year and a half or two years ago and one of the things a
student said to him while he was there, and you don't need to
respond, this is more of a comment, was that people need to
demand more of us. If we are going to achieve excellence, we
need more demanded of us.
I do not want our Native American kids to get a second
class education. It is a worldwide economy that we live in. I
want to build the economy in each one of the States and Indian
country but by the same token, when they come out of school,
they have to be able to compete. I would just ask you to keep
that in mind. We don't want second class education, we want the
very best. If we are going to break the cycle of poverty, that
is what has to happen.
Thank you both for being here.
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Senator Tester.
Senator Murkowski.
STATEMENT OF HON. LISA MURKOWSKI,
U.S. SENATOR FROM ALASKA
Senator Murkowski. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for
this hearing today and for getting out front on the issue of
education and how we provide educational opportunities for
American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians.
I also serve on the Health Committee, so I am going to be
looking forward to working with you all as we try to deal with
some of the challenges. I don't like the statistics that are
out there. I am sure that you don't and many of the people in
this room.
Mr. Mendoza, you mentioned that the National Indian
Education Study of 2009 and the findings based on the NAEP data
that American Indian students lag behind their non-Indian peers
on these NAEP standards. It is my understanding, and I would
like confirmation of this if it is not correct, but it is my
understanding that the study was unable to provide reliable
statistics on Alaska Native students because of the small
sample size. Is that, in fact, correct?
Mr. Mendoza. I can certainly provide you with more detailed
information. I don't have full understanding of the research
model that goes into the National Indian Education Study but I
do know that the sample size is taking into consideration both
high and low density population schools. It is broken up by
region.
This augmented sample they used for the National Indian
Education has naturally occurring data pools that are derived
from NCLB directly. In some cases, and I don't know if this is
particular to Alaskans--I apologize--but we may be able to look
at Alaska by itself and see how that relates to this bigger
pool of fourth and eighth grade data which is about 9,000
fourth graders and 8,000 eighth graders respectively.
Senator Murkowski. I would appreciate it if you could look
into it because if we are going to be relying on data, we need
to know that the data that has been collected is sufficient
upon which to base some decision. If, in fact, the sample size
was not sufficient, hopefully we can remedy that through an
opportunity to look at a larger sample of our Alaska Native
students.
I had a rural constituent, a superintendent of a rural
school district in northwest Alaska, who was being critical of
the NAEP data. He says it doesn't provide him with the reliable
information because, in his opinion, there was cultural bias
that was inherent in that test. He conveyed to me a story, a
situation where the students were asked to circle pictures of
food. One of the pictures included in the grouping was a
picture of a whale. For Alaska Native students and many parts
of the State, yes, whale is not only a food, it is a staple of
their diet. When it comes back corrected, the whale is not a
food according to those people who are sitting wherever they
are correcting the tests in the lower 48 where whale is not
considered a food. He pointed that out as a clear example of
where you may see cultural bias within the testing itself.
I guess the question I would ask you is whether you also
believe that there is some inherent cultural bias in the
testing that could lead to inaccuracies in these test results.
We look at the results, we see there is a lag. Is it possible
that there may be some issues within the testing itself?
Mr. Mendoza. I certainly appreciate your concern. I think
you point out very well the difficulties in meeting the diverse
needs of our learners, especially from the tribal perspective,
as we look across the complexities of our 565 tribal nations.
In terms of the assessment, I can't speak directly to that
specific test, but it is always a challenge just as an educator
myself looking at if the assessments are really measuring what
you are planning to do.
I think that would be a question to direct to our National
Center for Education Statistics. I would certainly have them
follow up on that as to what that means.
Senator Murkowski. I would agree we can certainly do that
but I think it is important for those within the Department of
Education to be looking to see if perhaps we are not getting
fully accurate data because you have cultural issues that
present themselves, a child reading a simple story problem that
has a story about a sidewalk and the child has no clue what a
sidewalk is because we don't have sidewalks in most of the
villages in Alaska, doesn't even know what the terminology
means. It is little things, it is anecdotal, but it does cause
me to wonder.
Mr. Moore, let me ask you as you are more than aware, in
Alaska we do not receive BIE funding for our schools. Can you
tell the Committee whether or not the legislation we are
considering--and I appreciate the fact you are just now looking
at it--might have any impact on Alaska Tribes?
Mr. Moore. It would be very difficult to do that right now,
Senator, to comment specifically on it. I would like to hold
that until I return my thoughts to you but at this time, I
would like to reserve those.
Senator Murkowski. As you do your review and make an
assessment to the committee, I would be curious to know whether
or not you think it would have an impact and if so, how it
might impact Alaska Tribes.
Mr. Moore. Certainly.
Senator Murkowski. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Senator Murkowski.
Mr. Mendoza, throughout the consultations process, and in
committee records, Native leaders have asked for a senior level
position at the Department of Education to oversee Native
education. Is the Department taking steps to fulfill that
request?
Mr. Mendoza. Thank you, Senator, for that question.
We also heard from tribal leaders how important it is to
have a senior level position for Indian education. Secretary
Duncan has already made a commitment to create a senior level
advisor who would be able to drive the Department's Indian
education agenda on a daily basis. Our challenge is making sure
that position is sustainable and that it is institutionalized.
The Chairman. Mr. Moore, the Native CLASS Act has a large
focus on bringing language and culture into the classroom. We
have also heard that this is a priority for this
Administration. How can the Bureau of Indian Education bring
language and culture into the classroom in its 184 schools?
Mr. Moore. Thank you for the question, Mr. Chairman.
We believe that we have been one of the biggest supporters
over the years of language and culture when we look at budget
figures. If you look at our Indian Student Equalization
Program, affectionately called the ISEP Program, within that is
a weighted figure that we fund a different number of line items
and one of them is language. In our last fiscal year, we
appropriated $25,380,100 to our 183 schools specifically for
language and culture development. We will continue to have that
line item and our line item goes out to schools on a per school
basis.
One of the thing we would like to do going forward is to
continue to support funding for that and also begin to have a
nice dialogue about the curricula and assessments that are in
place through those dollars that are really impacting students
with language development.
The Chairman. Thank you very much for that. I have other
questions that I will submit to you for the record.
Senator Tester, do you have any further questions. Ms.
Murkowski?
Let me say thank you so much to this panel for being here
today and providing this valuable information. I just want you
to know that we want to improve Indian education in our country
and look forward to working with you on this issue. Thank you
very much.
If you have any further comments, Mr. Mendoza?
Mr. Mendoza. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I wanted to also let the Committee know that the National
Advisory Council on Indian Education is releasing their report
today and we will provide you with that report. We would love
to discuss that with you further at a later time.
The Chairman. Very good.
Mr. Moore?
Mr. Moore. I have one last comment for Senator Murkowski.
One thing that came to mind was Elizabeth Hensley, a person in
the Assistant Secretary's office who is working specifically on
Alaska Native issues. It just came to my head that may be a
good place for us to go to talk about the specifics of your
question.
I would also like to say to Senator Tester, you do have a
great leader in Montana, Denise Juneau was the Indian Education
Director when I was the Indian Education Director in South
Dakota. A few weeks ago, we had the chance at a Rural Chief
State Schools Officers meeting to sit down with her for a
couple days. She is a very impressive, very strong leader, a
good woman and leader in terms of what is going on in Montana.
Mr. Tester. Thank you.
The Chairman. Let me just give you another opportunity if
you have any other comments to make about Indian education,
please do that.
Thank you very much. We really appreciate you being here.
Let me call the second panel. I would like to invite the
second panel to the witness table. First is the Honorable
Cedric Cromwell, Chairman of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe from
Mashpee, Massachusetts. Mr. Cromwell also serves on the Board
of Directors of the United South and Eastern Tribes.
Next is Mr. Scott Russell, Rocky Mountain Region Area Vice
President for the National Congress of American Indians. Mr.
Russell also serves as the Secretary for the Crow Tribe located
in Crow Agency Montana.
Ms. Amy Bowers is a staff attorney for the Native American
Rights Fund located in Boulder, Colorado.
I want to welcome you all to this hearing.
Chairman Cromwell, will you please proceed with your
testimony?
STATEMENT OF HON. CEDRIC CROMWELL, CHAIRMAN,
MASHPEE WAMPANOAG TRIBE; BOARD OF DIRECTORS,
UNITED SOUTH AND EASTERN TRIBES
Mr. Cromwell. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, Senator Akaka
and the Committee.
I want to thank you from the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and
the USET Board of Directors, for holding this hearing and the
diligent work that you do for Indian country. It is a very
important issue so we appreciate it and thank the Committee. S.
1262 is very important. The revisions that are going to happen
towards federal education laws that support the experience of
Native American children are very important to us, so we
appreciate what you are doing.
Representing USET, there are 26 Tribes that comprise USET,
located in 12 States from Maine to Florida and west into
eastern Texas. In comparison to our sister Tribes west of the
Mississippi River, USET Tribes have smaller populations and
smaller reservations. In the case of the Mashpee Wampanoag
Tribe, we are a Tribe without a federal land base, we are a
landless Tribe, so we have no reservation to conduct
governmental activities including economic development,
housing, health care and education. We are under funded in many
ways by the Federal Government not in comparison with Tribes
throughout the United States but also compared to other USET
Tribes.
Our people suffer from high rates of poverty, related
illnesses and issues including a high school graduation rate of
only 48 percent. It is our belief that education is the best
way to not only provide our children with the tools they need
to be successful, productive adults, but also to lift our Tribe
out of poverty for generations to come.
While our Tribe has taken great steps to offer support to
and advocate for our children in the public school system, we
simply do not have the resources to fully address the problem.
Currently, we have five service delivery areas in Massachusetts
with three major concentrations of 300-plus enrolled tribal
members in Barnstable, Bristol and Suffolk Counties. Presently,
we receive very little in the way of Title VII money, $40,000
to be exact, which is used to fund tutoring, Native American
teachers, educational advocacy and development of curricula
designed to meet the learning style of our tribal students in
public schools. The funding is clearly deficient and fails to
provide our Tribe with the minimum resources we need to
confront the very real challenges of Mashpee Wampanoag students
in the public school system.
Too many of our children are desperate to be treated with
respect and dignity in the education system. Too often,
children with learning challenges or different needs are over
medicated and they say given them Ritalin, that is the answer,
and their individual and culturally specific needs are ignored.
The results are clear when fewer than half of our tribal
citizens are receiving a high school diploma.
We need funding and authority to do more for our children.
That is why I am here today to express my support for the
Native CLASS Act. We applaud the bill language that would give
public schools greater flexibility in designing programs to
meet the needs of their Indian students, the requirement for a
local educational agency, LEA, to enter into a cooperative
agreement with the Tribe to assist with the planning and
operation of the program, and the requirement for the LEA to
develop programs in consultation with committees comprised of
Indian parents and teachers.
USET is disappointed that S. 1262 does not include a key
recommendation of the tribal organization team that called for
the creation of centers for innovation and tribally directed
education. The purpose of this proposal is to assist Tribes
with capacity building to enable them to effectively exercise
their rights and authority to direct delivery of educational
services to Indian children. We urge the Committee to amend S.
1262 to include this proposal.
Finally, we are strongly in support of the initiative
within the bill to assist the Tribes in recruiting high quality
teachers and principals. We are especially interested in
implementing the Troops As Teachers Program, given the high
percentage of Native American citizens who volunteer to serve
in the U.S. armed forces.
In addition, in Indian country, we talk a lot about self
determination and one of our core beliefs is that as tribal
nations, we must be able to provide for our people. This bill
not only works toward the goal of improving the ability of
Tribes to education our young people, but it also increases the
ability of individual tribal children to achieve self
determination by giving them the opportunities and tools they
need to become healthy and productive adults.
Thank you my friends.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Cromwell follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Cedric Cromwell, Chairman, Mashpee Wampanoag
Tribe; Board of Directors, United South and Eastern Tribes
Good afternoon Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee. My name
is Cedric Cromwell. I am Chairman of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe in
Massachusetts. I appear here today to present testimony on behalf of
the United South and Eastern Tribes on S. 1262, the Native CLASS Act
which makes valuable and needed revisions to Federal education laws to
improve the educational experience of Indian children.
The 26 Tribes that comprise USET are located in 12 states--from
Maine to Florida and west into eastern Texas. In comparison to our
sister tribes west of the Mississippi River, the USET tribes have
smaller populations and smaller reservations. Nonetheless, through the
strength that comes from unity of purpose and the shared objectives of
improving the quality of life of Indian people and full recognition of
the sovereign rights of tribal governments, USET has become a highly
regarded Indian Country advocate over the past 42 years.
In the case of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, we are a Tribe without
a federal land base, so we have no reservation on which to conduct our
governmental activities, including economic development, housing,
health care, and education. Our people suffer disproportionally from
poverty-related illnesses and issues, including a high school
graduation rate of only 48 percent. It is our belief that education is
the surest way to not only provide our children with the tools they
need to be successful, productive adults, but also to lift our Tribe
out of poverty for generations to come.
While our Tribe has taken great steps to offer support to and
advocate for our children in the public school system, we simply do not
have the resources to fully address the problem. Too many of our
children are desperate to be treated with respect and dignity in the
education system. Too often, children with learning challenges or
different needs are overmedicated, and their individual and culturally-
specific needs are ignored.
We need the tools to do more for our children. We need the funding
and the authority to partner with the public schools to make sure our
children are receiving the services they may need, to help combat
health-related issues, provide culturally-appropriate curriculum, give
Native parents a voice of boards and committees, and to train Native
teachers.
That is why I am here today to express my support for the Native
CLASS Act.
S. 1262 has two core and inter-related themes: First, requiring
schools to take seriously their responsibility to meet the unique
educational needs of Indian children in order to help them achieve
academically; and second, recognizing that Indian tribes possess
governmental authority in the performance of elementary and secondary
education programs for their children.
USET is particularly equipped to address S. 1262 issues because the
children of our member tribes are educated in both public schools and
in tribally-operated schools funded by the Bureau of Indian Education.
S. 1262 contains important provisions for Indian children enrolled in
both types of schools. Working with our sister organizations, the
National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) and the National Indian
Education Association (NIEA), USET helped develop legislative
recommendations for the Committee's consideration. We are very pleased
that a large percentage of our recommendations were included in S.
1262.
USET Children in Public Schools
Where our USET tribal children are educated in public schools, they
constitute a small percentage of the overall student population, a
circumstance that often means our Indian children are overlooked by
school authorities. Since some 90 percent of Indian children in the
nation are educated in public schools, tribes must have a meaningful
role in the delivery of services to these students. Thus, we are
particularly supportive of the S.1262 provisions intended to require
States and local public schools that educate Indian children to take
into account the educational and cultural needs of those children in
designing their educational plans. We also heartily support requiring
these public schools to provide training for teachers in the Indian
cultures of the Indian children, and to develop culturally responsive
teaching and learning strategies to better serve our children.
Contracts with Indian tribes would be the most effective way to carry
out these obligations.
USET applauds the insertion of requirements throughout the ESEA
titles for States and local educational agencies to consult with tribes
on a continuing basis in the development of school plans and programs,
and the establishment of meaningful mechanisms through which Indian
tribes can elect to exercise hand-on control over educational programs.
Since the public school student populations of USET tribes is
comparatively small in the communities in which they are located, our
tribes will not qualify for the bill's innovative programs for tribes
whose children constitute high percentages of public school
populations--particularly on-reservation public schools. Thus, I want
to focus on the bill's provisions that have the potential to
affirmatively impact the public schools in which USET tribal children
are enrolled.
Safe and Healthy Schools for Native American Students. USET
supports bill Sec. 141 which requires the Secretary of Education to
create unique programs to target social and nutritional issues
prevalent in Indian communities, such as alcohol/drug abuse; suicide;
violence; teen pregnancy; obesity; and school dropout. One affirmative
effort expressly mentioned is establishment of tribal-specific school
gardens to aid Indian students in pursuing sound nutrition goals.
Recommendations:
(1) Sec. 141 does not identify the schools that should offer
the programs the Secretary develops under this authority. The
provision should be amended to require the Secretary to supply
these programs to all public schools that are eligible for the
Formula Grant Programs under Title VII (schools with 10 or more
Indian students are eligible), and to strongly encourage them
to provide appropriate programs for their Indian student
population, perhaps as part of the program carried out under
the Formula Grant.
(2) It seems to us that Indian tribes are well-equipped to
work with the Secretary in designing the programs called for by
Sec. 141. Thus, we suggest the provision be amended to direct
the Secretary to work in cooperation with tribes, to the extent
practicable, in developing the programs.
(3) We recommend that Sec. 141 be amended to require the
Secretary to establish these programs within one year after
enactment of S. 1262.
Title VI, Part A--Formula Grant Program [Bill Secs. 152-159]. This
is a significant program for USET tribes that operate BIE-funded
schools, but it is even more significant for the tribes whose children
attend public schools where Indian components in the curriculum are not
customary. Its purpose is to infuse into the educational program an
Indian component for these students who might otherwise have no
opportunity for culturally relevant curriculum. Since tribes are
already involved in development of the Title VII programs offered at
the BIE-funded schools, I will focus my comments on the revisions that
strengthen this program for Indian children in public schools. I
express gratitude to the bill's sponsors for accepting these
recommendations offered by our tribal organization workgroup (NCAI,
NIEA and USET).
Indian-specific programs. We applaud the bill language that
would give public schools greater flexibility in designing
programs to meet the needs of their Indian students. The
current law ties the Title VII program too closely to Title I
requirements, leaving little opportunity for schools to offer
programs that address the specific educational and cultural
needs of the Indian student population. Similarly, we support
the requirement that a school proposing to combine Title VII
grant funds into a schoolwide program (serving all students in
the school, both Indian and non-Indian) must first demonstrate
that a schoolwide program would provide benefits to the Indian
students that would not be achieved if the funds were used for
a program serving Indian students, only. The ``Indian''
character of these funds should be preserved.
Tribe-School cooperative agreements. We also strongly
support the requirement for a Local Educational Agency, at the
request of a tribe with a plurality of Indian children enrolled
with the LEA, to enter into a cooperative agreement with the
tribe to assist with the planning and operation of the program.
Not only will this provision advance the concept that Indian
tribes have the right and responsibility to be meaningfully
involved in educational matters, a partnership between the LEA
and the tribe will result in more focused and effective
programs.
Tribal representation on Parent Committee. A core component
of the Formula Grant Program is the requirement for the LEA to
develop programs in consultation with a committee comprised of
Indian parents and teachers. As recommended by USET, S. 1262
expands that committee to include representatives of Indian
tribes located within 50 miles of the school if such tribes
have children enrolled in the school. This provision recognizes
that often Indian people prefer to act through their tribes in
relationships with non-tribal entities such as public school
districts. Plus, tribal representation on these committees can
provide valuable program experience and continuity that
individual parents alone cannot provide, as when their children
age out of school, parental participation is likely to end.
Provisions that facilitate establishment of a program. It is
unfortunate that some eligible LEAs do not bother to apply for
a Title VII grant. S. 1262 seeks to change this outcome by
making it easier for an Indian entity to apply for a grant when
the LEA does not do so. It authorizes a tribe representing a
plurality of the students to apply for the grant and operate a
program. Or if neither the LEA nor a tribe applies, a committee
comprised of Indian people in the community may apply to be the
grantee. That latter option can help provide a program for
Indian children in schools that are far distant from any tribe.
We also support the provision requiring the Secretary of
Education to perform outreach to eligible LEAs who have not
applied for a grant and supply technical assistance to help
them do so.
Recommended revision: On page 103, lines 6-7 should refer to
``schools funded by the Bureau of Indian Education'' rather
than only to schools operated by the BIE, as the Secretary's
outreach and assistance efforts should extend to all BIE-funded
schools, both those operated by BIE and those operated by
tribes.
Student Eligibility Forms. We thank the bill sponsors for
including the USET recommendation that would require an LEA to
maintain in its records a determination that a child is an
eligible Indian and thus prohibit a practice at some schools
that a student's Indian eligibility be re-proved year after
year.
Coordination of Indian Student Information. USET supports the
proposed new Sec. 7137 for creation of a mechanism to facilitate the
orderly exchange of Indian student educational and health records
between schools. The mobility of Indian children between public
schools, between BIE-funded schools, and between public and BIE funded
requires a system for schools to easily access and supply student
records so that the educational progress of the student is not
interrupted by the failure of his/her records to follow the student to
a new school.
Tribal Education Agencies Pilot Project. This innovative provision
would create a new Sec. 7124 to authorize tribes (or tribal consortia)
to administer State educational agency functions through grants from
the Secretary of Education. The ultimate objective is to give tribes a
meaningful opportunity to exercise their governmental authority over
elementary and secondary education affecting their children.
Recommendation: USET is disappointed that S. 1262 does not
include a key recommendation of the tribal organization team
that called for creation of Centers for Innovation in Tribally-
Directed Education in ESEA Title V [Innovative Programs]. The
purpose of this proposal is to assist tribes with capacity-
building to enable them to effectively exercise their rights
and authority to direct delivery of educational services to
Indian children. We urge the Committee to amend S. 1262 to
include this proposal.
Authorization of Appropriations for Title VII, Part A. Our tribal
organization team recommended new funding levels for the programs
authorized by Title VII, Part A to properly fund both existing programs
and the new ones recommended by the team. Those recommendations are
included in S. 1262 as revisions to Sec. 7152. We must point out,
however, that since the Akaka bill adds three additional new programs
to Part A, the authorization of appropriations must be increased to
appropriately fund all programs. The three additional programs added to
Part A by S. 1262 are laudable and should not have to compete with
other existing and new programs for funding. The three programs added
by S. 1262 are:
Bill Sec. 162 creating a new Sec. 7125--Teacher and
Administrator Pipeline for Native American Students
Bill Sec. 163 creating a new Sec. 7126--National Board
Certification Incentive Demonstration Program
Bill Sec. 164 creating a new Sec. 7127--Tribal Language
Immersion Schools. We note that this provision carries its own
authorization of appropriations; thus, notice of this separate
authorization should appear in Sec. 7152 to avoid any
confusion.
USET Children in Bureau of Indian Education-Funded Schools
Seven USET tribes operate a total of 16 schools on their
reservations that are funded by the Bureau of Indian Education in the
Interior Department. These schools are operated under Indian Self-
Determination Act contracts or Tribally Controlled Schools Act grants.
USET has a keen interest in assuring that these schools are adequately
funded and that the tribes have the authority to operate these schools
efficiently and effectively. For these reasons, USET worked with the
tribal organization team to recommend provision to help achieve these
goals.
We identify below provisions in S. 1262 that directly benefit
tribally-operated BIE schools and urge the Committee to retain them:
ESEA Title I--Improving the Academic Achievement of
Disadvantaged Students. These revisions to NCLBA Sec. 1116(g)
are intended to facilitate approval of a tribally-proposed
alternative definition of Adequate Yearly Progress by placing a
deadline on the Secretary of the Interior for action on a
tribal proposal. Current law imposes no deadline for agency
action, a circumstance that has prevented any tribal proposal
from being approved.
ESEA Title II--Recruiting High Quality Teachers and
Principals.
-- S. 1262 accepts our recommendation to include BIE-funded
schools in the definition of ``high needs LEA'' to make these
schools eligible for funding to aid in the recruitment and
retention of high quality education professionals.
-- We also support the proposal to increase to 5 percent the
set-aside for distribution to BIEfunded schools for teacher/
principal recruitment and retention activities.
-- The bill would also make information from State teacher
recruitment clearinghouses available to BIE schools in the
State.
-- Amendments to the Math and Science Teacher program and the
Troops to Teachers program to provide for BIE schools
eligibility.
-- USET also strongly supports the proposed new Sec. 2161 which
creates an Indian Educator Scholarship Program intended to
encourage more Indian people to enter the teaching profession
and to serve in schools with significant Indian enrollment
(both public schools and BIE schools).
ARRA ``Race to the Top'' elementary and secondary school
reform program. BIE-funded schools were inadvertently omitted
from this multi-billion dollar competitive grant program. Sec.
201 of S. 1262 would cure this omission.
ARRA funding for Early Childhood Education. Sec. 201 of S.
1262 would also cure the omission of any mention of a tribal
role in the development of early childhood programs for which
$500 million is now available. The bill's provision would
require States to collaborate with tribes to assure that
services are provided to Indian children, and authorizes States
to make subgrants to tribes. In fact, it would be a good idea
to amend the provision to give competitive preference points to
States that demonstrate they will award subgrants to tribes.
Tribal Education Policy Advisory Group. Bill Sec. 203 would
require the Secretary of the Interior to establish an advisory
group comprised of elected tribal leaders to advise the
Secretary on budget and policy issues affecting the BIE school
system. It is intended to give elected officials of tribes
which host BIE schools a greater role in policymaking.
BIE school budget requests. Bill Sec. 204 requires the
Secretary of the Interior to reveal in annual budget
submissions the amount necessary to sustain BIE school academic
and residential programs pursuant to the regulations at 25 CFR
Part 39, subpt. H. This regulation has been in effect for
several years, but the Secretary's budget requests have not
provided the information required by the regulation.
Amendments to the Tribally Controlled Schools Act. Most of
the USET tribes with BIE schools operate those schools through
grants authorized by the TCSA. We support the technical
amendments to that law, including creation of a mechanism for
tribes to amend their TCSA grants.
Puzzling Omission: Proposed amendment to Administrative Cost Grant
provision for Tribally-operated BIE Schools. We are disappointed that
S. 1262 does not contain an important amendment proposed by the tribal
organization team that is intended to improve the funding of
administrative costs provided to tribes that operate BIE schools.
(Administrative cost grants have been renamed ``tribal grant support
costs'' by the BIA budget.) Administrative cost grants have been so
chronically under-funded that BIE is now providing only 61 percent of
the amount required by law (25 USC 2008) to adequately cover the
indirect/administrative costs of tribes and tribal school boards.
The tribal organization team recommended that when submitting AC
Grant budget requests, the Secretary of the Interior be required to
request a separate budget to fund the first year AC Grant for schools
that newly convert to tribal operation, and to include that amount in
the subsequent year's budget for AC Grants. The objective of this
recommendation is to prevent further reduction in funding for tribes
that operate BIE schools. Under the current practice, when a new school
converts to tribal operation, funding to tribes who already operate
such schools is reduced to provide funding for the new conversions. The
United States has an obligation to properly fund the administrative/
indirect costs of tribes who operate BIA and BIE programs. That
obligation is being flagrantly violated with regard to tribes who
operate BIE schools.
Thus, we urge the Committee to amend S. 1262 to include the
amendment to this provision recommended by the tribal organization
team.
Conclusion
On behalf of the United South and Eastern Tribes, I express
gratitude to this Committee for the attention it has given to the need
to amend Federal education laws for the benefit of Indian students and
to enhance the authority of Indian tribes to have a meaningful role in
the education of their children.
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Chairman Cromwell.
Mr. Russell, will you please proceed with your testimony?
STATEMENT OF SCOTT RUSSELL, ROCKY MOUNTAIN AREA VICE PRESIDENT,
NATIONAL CONGRESS OF AMERICAN
INDIANS; SECRETARY, CROW NATION
Mr. Russell. [greeting in native language]. Aloha to you,
Mr. Chairman. Thank you for having us here today, Senators
Murkowski and Barrasso, and a good friend, John Tester, a
special hello to you and thank you for being here.
The Chairman. Aloha.
Mr. Russell. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to
testify today.
My name is Scott Russell. I serve as the Rocky Mountain
Area Vice President of the National Congress of American
Indians. I am also the Secretary of the Great Crow Nation of
Montana.
NCAI strongly supports the work of the committee in setting
the pace for the reauthorization of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act. We applaud the committee for its
leadership and swift movement. I would like to outline for you
today two overarching goals and briefly discuss strategies that
we believe can be used to accomplish them.
The first goal is tribal governments must be able to
exercise local control over our educational system. Indian
nations have the largest stake in improving the education of
their citizens. There is no more vital resource to the
continued existence and integrity of Indian Tribes than their
children. They are our most precious resource. We believe the
following recommendations will accomplish this goal.
Number one is strengthening the tribal government role in
education. Tribes are overwhelmingly supportive of local
control over education and they are well-positioned to address
the educational needs of our children. To do so, however, our
Tribes and our educational departments must be afforded the
same status as state education agencies within our lands.
Number two is consultation with Tribes. The Department of
Education must begin consulting directly with tribal
governments prior to making changes that may affect the
education of Indian children or adults. This would be best
accomplished by adjusting the current National Advisory Council
on Indian Education from being an advisory committee to
becoming a tribal leader committee.
The third goal we have is that all of our students,
regardless of where they attend school, should be eligible for
the same programs and services as the general population. The
federal trust responsibility for Indian education must be
recognized in all education policies. We must have priorities
equal to those of other citizens and to participate in all
programs and services offered within ESEA. We believe the
following recommendations will accomplish this goal.
First is funding for Bureau of Indian Education schools.
You need to express statutory language that must be included to
make funding available for the BIE schools. Without this
express language, our BIE school system will be unable to
participate or receive much needed funding. A recent example
lies in the ineligibility of the BIE to apply for or receive
Race to the Top grants.
Second is collaboration between the Department of Interior
and the Department of Education. The Secretaries of Education
and Interior should collaborate to provide training and
technical assistance to the BIE Tribes and schools operated
under grants and contracts. We suggest that the collaboration
include assistance in curriculum selection, use of alternative
assessments for tribal schools and instructional practices.
Last, I would like to discuss the importance of investing
in cultural language and revitalization programs. While this
issue is woven into both those goals, we believe its urgency
and importance should be singled out. The survival of Native
language and culture is critical to the success of our
communities and our ways of life.
The existing Native language programs in schools have
demonstrated that our schools are more engaged and successful
when offered the opportunity to study their traditional ways.
We believe the following recommendations will accomplish this
goal.
Number one is formula grant programs for immersion schools.
It is largely recognized that the best way to learn a language
is to fully immerse oneself. However, the key for these
programs to work is sustainability. It is critically important
that our Native language programs are provided long term,
sustainable funding.
Second is long term investment in culture-based education.
Culture-based education is a teaching model that encourages
quality instructional practices, rooted in culture and
linguistically relevant contexts. For Native communities, this
includes teaching our language, but also means incorporating
traditional cultural characteristics and teaching strategies
that are harmonious with Native cultural and contemporary ways
of knowing.
Next is the Path Act. In addition to the ESEA language
programs proposed in the bill, I urge this committee to work
with our Senator, John Tester, from Montana to include the
important tribal college focus, Native language research and
education programs which he included in legislation which was
introduced in the 111th Congress as part of the Path
legislation.
To revitalize our languages, we must work at all levels and
it takes a community. We have to start from pre-K all the way
through the college level.
In conclusion, I would like to offer my comments as well as
additional language recommendations for the Native CLASS Act
from the National Congress of American Indians for the record.
Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and for
making Indian children a priority. We look forward to working
with this committee in the future in finalizing a bill.
I would be happy to answer any questions.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Russell follows:]
Prepared Statement of Scott Russell, Rocky Mountain Area Vice
President, National Congress of American Indians; Secretary, Crow
Nation
Good morning, Chairman Akaka, Vice Chairman Barrasso, and members
of the Committee. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to testify
today. My name is Scott Russell. I serve as the Rocky Mountain Area
Vice President of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) and
as the Secretary of Crow Nation.
NCAI is the oldest and largest American Indian organization in the
United States. As the most representative national Indian organization,
we serve the broad interests of tribal governments across the nation.
NCAI was founded in 1944 in response to termination and assimilation
policies. Since then, we have fought to preserve the treaty rights and
sovereign status of Indian tribes and to ensure that Indian people may
fully participate in the political system. As such, we strongly support
the work of the Committee in setting the pace for the reauthorization
of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) with the
introduction of Senate bill 1262, the ``Native Culture, Language, and
Access for Success in Schools Act''. We applaud the Committee for its
leadership and swift movement.
Framework for Tribal Sovereignty in ESEA
I would like to set the tone of our testimony by quoting Wilma
Mankiller, former Principle Chief of the Cherokee Nation, and life-time
advocate for Indian Country:
``I don't think anybody anywhere can talk about the future of
their people without talking about education. Whoever controls
the education of our children controls our future.''
This statement is the central premise for the recommendations that
NCAI, and our partners, the United South Eastern Tribes and the
National Indian Education Association, offered to the Committee for the
reauthorization of the ESEA. I would like to outline for you today our
two overarching goals, and briefly discuss strategies that we believe
can be used to accomplish them.
Goal 1: Tribal Governments must be able to exercise local control over
our
educational system.
Indian nations have the largest stake in improving the education of
their citizens. We must prepare them for active and equal participation
in the global market. We must prepare them to be citizens in the 21st
century. We must prepare them to be positive, involved members of our
communities. And, most importantly, we must prepare them to be the
future leaders of our governments. There is no more vital resource to
the continued existence and integrity of Indian tribes than their
children. We believe the following recommendations will accomplish this
goal:
1. Strengthening Tribal Governments Role in Education. Tribes
are overwhelmingly supportive of local control over education,
and they are well-positioned to address the educational needs
of our children. To do so however, our tribes and our tribal
education departments must be afforded the same status as State
Education Agencies within our lands.
2. Consultation with Tribes. The government-to-government
relationship that exists between Indian tribes and the Federal
Government is derived from the legal status of tribal
governments and only occurs between the Federal Government and
elected tribal leaders. As such, the Department of Education
must begin consulting directly with tribal governments, prior
to proposing regulation, establishing or changing policy, or
submitting any budget proposal that may affect the education of
Indian children or adults. This would be best accomplished by
adjusting the current National Advisory Council on Indian
Education from being an advisory committee to being a tribal
leader committee.
Goal 2: All of our students, regardless of where they attend school,
should be eligible for the same programs and services as the
general population.
Providing education to American Indians and Alaska Natives is a
federal obligation because of the unique legal status of Indian people.
When Indian tribes ceded certain lands--lands which now constitute the
United States--agreements were made between tribes and the United
States government that established a ``trust'' responsibility for the
safety and well-being of Indian peoples in perpetuity. In addition, a
number of treaties specifically outlined the provision of education,
nutrition, and health care. Therefore, the federal trust responsibility
for American Indian and Alaska Native education must be recognized in
all education policies.
At the same time, as United States citizens, American Indians and
Alaska Natives should have opportunities equal to those of other
citizens to participate in the benefits of all programs and services
offered within the reauthorization. We believe the following
recommendations will accomplish this goal:
1. Funding for Bureau of Indian Education Schools. Express
statutory language must be included to make funding available
for the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) schools (either
overarching the Act or within each ESEA program). Without
express statutory language, our BIE school system will be
unable to participate or receive much-needed funding. The most
recent example of this lies in the ineligibility of BIE to
apply for or receive ``Race to the Top'' grants.
2. Collaboration between the Department of the Interior and the
Department of Education. The Secretary of Education should
collaborate with the Secretary of Interior to provide training
and technical assistance to the BIE, tribes, and schools
operated under grants and contracts from the BIE. We suggest
that the collaboration include assistance in curriculum
selection, use of alternative assessments for tribal schools,
and instructional practices.
Investment in Cultural and Language Revitalization
Lastly, I would like to discuss the importance of investing in
cultural and language revitalization programs. While this issue could
easily be, and is, woven into our two goals above, we believe its
urgency and importance should be singled out.
The survival of Native language and culture is critical to the
success of our communities and ways of life. Existing Native language
programs and schools have demonstrated that our students are more
engaged and successful when offered the opportunity to study their
traditional ways. Additionally, these programs are proven to be a
protective factor for youth exposed to violence. To that end, tribes
believe that the ESEA reauthorization should support an investment in
Native cultural and language revitalization. We believe the following
recommendations will accomplish this goal:
1. Formula Grant Programs for Immersion Schools. It is largely
recognized that the best way to learn a language is to fully
immerse oneself. While we have limited statistical data showing
that Native language instruction directly improves academic
success, there is a large body of qualitative data that shows
correlation of Native language instruction to factors that do
improve academic success. Therefore it is critically important
to have sustainable funding for research that will demonstrate
this statistical correlation.
2. Long Term Investment in Cultural Based Education. By
definition, Cultural Based Education (CBE) is a teaching model
that encourages quality instructional practices rooted in
cultural and linguistically relevant context. For Native
communities, this includes teaching our Native language, but it
also means incorporating traditional cultural characteristics
and teaching strategies that are harmonious with Native
cultural and contemporary ways of knowing. We know that our
students perform better academically when they have a sense of
pride and self-esteem, and CBE provides this vital foundation.
Conclusion
I would like to offer my comments, as well additional language
recommendations for the Native CLASS Act from NCAI for the record. *
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* The additional language recommendations for the Native CLASS Act
have been retained in Committee files.
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Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today; and thank you
for making Indian children a priority. We look forward to working with
the Committee in the following weeks to finalize a bill. I will be
happy to answer any questions that you may have.
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Mr. Russell, for your
testimony.
Ms. Bowers, will you please proceed with your testimony?
STATEMENT OF AMY BOWERS, STAFF ATTORNEY, NATIVE AMERICAN RIGHTS
FUND
Ms. Bowers. [greeting in native language].
Good afternoon, Chairman and Members of the Committee.
Thank you for inviting me to testify on S. 1262, the Native
CLASS Act.
My name is Amy Bowers and I am staff attorney at the Native
American Rights Fund. I am also a member of the Yurok Tribe and
I represent the Tribal Education Departments National Assembly.
First, I would like to unequivocally thank the Committee
for this bill. NARF and TEDNA are greatly appreciative of it
and we support it. Its excellence reflects that the committee
has really listened to Indian country. It incorporates very
well so many of the key recommendations that TEDNA, other
Indian organizations and major reports have urged. The bill's
provisions regarding tribal access, tribal education agencies,
TEAs, and cooperative agreements, all of which my testimony
will address, are indeed unprecedented.
Currently, over 93 percent of K-12 Native American students
attend public schools on and off Indian lands. There are 740
elementary and secondary public schools in this country located
on Indian lands. Many of these schools have a student
population that is predominantly Native American and in a high
number of these schools, the population is overwhelmingly
Native American.
As you mentioned earlier, Mr. Chairman, our students aren't
performing well in these schools and they are dropping out at a
higher rate than any other student group. The high drop out
rate is linked to unemployment, drug and alcohol issues, teen
pregnancies and other major social issues. Previous
reauthorizations of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act
have tried to address these problems, but they have
nonetheless, persisted.
The many stakeholders who collaborated on this bill knew
this and they knew that a new approach was called for, one that
firmly recognizes and supports the role of tribal governments
as sovereigns in addressing these problems. Are Tribes ready
for this? Yes, they are ready and they have the capacity to be
leading education agencies.
Tribes with TEAs and education programs have improved
schools, they have improved student performance and community
relations. To continue this success, TEAs and Tribes need
federal law support like the Native CLASS Act. Otherwise,
Federal law will continue to exclude tribal governments in
education, leaving TEA efforts unsupported and Tribes with
little to no real control over the systems that teach the
majority of their members.
Notably, even with little true support in federal law, many
Tribes have created TEAs and developed their capacities. Some
Tribes are already performing local education agency, LEA and
state education agency, SEA, functions without federal funding
or authorizations. Some TEAs already do voluntarily what
federal law requires and funds SEAs to do.
In recognition of tribal government contributions, several
States have already enacted specific laws acknowledging roles
and responsibilities for tribal governments and public schools.
The Federal Government provides billions of dollars annually to
LEAs and SEAs but hardly any funding to TEDs and tribal
governments for education.
The enormous missed opportunity to invest in TEAs and
Tribes for the sake of Native students must be seized. S. 1262
does this. It aligns federal law with what is already happening
and with what needs to happen. It carefully allocates new
funding and authorizations between high capacity TEAs and
developing capacity TEAs. This sound structure supports TEAs of
all abilities and Tribes of all sizes in their efforts to
contribute at appropriate levels to Native American student
success.
S. 1262 has new funding authorizations for Native American
students. The new money will increase local control of
education by bringing tribal governments, tribal communities
and Indian parents into the schools. It will increase
communication and collaboration amongst Tribes, LEAs and SEAs.
It will empower TEAs to take the lead in developing culturally
relevant curricula, teacher training and implementing tribal
education goals and policies. The results will be an education
system supported and directed by the community with rigorous
academic standards based in tribal language and culture.
A final note regarding S. 1262's important and innovative
TEA Pilot Project. This project allows up to five Tribes to
apply to the Department of Education to perform SEA functions
and receive funding to support those activities in public
schools on their lands. The Tribes are very excited about this
project because it is a monumental step in achieving tribal
sovereignty in education. It enables them to direct and control
education on their reservation by performing high level SEA
functions. These are core components of education of which
tribal assumption has never before been expressly supported by
federal law.
In conclusion, NARF and TEDNA support this bill and we look
forward to continuing to work closely with our partners to
refine the bill. For example, we recommend ensuring that both
authorizations for funding for tribal education agencies are at
the level of $25 million and clarifying that all Tribes have
equal access to much needed tribal member student data.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Bowers follows:]
Prepared Statement of Amy Bowers, Staff Attorney, Native American
Rights Fund
Good afternoon, Chairman, Vice Chairman, and members of the
Committee. Thank you for inviting me to testify on S. 1262, the Native
CLASS Act. My name is Amy Bowers. I am a staff attorney at the Native
American Rights Fund (NARF). I am also a member of the Yurok Tribe of
Northern California. I represent the Tribal Education Departments
National Assembly (TEDNA), a non-profit organization for tribal
education departments and agencies nationwide.
I'd first like to unequivocally thank the Committee for this bill.
NARF and TEDNA are greatly appreciative of it and we support it. Its
excellence reflects that the Committee has really listened to Indian
country. It incorporates very well many of the key recommendations that
TEDNA, other Indian organizations and major reports have urged--
elevation of the role of tribal governments in education, meaningful
support of tribal education agencies (TEAs), and clear provisions for
partnerships among other education entities and tribes. The bill's
provisions regarding tribal access, TEAs, and cooperative agreements,
all of which my testimony will address, are indeed unprecedented.
Currently over 93 percent of K-12 Native American students attend
public schools on and off Indian lands. There are 740 elementary and
secondary public schools in this country located on Indian lands. Many
of these schools have student populations that are predominately Native
American, and in a high number of these schools the population is
overwhelmingly (80-90 percent +) Native American.
But, nationwide, Native American students perform lower on
standardized tests than any other student group. The national Native
American student high school dropout rate is over 65 percent, which is
higher than any other group. The high dropout rate is linked to
unemployment, drug and alcohol abuse, teen pregnancies, and other
social issues. Previous reauthorizations of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act have tried to address these matters, but the
problems have persisted. The many stakeholders who collaborated on S.
1262 knew this, and knew that a new approach was called for--one that
firmly recognizes and supports the role of tribal governments as
sovereigns in addressing these problems.
Many of us have been immersed in this bill but for those who
haven't, they may be unfamiliar with the need for this innovation in
federal education law. Simply put, tribal governments and TEAs must be
empowered to become true partners with the states and schools in
education. This bill is major first step in accomplishing this goal.
Are tribes ready for this? Yes. They are ready and have the
capacity to be leading agencies in education. TEAs can operate federal
education programs. They can perform roles and activities of local
education agencies (LEAs) and state education agencies (SEAs). Tribes
with TEAs and education programs have improved schools, student
performance, and community relations. To continue this success, TEAs
need federal law support like S. 1262. Otherwise, federal law will
continue to exclude tribes as governments in education; leaving TEA
efforts unsupported and tribes with little to no real control over the
systems that teach the majority of their members. This discourages
tribal-state-school partnerships or even communication in education and
ultimately, hurts Native American students.
Notably, even with little to no true support in federal law, many
tribes to date have created TEAs and developed their capacities. Some
tribes are performing LEA and SEA functions--without federal funding or
authorization. In short, some TEAs already voluntarily do what federal
law requires and funds SEAs to do. Other tribes have fostered
cooperative agreements with LEAs and SEAs in education. Moreover, in
recognition of tribal government contributions several states recently
have enacted laws specifically acknowledging roles and responsibilities
for tribal governments in public schools.
Through the now well-established federal policies of Indian self-
determination, tribal self-governance, and economic development tribes
have vastly increased their governance, managerial and technical
capacities and resources. Tribes operate their own health clinics,
provide social services, and manage a variety of natural resources. In
these areas tribes typically receive federal funding and must comply
with applicable reporting and accountability requirements. It is time
to include education among the vital services provided and resources
managed by tribes.
The Federal Government provides billions of dollars annually to
SEAs and LEAs, but hardly any funding to TEAs and tribal governments
for education. The enormous missed opportunity to invest in TEAs and
tribes, for the sake of Native American students must be seized. S.
1262 does this. It aligns federal law with what is already happening
and with what needs to happen. S. 1262 carefully allocates new funding
and authorizations between already high capacity TEAs and developing
capacity TEAs. This sound structure supports TEAs of all abilities and
tribes of all sizes in their efforts to contribute at appropriate
levels to Native American student success.
Will SEAs and LEAs see ``reduced'' funding under S. 1262? The bill
allows for some shifts at the Secretary of Education's discretion, to
tribes and TEAs in limited instances. Such shifts of course do not
divert any funding from students served. In this sense, S. 1262 puts
education funding on a par with many other pots of federal money that
tribes and states share such as Temporary Assistance to Needy Families
or environmental resources management funding. As in these areas,
adding tribes as eligible grantees will improve programs and service
delivery at the local level. Conversely, continuing to leave out tribes
will likely maintain the status quo, including Native American
students' persistent high dropout rates and low academic performance.
Additionally, S. 1262 has new funding authorizations for Native
American students. The new money will increase local control of
education by bringing tribal governments, tribal communities, and
Indian parents into the schools. It will increase communication and
collaboration among tribes, LEAs, and SEAs. It will empower TEAs to
take the lead in developing culturally relevant curriculum, teacher
training, and tribal education goals and policies. The result will be
education systems with rigorous academic standards and tribal language
and culture supported and directed by the community. To date none of
this has been adequately or coherently addressed in federal law or
authorized appropriations.
Does S. 1262 increase ``bureaucracy''? Not really; in fact, proper
recognition of the role of tribal governments and TEAs in education
could result in decreased bureaucracy. Indian education is already
fragmented among states, LEAs, federal, and tribal entities
administering different systems and a host of federal programs. As
Congress has recognized since the 1988 and 1994 TEA appropriation
authorizations, TEAs are uniquely best situated to coordinate all of
these various systems and programs and track Native American students
through the myriad of services and providers. Ideally, in the long-term
TEAs will serve as the primary education agency for many Native
American students. This will reduce state and federal bureaucracy and
maximize the amount of money and services to Native American students.
A final comment regarding S. 1262's important and innovative TEA
pilot project. The project allows up to five tribes to apply to the
Department of Education to perform SEA functions and receive funding to
support the activities in a public school located on the tribe's land
that has a majority of Native American students. Tribes are very
excited about this project because it represents a monumental step for
tribal sovereignty. It enables them to direct and control education on
their reservation by performing high-level SEA functions including
training teachers, setting accreditation and assessment standards,
assisting low performing schools, tracking student data, and setting
policies. These are core components of education, of which tribal
assumption has never before been supported expressly by federal law.
In conclusion, NARF and TEDNA support S. 1262. We have come this
far in partnership with the Committee and we look forward to continuing
to work closely with our partners to refine the bill. For example, we
recommend ensuring that both TEA authorizations appropriations amounts
are at the level of $25 million and clarifying that all tribes have
equal access to much needed tribal member student data. We are happy to
help address any concerns or questions regarding S. 1262, and to
ultimately see it through the legislative process and become law. Thank
you for the opportunity to address the Committee today.
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Ms. Bowers, for your
testimony.
Again, I want to defer to Senator Tester for his questions
at this time.
Senator Tester. Again, I thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Welcome to all three of the witnesses. I notice each one of
you addressed us in your Native tongue. All three languages
were unique because I think Tribes are unique.
This question is for Scott Russell and if either of the
others would like to jump in, you sure may.
Since every language is a bit different and the fact that I
think we all realize the importance of language and the
revitalization of languages, is there a standard curriculum out
there that the public schools or the BIE schools could use to
implement language classes?
Mr. Russell. Thank you for the question, Senator.
The answer is yes and no. There are laws in place in
Montana. Indian education for all was established in Montana in
1972. There was a law but there was no enforcement or funding
for over 33 years until you became part of the picture when you
were in the Senate in the State of Montana. Only then was this
law funded, but to this date, we still do not see more
enforcement.
A lot of these things turned into law and lacking support
for 33 years, this generation is feeling the effect of that. I
use myself as an example. My first language was Crow. In Head
Start, 100 percent of the students spoke the Crow language. We
just did a recent study and there are only three students that
spoke the Crow language coming into Head Start now.
If you look at the harsh reality of that situation and now
you think about what is working. We have a Senator sitting here
that the State has led in immersion school, Senator Akaka from
the State of Hawaii has an immersion school. There is no one
way to fix this, but I don't see it as a problem. I see it as a
great opportunity for all of us to come together. One solution
is not going to work for everyone, but we have to keep trying
and we have to have long term, sustainable funding for all
these projects.
Senator Tester. Thank you. Go ahead if you want to address
that.
Mr. Cromwell. When we look at the Mashpee Tribe's first
encounter with the European settlers, 400 plus years, and
almost decimation of my people's culture and language. We still
are on our original land standing strong.
Within our service delivery areas, there are no programs in
the public schools that teach immersion camps. You might have
heard of the Genius Award. Our Tribe was awarded that Genius
Award for $500,000 through Jessie Little Doe Baird who is a
tribal member. She is a MIT graduate.
We have immersion camps in three of our service delivery
areas that we fund. Our language is stronger than ever. People
are speaking it, talking it. It is a very ancient language. The
first Bible was written in our language at Harvard through John
Printer who is a Wampanoag.
Our language is revived. We have done it ourselves. It
would be great to have funding through this new Senate bill, S.
1262, to ensure that within our service delivery areas where we
have these huge populations of Mashpee Wampanoags to be able to
provide that support. Currently, today, we fund it. It is
stronger than ever. We have camps and programs and we do it
ourselves.
Senator Tester. Teacher recruitment, training, retention
was talked about in the previous panel. I know it is important
to you. How do we do it? How do we improve recruitment,
retention and training?
Ms. Bowers. Thank you for the question.
I think the best model out there right now is the ``Grow
Your Own'' model. The thing that is important to understand is
several Native communities are incredibly rural and they come
with their own unique set of issues and opportunities but a lot
of those communities aren't going to have a Starbucks, they are
not going to have a Macy's, so some teachers don't want to be
in that kind of rural community and they don't understand the
way the community functions and works. Each tribal community,
in addition to that, has its own way of creating consensus and
government that is based in the tribal process.
In the ``Grow Your Own'' model, that supports tribal
communities developing their own teachers, growing their own
teachers. That teacher may have to leave the reservation in
order to obtain the education knowing there is a place for them
when they come back and having those people come from that
community will make them want to come back.
Another point I wanted to add is several state laws are
authorizing tribal and state partnerships to develop teacher
credentials and that kind of thing in Native languages. I think
that is a really good model to support because that allows
people who have the expertise in the tribal community to be
recognized by making sure the credential process acknowledges
those unique cultural skills that particular person has.
Senator Tester. I want to thank you all. The time has run
out but I want to thank you all for being here as with the
previous panel and the next panel. I think if we are going to
get our arms around this, we all need to work together.
Thank you all for being here.
The Chairman. Thank you, very much, Senator Tester, for
your questions.
Chairman Cromwell, you mentioned in your testimony some
eligible local education agencies do not apply for Title VII
grant funds to support Native education. Why do you think they
aren't applying for these funds? How can we encourage them to
do so?
Mr. Cromwell. That is a great question, Mr. Chairman.
I went to one of our service delivery areas. I was doing
educational advocacy for about 10 years and recently one of my
nephews was having a problem, so we did an education evaluation
on the executive skills, the kinesthetic skills, auditory
skills, all the different components of assessing what a
child's learning problems are. As you know, with Native
children, it is kinesthetic object oriented.
I had to push that school for an IEP to specifically focus
on these skills. I have been at this for 10 years, it is not my
claim to fame. I am a technologist and a finance person, but I
really got deep into education.
Then I looked at the school system and said you have a
fiduciary responsibility for our Native children to provide the
best in educational services. I said, it is Title VII, Indian
education. Over the Mashpee school system, it is $40K which is
egregious in a sense where the ability to provide those
specific services needed to move our children through the
system.
They looked at me and said, what are you talking about?
Right then I understood immediately that they are completely
unaware of that being the school systems around these Title VII
monies that should follow our children in the school system and
provide the services that are rightfully needed.
They began to ask me a lot of questions about what does it
mean, how do we get it. I was supposed to meet with the
superintendent and they keep canceling and changing the
meeting, but it is foreign to them, especially in the
northeast. It is very foreign to them, they don't understand,
they don't get it, so it is like you almost have to run a
campaign around these needs that are important to Indian
children, the fact that they should be hiring Native teachers
and building that experience for our children.
So that is one of my points I am really pushing and
stressing in Massachusetts, making my way around the school
systems. They are excited to talk about it but they just don't
know and understand and it hasn't been promoted to them. I
think as a federally-recognized Tribe within the State, there
is a trust responsibility not only on the Tribe but also on the
Federal Government to communicate with the school systems and
say, here is funding, it is available.
In many cases, the funding is not available by the time
these schools try to go after it because that pot is empty. We
have challenges. I think it is a marketing and communications
opportunity for the Federal Government to speak to these
schools where federally-recognized Tribes are located that
depend on the public school systems. We submit our statistics
and work with them. The Department of Education should be
involved in this.
For us in Massachusetts, while we have been there forever,
fought in the Revolutionary War and helped build the State, the
first Indian governing town in America, they just still don't
get it. They don't understand.
The Chairman. Thank you for that.
Mr. Russell, the majority of students on the Crow
Reservation attend public schools located at the reservation.
Can you tell us about the relationship between the Tribe and
the State and whether the Tribe has significant input into the
education of its students?
Mr. Russell. As Senator Tester and my colleague alluded to,
we have a Native American, a Blackfeet tribal member who is the
Superintendent of Public Instruction for the State of Montana,
Denise Juneau who has been very helpful because she has
actually been through all this and actually known a lot of the
hardships that we face as Native communities in Montana.
One of the border towns on my reservation has 75 percent
Crow Indian. Just recently, my nephew was able to speak before
his graduating class and he spoke in the Crow language, and
offered praise and thanks to all those who were there. During a
school board meeting, one of the school board members, who is
non-Indian, saw this as rude. Things like that, you think about
some of those things that maybe they are resisting us, maybe
they are part of the problem. I don't know.
When you think about the relationships we have, we
contribute to the society. We think about how we can help our
children gain prominence in contemporary society. We still
think about who we are. I am proud of who I am and we
perpetuate our way of life, our language, our culture in a way
that promotes pride.
For our children, that is how all our work is going to be
evident. Quite frankly, Mr. Chairman, it scares me right now
when most of our children do not speak our language.
The Chairman. Thank you for your responses.
Ms. Bowers, in your testimony, you focused on being able to
make sure Tribes have access to help their students who are in
public schools either on or off the reservations. What tools
for Tribes are most important in dealing with their local and
state agencies?
Ms. Bowers. Thank you for that question.
It is appropriate for federal law to create a venue for
Tribes and States to communicate about how to improve Indian
education performance, so for example, the cooperative
agreements authorizations in the Native CLASS Act, just having
a federal authorization or a cooperative agreement between a
Tribe and a State, that cooperative agreement can regard
anything, which is the beauty of that particular provision in
that bill because no matter what the community needs to do to
help their Native kids, that cooperative agreement will help
facilitate the Tribe getting involved in that process.
It is like Chairman Cromwell mentioned. The school that is
serving the Mashpee kids don't even know about Title VII. What
they could do is use that cooperative agreement process to
inform the local education agency about Title VII, inform the
LEA about other tribal education programs they can offer and
they can enter into that agreement that can outline how the
federal services, the tribal services, as well as the state
services, can be co-mingled together to better improve the
programs that serve our kids.
A lot of times what we hear from both the Tribes and the
States is that they want to get together but just don't have a
vehicle to do it. Beyond, the vehicle, the other thing is
funding. You can have the best idea and I think a lot of our
tribal leaders have these awesome ideas for education but they
don't have any funding to actually implement those ideas.
Even if, for example, you had a state partner who was ready
to implement a particular tribal program in a public school, if
there is no funding, the idea goes no where. That is also why
we like this bill because it authorizes new funding for
language and culture, teacher training, so on and so forth.
That will help the Tribes and States create these partnerships
and empower them to develop new programs that will better meet
the needs of our children.
The Chairman. Thank you so much for that response.
What we see happening and what we hope will continue to
happen is that you find new and better ways to try to assist
the way you want to structure your education. Again, we want it
to be as local as possible so they are more aware of their
culture and the traditions. That part of education, I think, is
so important.
I have other questions here for you that I will submit to
the record and you can respond to them. I want to thank you so
much for coming because your responses have been valuable to
us. Hopefully what we are trying to do will be a fruit and will
blossom into beautiful flowers, trees and fruits for our young
people.
As was mentioned, we do this for our young people. I would
like to see in the future that our young people can still speak
the language and know with pride what their culture is. That is
our goal. That is all of our goals, so let us continue to work
together on this.
Thank you very much.
I would like to call on Panel Three to come forward. I
would like to invite you to the witness table. Serving on our
third panel is Ms. Dana Brave Eagle from the Oglala Sioux
Tribal Education Department located in Kyle, South Dakota, and
Ms. Jessica Imotichey, Senior Policy Analyst with the Chickasaw
Nation from Washington, D.C. Welcome to you.
Ms. Brave Eagle, will you please proceed with your
testimony?
STATEMENT OF DANA BRAVE EAGLE, DIRECTOR, OGLALA SIOUX TRIBAL
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT, PINE RIDGE
INDIAN RESERVATION
Ms. Brave Eagle. [greeting in native language]. My name is
Dana Brave Eagle and I am the Oglala Sioux Tribal Education
Director representing the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation today.
I want to thank Senator Johnson's office for the invitation
to be here to share testimony with the committee on Indian
education.
I represent a reservation with over 5,000 school age
children from K-12. We also have a local tribal college, Oglala
Lakota College servicing our reservation with 13 centers on our
reservation.
On our reservation, we also have four State elementary
schools within our boundaries. We are a large reservation,
land-based. Of the 13 schools, we have 6 tribal schools, 1 BIA
school, 2 parochial schools and 4 State Shannon County schools.
This provides a challenge for us because we are not able to
provide clear data on all our children because of the different
entities. We want to come to the table and work together with
the State, with the Bureau as tribal schools working together,
providing a true picture of our students on our reservation.
I think one of our struggles has been data driven. We don't
have the data to represent our children. We don't have
research-based curricula--no one does--of our children, the
Oglalas. There hasn't been research to prove which curriculum
is best suited for our children. We have people who make those
decisions that are not on our reservation or who have worked
with our children. We need to be at the table now. It is time
for the Tribes to be at the table to help make these decisions
because at the end of the day, these are our children, this is
our future and we do now have the resources. We have the
individuals who are educated and able to make these decisions.
When we talk about the Lakota language, our language and
culture, we need to work on preserving it. This bill moves this
forward. I truly believe and I am very passionate about
education. I have spent 23 years in Indian country in Indian
education. How do our children know where they are going if
they don't know where they have been? If we don't build our
culture and our language, then where will we be? It is very
important that we maintain our culture and our language but
with self-determination. It is very important that we involve
the Tribes and that Tribes are involved in making decisions on
their education.
I want to say thank you again and applaud this committee
for addressing Native issues and the future of Native children.
I want to continue work together and believe this Act will not
only benefit Native American students, but will also have a
positive influence on their environment. I want you to know
that I will continue to work with this Committee, with other
partners and our State to continue these efforts.
Again, [greeting in native language] to you, Chairman Akaka
and to Senator Johnson for the invitation allowing me to be
here.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Brave Eagle follows:]
Prepared Statement of Dana Brave Eagle, Director, Oglala Sioux Tribal
Education Department, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation
The Chairman. Thank you very much for your testimony.
Ms. Imotichey, your testimony, please.
STATEMENT OF JESSICA IMOTICHEY, SENIOR POLICY ANALYST,
CHICKASAW NATION
Ms. Imotichey. [greeting in native language]. My name is
Jessica Imotichey, I am Chickasaw, and I am the Senior Policy
Analyst for the Chickasaw Nation. Thank you for the opportunity
to comment today.
I will be providing testimony on behalf of the Lisa John,
our Education Administrator, who regretfully was unable to
attend.
The Chickasaw Nation is located in south central Oklahoma
and encompasses all or part of 13 counties. The majority of our
students attend public schools. Currently, there are an
estimated 60,000 students enrolled in public schools within our
tribal jurisdiction and approximately 15,000 of those are
Native American. The goal of the Chickasaw Nation is to develop
programs and services that enhance the overall quality of life
for Chickasaw people and this very much includes education.
We realize that education provides the stepping stones to
success for our people and for that reason, we embrace the idea
of becoming a partner with our local schools. The Tribe
operates the Johnson-O'Malley Program for 52 schools within our
tribal boundaries. This program provides for approximately
8,000 Native students, assisting in things like school
supplies, education materials, tutoring and cultural education.
In 1994, the Johnson-O'Malley student count was frozen and
funding has not increased since 1995, resulting in fewer
services for our students.
There has been continued movement by the Bureau of Indian
Education to eliminate the JOM Program. The BIE's core
priorities are students located within BIE-funded schools.
However, Native students in public schools do not have a voice.
The best advocates for these students are the Tribes
themselves.
Tribal interaction with schools could be improved by
allowing the tribal education agencies direct access to our
students and their educational data. Connecting students and
families to tribal programs gives much needed access to family
counseling, behavioral health, mentoring and cultural and
language programs. These programs are particularly vital for
our at risk students.
Schools could also be held more accountable for the
education of our students if funding for Indian education
programs was administered by these tribal education agencies.
Funds for these programs are often spent on educational
services for the entire school population and not the Native
students for which the funds are allocated. With TEA oversight,
we could ensure proper expenditures.
Finally, culture, history and language make us who we are;
it permeates everything that we do. Native students look at
their history and culture to validate who they are as people.
Tribes can be a resource for developing culturally appropriate
curricula and it can be designed so that it will abide by the
States' common core standards.
The No Child Left Behind Act requires a teacher to be
considered highly qualified in order to teach a language for
school credit. Most of our fluent speakers are elders and do
not have a degree or certification to become highly qualified.
Tribes are the best judges to say who is an expert speaker of
their language. Therefore, it is critical to allow Tribes to
certify our own language speakers according to our own
standards.
We applaud the efforts of this committee to address issues
related to Native education. As I complete my testimony today,
I would like to pay respect in honoring my Auntie Yvonne
Imotichey Albertson who received a Masters Degree in Education
from Southeastern Oklahoma State University.
At the time of her passing in 2004, she was the only
Chickasaw language certified teacher in the State of Oklahoma.
She began teaching Chickasaw at the elementary school in
Tishomingo in 1966. As I testify today, I would like to thank
my Auntie and others who have paved the road for what this bill
means in recognizing the importance of tribal language and
culture in our children's education.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Imotichey follows:]
Prepared Statement of Jessica Imotichey, Senior Policy Analyst,
Chickasaw Nation
Good afternoon, I am Jessica Imotichey, Senior Policy Analyst,
representing the Chickasaw Nation from Oklahoma. Thank you Senator
Akaka and the Committee for allowing me this opportunity to provide the
Chickasaw Nation's conceptual comments as it pertains to portions of
the Native CLASS Act. We are at this time continuing our review of the
Act and look forward to more dialogue in the future.
The Chickasaw Nation is a federally recognized tribe located in
south-central Oklahoma and encompasses all or parts of 13 counties. The
Chickasaw Nation division of education serves approximately 14,200
students per year from across the United States. The majority of our
Chickasaw students in Oklahoma attend public schools. Currently there
are an estimated 59,474 students enrolled in the public school
districts within the tribe's jurisdiction; 14,801 are Native American.
The Chickasaw Nation constitution provides the Governor with broad
discretion to develop and guide the division of education. The division
of education is compromised of 210 employees and 5 departments:
childcare, head start/early childhood; education services; supportive
programs and vocational rehabilitation. Our goal at the Chickasaw
Nation is to develop programs and service that enhance the overall
quality of life of Chickasaw people. Our services and programs are not
limited to Chickasaw citizens. We have a wide range of services that
benefit other Native American's and non-Natives as well. Many of our
programs rely heavily on outside partners in order to address the needs
of our people and local communities. We realize that education provides
a stepping stone for people to become productive citizens. For that
reason, we embrace the idea of becoming better partners with our local
schools to improve the education for all students.
Johnson O'Malley
The Chickasaw Nation acts as a contractor for the Johnson O'Malley
(JOM) program for 52 public schools within the Chickasaw Nation
boundaries. This funding provides supplemental educational
opportunities for approximately 8,200 Native American students in our
area assisting with school supplies, educational materials, tutoring
and cultural education. Each school has a JOM coordinator and parent
committee that oversees the use of the funds.
In 1994 the Johnson O'Malley student count was frozen and the
funding has not increased since 1995. Currently over 90 percent of
Native American students are in public schools yet the funding has
remained the same, resulting in fewer services for the students.
Additionally when the student count was frozen, the JOM funds were
placed under the Tribal Priority Allocation (TPA) category of funding
and the JOM office at the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) was closed.
There is no contact person for the JOM program to maintain and
administer the program. There has also been a move by the Bureau of
Indian Education (BIE) to eliminate the JOM program so they can use the
funds for other uses. The BIE's priority is students located within BIE
funded schools. As I mentioned earlier, most Native American students
attend public schools. The Native students in public schools do not
have a voice in the BIE or BIA to advocate for their academic success.
The best advocate for Native students is the tribes.
Tribal Interaction with Schools
Tribal interaction with schools could be improved by allowing
Tribal Education Agencies (TEA) access to students, and educational
data of students enrolled in public schools within the tribal
boundaries. These TEAs could assign representatives to the schools to
have direct contact with the students and could assist them with
tutoring and help address attendance issues with an emphasis on access
to tribal programs. Connecting students and families to tribal programs
gives much needed access to family counseling, behavioral health
professionals, mentoring programs, cultural and language programs to
name a few. There are too many issues in public schools to expect the
teachers or administrative staff to be aware of tribal programs, which
results in tribal students being disconnected to services that could
help them perform better academically and socially. Tribal
representatives should have access to student records (attendance,
grades, etc.) so that tribes can become partners with the schools to
improve the tribal student's education, or prevent at-risk students
from failing or dropping out of school.
The curricula for public schools are determined by committees
appointed at the district and state level. Unfortunately, in states
with populations of Native American students, there are times when
schools include offensive material into curricula without being aware
of the nature of the offense. For example, in Oklahoma, public schools
often conduct activities portraying the ``Oklahoma Land Run'' without
realizing the negative connotation of the act to Native American
students. Most teachers and administrators are not aware of the
negative impact they have on the students and their families. There are
better ways to study historical periods of statehood or other events,
and with a tribal representative on the curricula committee, it could
be accomplished in a manner that is not offensive.
Accountability
Schools could be held more accountable for the education of Native
American students if funding for Indian Education programs such Title
VII and Impact Aid were administered by the Tribal Education Agencies
in the area. This could be done in a manner similar to the JOM
contracts. Currently, schools are only required to have public hearings
or oversight committees appointed by the school administration. Tribes
are often not given adequate notification for the hearings and may not
be asked to participate at all. As a result the funds are often spent
for educational services for the entire school population, not the
Native American students for which the funds are allocated. If the TEA
had oversight, it could ensure proper expenditures. For years tribes
have been asking local schools how the Title VII and Impact Aid funds
are spent. Schools are reluctant to share the information with the
tribes but when they do answer their typical response is ``the funds go
into one pool and cannot be tracked;'' they cannot tell us specifically
if the funds were spent on Native students. Realistically we know the
funds are federal dollars and must be reported to the funding agency so
there is some type of reporting mechanism involved.
Culture and Native Language
Over the past decades, tribes have made great advances in capturing
and preserving their culture, history and languages. Culture, history
and language make us who we are and help us to understand our struggles
and accomplishments. It is unfortunate that the public school textbooks
have not preserved this information or portrayed accurate Native
American history to students. History and culture validates people's
existence. Native students look to their history and culture to
validate who they are and why they are here. Working with public
schools, tribes can provide accurate and relevant history and culture
so all students can benefit from the information and presentation.
Tribes can be a resource for language, cultural or history curricula,
and it can be designed so that it will abide by State's Common CORE
Standards.
The No Child Left Behind Act requires a teacher be considered
``highly qualified'' in order to teach a language for school credit.
Most fluent tribal speakers are elders and do not have the degree or
certification to become ``highly qualified.'' Those same speakers are
being lost at an alarming rate due to their age. Native languages are
highly endangered and action needs to be taken before they are lost.
The tribes are the best judge to say who is an expert speaker of their
language. NCLB should include language which allows tribes to certify
their language speakers according to standards the tribe determines.
Additionally, Native language should be certified as a world language
credit so that it is accredited for purposes of graduation. Currently,
Native language is counted as electives due to the challenges of
teacher certification.
In conclusion, we applaud the efforts of this Committee to address
issues related to Native students and education. Working together, we
believe the impact of this Act will not only benefit Native American
students but will also positively impact their families, communities,
and all students in public schools!
The Chairman. Thank you very much for your testimony.
Ms. Brave Eagle, I want to thank you so much for taking the
time to come and appear at our hearing. I understand you left
your family on vacation to come and testify on this bill.
Ms. Brave Eagle. Yes, I did.
The Chairman. As you mentioned, and it shows, that you are
very passionate about this area we are discussing. Let me ask
you, the Oglala Sioux Tribe has a variety of schools on its
reservation, public, BIE operated schools, private and
tribally-controlled BIE schools as well. My question is, how do
you coordinate language and cultural education among these
different schools on the reservations?
Ms. Brave Eagle. Our tribal schools all have implemented a
curriculum of Lakota language. Our high schools require our
students who are graduating to have Lakota language as a credit
and requirement to graduate high school. Our BIE school also
implements Lakota language. Our parochial schools have some of
the history and culture and also the language but we don't have
one uniform curriculum that is served in all four different
types of schools.
In our state schools, Shannon County schools, they do
implement Lakota language. It is not as prevalent in some of
the schools as it is in the tribal schools because as the
tribal education director, we have influence directly to our
tribal schools. With the other schools, we have to partner with
the other entities of the state education agency or the Bureau
of Indian Affairs and with the parochial schools. That is a big
challenge for us on our reservation.
The Chairman. Ms. Imotichey, the Native CLASS Act seeks to
improve coordination for federal Native education programs
including Johnson-O'Malley and Title VII. What are the
coordination challenges with federally-funded Native education
programs and how can we improve that coordination?
Ms. Imotichey. That is one of the things we are very
excited about with this bill, improving coordination. One of
the biggest challenges is what I and some of the others have
said in our testimony and that is access to data and being able
to really see what is going on with our children and what their
needs are to better be able to serve them. I think by allowing
us access to that data, we will be able to improve the
coordination.
The Chairman. Ms. Brave Eagle, one issue many Tribes deal
with is the high drop out rate for Native students. A success
or failure in school depends on community and parental
involvement at home and in the schools. We, in Congress,
struggle with how to legislate on these issues. Is this an
issue in the schools on the Oglala Sioux Reservation and how do
you think the Tribe and Congress can address these issues?
Ms. Brave Eagle. Yes, this is a major problem for us, our
high drop out rate. It correlates with our unemployment rate
also, so there is a correlation there that needs to be
addressed. We need to openly see the correlation between high
dropout and unemployment. There is a connection there. We need
to work together in all entities to make sure that we can help
support our students in the success of graduation.
The social issues our reservation faces are no different
than other social issues inner cities may face or any other
reservation but because we are on a reservation, its magnitude
is more. We need to continue to support the success of our
students and encourage them to continue to value education and
complete their high school graduation.
The Chairman. Ms. Imotichey, the drop out rate for Native
students is the highest in the Nation, especially in States
like yours with high Native populations. In your work, what are
the most promising strategies for preventing dropouts?
Ms. Imotichey. I am the senior policy analyst so I can get
back with our education administrator to find out what are some
of the more technical things our Tribe is doing in terms of
programs to be able to decrease dropout rates, but I know that
we have several programs we really try and encourage.
We have a robotics program, we have some language programs.
We recently opened the Chickasaw Cultural Center and we are
increasing our programs through that. We are giving our
students positive things to want to keep them involved in
school and in culture. Hopefully, that will reduce some of the
dropout rate.
The Chairman. I really appreciate you coming because we are
hearing directly from you, from the Tribes themselves and those
of you who work in the system. In a sense, we are desperately
trying to find ways of trying to improve the system.
Legislatively, for me, would be the last resort. If we can
do it administratively, that would be even better as we work
out these things. There are so many things about education that
continuously challenge our people. As you know, one of the
things I think we have not done too well is to use our
language, tradition and culture as a way of trying to educate
our young people.
Also, education is a process that requires as much
partnership as possible. By that, I mean involving the parents
as well as the school, the teachers, as well as the community,
so it can get larger. There are so many areas you can begin to
work on in setting up a curriculum that can help the young
people.
One other important thing, I feel, is for them to be able
to really do all of this with pride, pride for their language,
culture and traditions.
We have lots of work to do and as I keep saying, we need to
work together to bring about all of this. Of course our hope is
that the bill we are talking about, the Native CLASS bill, does
help us in this. We are also looking to you to tell us whether
it really does or doesn't and to suggest any changes that can
help.
It is important and exciting and we look forward to
continuing to work with you. I have some other questions for
you but I am going to submit them and have you respond to them
in that way.
Before I let you go, I just want to give you an opportunity
to make any statements, suggestions or recommendations as to
what else we can do. My questions have been probing you to give
us those kinds of answers. Again, I will give you a chance to
make any remarks you would like at this point.
Ms. Brave Eagle. Again, I just want to thank you for
inviting us and for bringing us to the table to give our
comments. I want to also say we want to continue to work
together as you stated, that we need to come together and work
together to provide the best we can for our children because
that is our future.
The Chairman. Thank you very much.
Ms. Imotichey. I would also like to thank you for the work
that has been done on this bill. In looking through it, we are
very excited about some of the provisions, specifically the
language and culture provisions and the provisions modeled
after self governance. I think self governance has really
proven to work in other ways and we think it can also work in
education, so we are very excited about that.
Thank you.
The Chairman. Well, again, thank you, and to all of our
witnesses today. This has been a very informative discussion.
As I said earlier, the introduction of this important
legislation and our hearing today are only the beginning of our
dialogue about improving Native education. We encourage you to
continue sending us your recommendations so that we may further
improve the bill.
Strong roots and a successful future for Native communities
depend on the success of our young people and our schools.
Again, thank you to all of you who participated today and I
want to remind you that the committee record will remain open
for two weeks from today for any additions for the record and
also for members to submit any questions they may have.
With that, thank you very much and a safe trip home. Aloha
and we look forward to working with you.
This Committee is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 4:18 p.m., the Committee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
Prepared Statement of Colin Kippen, Executive Director, National Indian
Education Association
About NIEA
The National Indian Education Association is the oldest and largest
association representing American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native
Hawaiians. The mission of the National Indian Education Association is
to support traditional Native cultures and values, to enable Native
learners to become contributing members of their communities, to
promote Native control of educational institutions, and to improve
educational opportunities and resources for American Indians, Alaska
Natives, and Native Hawaiians throughout the United States.
NIEA would like to express its appreciation to Chairman Akaka, Vice
Chairman Barrasso, and members of the Senate Committee on Indian
Affairs for holding a hearing on the Native CLASS Act. We are also
thankful to Senator Akaka for incorporating many of the NIEA's
suggestions into this bill. It is our hope that this will address many
of the needs for Native education stakeholders across the country. A
rigorous curriculum and relevant instruction are keys to engaging
students in research-driven education models that are rooted in the
culture, language, histories, and traditions of Native students. This
benefits not only the individual, but it creates social and economic
capital for families, tribes, and communities. We believe that S. 1262
is a step in the right direction to improve the status of Native
education.
Areas of S. 1262 Requiring Additional Amendments
Restore Assistant Secretary for Indian Education. The current
position for the Director is underutilized and functions almost
exclusively as a grant manager. This AS for Indian Education
position must be restored so there is authority to engage in
and advise the Secretary of Education on all titles of the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) that impact
Indian student education from cradle to career. The Assistant
Secretary for Indian Education should also facilitate
interagency collaboration, implement the role of the tribal
education agencies in various titles, and serve the needs of
higher education and the tribal colleges. The AS for Indian
Education would preferably be one person with the skill and
expertise to collaborate and advise the Secretary across the
department and to assist in assuring that collaboration and
communication increase to benefit Indian students and the
programs affecting Indians located within the Department of
Education.
The Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) needs to
be clarified to make tribes eligible to access student data.
This should be accomplished through an amendment that includes
tribes (and/or their Tribal Education Departments/Tribal
Education Agencies) as being among the education agencies,
authorities, and officials to whom protected student records
and information can be released without the advance consent of
parents or students. Such an amendment to FERPA would be
consistent with the tribal education programs authorized by
Congress since the ESEA Reauthorizations.
Conclusion
NIEA believes that in tough financial times, the investment that
yields the greatest return comes from educating our youth. A holistic
education that fosters resiliency and a sense of identity are important
components of Native education. So, too, is a rigorous and relevant
curriculum, effective instructors and leaders, and the ability for
parents and communities to shape the direction of education their
children. NIEA looks forward to continuing to work with the Senate
Committee on Indians Affairs to improve the education status of our
Native students. NIEA also will continue to poll our members and to
garner comments and suggestions from Native teachers, Native
administrators, and Native individuals, Native families, and Native
communities across the United States on this seminal legislation known
as the Native CLASS Act.
______
Prepared Statement of Charles R. Calica, Secretary-Treasurer/CEO,
Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon
______
Prepared Statement of Hon. Delores Pigsley, Tribal Chairman, Conferated
Tribes of Siletz Indians
______
______
Response to Written Questions Submitted by Hon. Daniel K. Akaka to
Amy Bowers
Question 1. What kind of access and local control would help Native
communities track and coordinate data about their students, especially
as they change schools?
Answer. Increased and unimpeded access by Tribal Education
Departments/Agencies (TEAs) to Native American (NA) student data would
help Native communities track and coordinate their K-12 students.
Express recognition in federal law that TEAs can receive NA student
data, and sufficient federal funding to support the development and
maintenance by TEAs of NA student data systems, would help establish
the needed tribal access to and local control of NA student data.
There are approximately 700,000 K-12 NA students that attend
federal, state, and tribal schools throughout urban, suburban, and
rural areas nationwide. For a number of reasons, accurate,
comprehensive, and meaningful data for these students is lacking.
Federal education reporting requirements often omit NA students due to
their small numbers. State and local education agencies that do track
NA students in public schools are nevertheless unable to track the
almost 10 percent of NA students who attend federal and tribal schools.
During their K-12 years, many NA students transfer among federal,
state, and tribal school systems but the systems are not required to
transfer student data. Likewise, multiple federal education programs
serving NA students, like ESEA Titles I, III, and VII, Impact Aid, and
JOM are not required to report to each other.
Given these factors, Tribes uniquely are in the best position to
track and coordinate NA student data regardless of the education
provider and student location. However, an outdated oversight precludes
tribes from doing so. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act
(FERPA) of 1974, Title V, Sec. 513 of Pub. L. No. 93-380 (1974),
currently codified at 20 U.S.C. Sec. 1232g, generally allows federal,
state, and local education agencies, authorities, and officials access
to student records and other personally identifiable information kept
by educational institutions without the advance consent of parents or
students. 20 U.S.C. Sec. 1232g(b). These records typically include
attendance records, grades, and test scores. FERPA simply does not
include tribes or TEAs as entities eligible to obtain such data without
advance parental consent. In all but a very few instances, this has
thwarted tribal access to NA student data. FERPA should be amended
expressly on this point as follows by adding to Section
1232(g)(b)(1)(C) a new subsection (iii) that reads,
``(1)(C)(i)(iii) authorized representatives of Indian tribes.''
Once TEAs have regular access to data on NA students in public
schools, which are where the majority of NA students attend, TEAs can
extend their data collection to other schools and programs. With a
comprehensive database TEAs can synthesize and analyze data, which can
then be shared with other educational providers and entities.
In addition, the Educational Technical Assistance Act of 2002, Pub.
L. 107-279, Title II, Sec. 208, currently codified at 20 U.S.C. Sec.
9607, should be amended to make tribes expressly eligible for federal
funding to develop longitudinal student data systems. Currently such
funding ($150 million in FY 2009; $100 million projected for FY 2012)
is available only to states. Without such federal funding, tribes, like
states, are unable to develop such systems on their own. With such
federal funding, tribes can develop student data systems that are
compatible with and linked to those of states.
Question 2. In your experience in looking at programs where tribes
and states have worked together to better educate Native students, what
were the keys to their success?
Answer. Many of the best examples of tribes and states working
together to better educate Native students are reflected in the recent
K-12 Indian education laws of 18 states with high NA student
populations (Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Michigan,
Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota,
Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming).
These state laws, which were developed with direct and significant
input from tribes and Native communities, include various provisions
for K-12 public school curricula in NA tribal history, culture,
language, and government. The state law developments are remarkable
because no federal law requires them. They can be attributed to
leadership, partnerships, and commitment. They often begin with dialog
among tribal, state, and local leaders, and parents, teachers, and
administrators. A vetting of problems leads to an acknowledgment of the
need for improvement being in the best interests of all involved.
Collaborative work begins headed by talent and wisdom, supported by
resources, and united by common goals. Effective solutions and
strategies eventually emerge. After much give and take, buyin, and
consensus, a final product is produced, typically a state law, policy,
or entity (such as a task force or an advisory council) that can be
institutionalized and implemented. (See the Tribal Education
Departments National Assembly 2011 Report on Tribal Education
Departments for specific examples of tribes and public schools working
together at the local level available at www.tedna.org ).
In the Native CLASS Act, Congress can foster and support more such
partnerships to help NA students. Indeed the Native CLASS Act does this
by its landmark federal law confirmation of a role for tribal
governments and TEAs in state public school education, authorizing
tribal-state cooperative agreements, and providing funding for such
roles and partnerships. In particular, the authorization of tribal-
state cooperative agreements provides a proven framework for tribal-
state resolution of problems generally while allowing specifically for
local solutions. Federal funding authorized in the Act will further
these efforts and allow and encourage tribes and states to review,
revise, and sustain their education improvements at the local level.
______
Response to Written Questions Submitted by Hon. John Barrasso to
Amy Bowers
Question 1. What, in your opinion, should be done in the context of
Indian education reform to reverse these problems?
Answer. Increasing NA student high school graduation rates will
help to reverse these problems. Research and reports have long
recommended better links between schools and NA communities, and at
some level this means formal recognition of a role for tribal
governments in education, including public school education. Federal
law and policy can help direct these results, according to an excellent
recent study co-conducted by Dr. John W. Tippeconnic III, Professor of
Education at Pennsylvania State University (attached hereto).
Significantly, Dr. Tippeconnic was appointed the Director of the Office
of Indian Education Programs (now known as the Bureau of Indian
Education) in the Department of the Interior under President Clinton,
and the Director of the Office of Indian Education in the Department of
Education under President George H. W. Bush.
The Dropout/Graduation Rate Crisis Among American Indian and Alaska
Native Students: Failure to Respond Places the Future Of Native Peoples
at Risk (2010), Los Angeles, CA: The Civil Rights Project/Proyecto
Derechos Civiles at UCLA; www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu., co-authored
by Dr. Tippeconnic, confirms that NA students have the lowest high
school graduation rate of any ethnic group. The lack of education
progresses into economic hardship, which can develop into social
problems such as drug abuse and domestic violence. NA males over the
age of 16 are particularly vulnerable--in fact only 67 percent of them
are part of the labor force. Id. at 21. On average, a NA man makes
almost $10,000 less annually than all other men in the United States.
Id. at 22. The NA population typically works in serviceoriented jobs
which lack benefits and pay less than enough to support a family. Id.
Inability to earn wages sufficient to support a family results in NA
families being twice as likely to live in poverty as non-Natives. Id.
In this report, the authors attribute high NA secondary student
dropout rates to both institutional and individual factors. Id. at 27.
Institutional factors include lack of teacher empathy, passive teaching
methods, irrelevant curriculum, inappropriate testing, tracking, and
lack of parental involvement. Id. Individual factors include students
being ``pushed out of school,'' poor teacher-student relationships,
student mobility, substance and alcohol abuse, lack of interest in
school, discipline problems, and boredom, among other issues. Id. at
28. Factors that can increase graduation rates are culturally relevant
curriculum, proficiency in students' native language, learning English
early, parental encouragement, and small class sizes. Id. at 29.
Currently, too few schools serving NA students have addressed these
factors sufficiently. Despite some positive changes in some states at
the state law and policy level, at the local level NA parents,
communities and tribal governments still play a limited role in many
schools, even those on Indian reservations. This is largely due to lack
of resources and expertise, and entrenched attitudes and practices.
When NAs continue to be excluded from a system, they continue not to
trust it. Continued negative perceptions perpetuate poor academic
performance and high dropout rates.
Congress can help reverse these problems by playing a leadership
role in linking schools and NA communities, and by recognizing roles
and opportunities for tribal governments and TEAs in public school
education. Every ESEA title serves NA students, and every title should
have an appropriate role for tribal governments, TEAs, NA parents, and
communities in the administration, implementation, and reporting of
each program. (See the Tribal Education Departments National Assembly
ESEA Reauthorization Recommendations, attached hereto, for specific
proposed amendments). The Native CLASS Act begins this process by
artfully providing in selected Titles an appropriate role for all
levels of NA communities to participate in the education of their
children.
Question 2. What kind of outreach to state school systems has been
undertaken to incorporate some of these ideas?
Answer. For decades, the Federal Government, tribal governments, NA
parents, teachers, administrators, and states have been discussing the
role of tribal governments in public school systems operating on Indian
reservations. In some cases, states have enacted laws specifically
recognizing a substantive or advisory role for tribes in public school
education. These state laws reflect the Native and non-Native
leadership, common goals, and collaboration needed to improve Indian
education. And they lay the foundation for more tribal governments
playing an even larger role in state public school education. The
Native CLASS Act is consistent with and supportive of these state laws
and other efforts at the state, tribal, and local levels.
Even in states where such laws have not yet come to fruition,
tribal leaders, Indian educators, and parents, as well as national
Indian organizations continue to meet with states and public school
officials to discuss how to improve Indian education. Frequently,
progress is hindered by the lack of a defined role for tribal
governments in education. This makes collaboration difficult because
parties and stakeholders may not know where or how to start working
together. Meaningful roles for tribal governments defined in federal
law, such as those in the Native CLASS Act, will facilitate these
discussions and result in positive policy reform.
Generally, national Indian organizations, tribal governments, and
NA parents continue to work with states and public school systems
across the country to educate and generate support for the policy
themes in the Native CLASS Act. National meetings such as the National
Indian Education Association's Annual Conference, Tribal Education
Departments National Assembly (TEDNA) Annual Meetings, and local
meetings between tribes and states frequently discuss these types of
policy initiatives. Importantly, for some years TEDNA and NARF have
worked directly with the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO)
on such matters. Together we developed two publications: Major
Elementary and Secondary Federal Education Programs Serving Tribal
Students: What are they and What are the Roles of SEAs, LEAs, and
Indian Tribes (2005) and A Manual for Chief State School Officers and
State Education Agencies on Tribal Sovereignty, Federal Education
Programs for Tribal Students, and Tribal Education Departments (2006).
We continue to engage the CCSSO with respect to our legislative
priorities, including the Native CLASS Act. Finally, TEDNA's membership
works with local school districts as frequently as day-to-day to find
innovative ways to incorporate tribal education resources into state
public schools to help meet the needs of NA students. (See TEDNA's 2011
Report on Tribal Education Departments available at www.tedna.org for
specific examples of the use of tribal education resources in public
schools). To be sure, the policy themes in the Native CLASS Act are not
new and have been vetted with states across the country.
______
Response to Written Questions Submitted by Hon. Daniel K. Akaka to
William Mendoza
Response to Written Questions Submitted by Hon. John Barrasso to
William Mendoza
Response to Written Questions Submitted by Hon. Maria Cantwell to
William Mendoza
Response to Written Questions Submitted by Hon. Kent Conrad to
William Mendoza