[Senate Hearing 117-250]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 117-250
TRANSFORMATIVE AND INNOVATIVE STRATEGIES FOR BETTER EDUCATIONAL
OUTCOMES FOR ALASKA NATIVE STUDENTS
=======================================================================
FIELD HEARING
before the
COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
FEBRUARY 24, 2022
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Indian Affairs
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
47-473 PDF WASHINGTON : 2022
COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS
BRIAN SCHATZ, Hawaii, Chairman
LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska, Vice Chairman
MARIA CANTWELL, Washington JOHN HOEVEN, North Dakota
JON TESTER, Montana JAMES LANKFORD, Oklahoma
CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO, Nevada STEVE DAINES, Montana
TINA SMITH, Minnesota MIKE ROUNDS, South Dakota
BEN RAY LUJAN, New Mexico JERRY MORAN, Kansas
Jennifer Romero, Majority Staff Director and Chief Counsel
Lucy Murfitt, Minority Staff Director and Chief Counsel
C O N T E N T S
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Page
Field hearing held on February 24, 2022.......................... 1
Statement of Senator Murkowski................................... 1
Witnesses
Johnson, Michael, Commissioner, Alaska Department of Education
and Early Learning............................................. 19
Prepared statement........................................... 20
Kitka, Julie, President, Alaska Federation of Natives............ 6
Prepared statement........................................... 9
Kowalski, Sandy Salaktuna, Vice President, Shareholder Relations,
Nana Regional Corporation...................................... 14
Prepared statement........................................... 17
Leggett, Hon. Aaron, President, Native Village of Eklutna........ 3
Naneng, William, General Manger, Sea Lion Corporation............ 22
Prepared statement........................................... 25
Appendix
Cook Inlet Tribal Council (CITC), prepared statement............. 44
Lemen Jr., Morrie, Executive Director, Inupiat Community of the
Arctic Slope, prepared statement............................... 47
U.S. Department of Education, prepared statement................. 43
TRANSFORMATIVE AND INNOVATIVE
STRATEGIES FOR BETTER EDUCATIONAL
OUTCOMES FOR ALASKA NATIVE STUDENTS
----------
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2022
U.S. Senate,
Committee on Indian Affairs,
Anchorage, AK.
The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:00 p.m. AKST in
the CH2MHill Board Room, Alaska Pacific University, the
Honorable Lisa Murkowski, Vice Chairman of the Committee,
presiding. *
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* Due to poor audio reception; there are several indiscernible text
throughout this hearing.
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OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. LISA MURKOWSKI,
U.S. SENATOR FROM ALASKA
Senator Murkowski. Wherever you are, thank you for the
opportunity to be here together.
[Phrase in Native tongue], hoping that I am giving justice
to the pronunciation, in Dena'ina, that means ``you came to
us.'' So I call this hearing to order.
As we begin, we recognize the eyes of Alaska are not
entirely upon us in this room today. They are on Ukraine and
the war that Vladimir Putin has decided to wage on innocent
people.
I am a few minutes late here, and I apologize for my tardy
arrival. I have been on a call with our Secretary of Defense,
our Secretary of State. As members of the Senate, we are
provided a little bit more detail about the situation and the
latest developments. I wish that I could share that news was
good, and it is not.
The events of the past day were not unexpected, but that
does not make them any less devastating. We pray for the good
people of Ukraine; we will support them and our NATO allies. We
must make those who are perpetrating these horrific acts of
war, Vladimir Putin, his cronies and the entities that support
them, we must make them pay through uncompromising sanctions
and penalties.
As we are watching events on the ground in Ukraine, we are
more thankful than ever for the blessings of our democracy and
all that it affords us, including the ability to hold
Congressional hearings on topics of our choosing at the time of
our choosing and the place of our choosing, with the ability to
speak freely without the threat of harm as we seek to shape the
decisions of our constitutional government.
So, to turn to our hearing, greetings to our witnesses, our
staff that are in attendance, everyone who is participating
online. I am Aanshawatk'i, which means in Tlingit, lady of the
land. I am honored to be an adopted member of the Deisheetan
clan.
As your senior Senator, as Alaska's senior Senator, I serve
as the Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.
This is the only Committee in Congress that exists specifically
to address the unique problems faced by American Indian and
Alaska Native and Native peoples.
It is through this position that I work to ensure Alaska
Native voices are heard and reflected in the decisions being
made across the Federal level. I am proud of the work that
comes out of our Committee and what we have done thus far in
this Congress.
We have been talking a lot about the infrastructure bill
that was just passed into law. This is going to bring sustained
benefits to our Native communities, whether it is water and
sanitation infrastructure, broadband, basic necessities that
far too many of our Native villages have gone without.
We are focusing now on the public safety crisis facing
Native women and children in our State. We have been engaged
and are proud to have advanced a bipartisan bill to address
violence against women.
The fact that we haven't reauthorized that VAWA Act since
2013 is something that needs to be remedied. We focus not only
on that, but the important tribal title that includes a pilot
program for a limited number of tribes to exercise special
domestic violence jurisdiction, concurrent jurisdiction with
the States.
So we are working to advance that this year. I share that
because I think it is important for us to remember that there
is much work that is coming out of the Congress right now that
will help our Native peoples.
But today we are here to talk about education, and how we
can achieve better education outcomes for Alaska Native
students. I want to first begin by thanking Alaska Pacific
University for hosting the hearing.
As many of you probably know, Peter Gordon Gould, an Alaska
Native from Unga, and APU's founder, saw the importance of
education for Alaska Native students. He made it his mission to
ensure that indigenous leadership is reared, educated, and
trained in Alaska for Alaska. So it is very fitting that we are
here on the APU campus.
I am, we are, pleased and honored to have Mr. Aaron Leggett
to provide an acknowledgement regarding the indigenous lands
here in Anchorage. He is of Dena'ina Athabascan heritage. He
serves as the president of the Native village of Eklutna.
He is also a senior curator of the Alaska History and
Indigenous Cultures at the Rasmuson Center, Anchorage Museum.
Many accomplishments to Mr. Leggett's account, and we certainly
appreciate him and we are very thankful, sir, for your
determination to preserve, perpetuate and elevate the Dena'ina
language and culture for future generations.
I turn to you, Mr. Leggett. Please proceed.
STATEMENT OF HON. AARON LEGGETT, PRESIDENT, NATIVE VILLAGE OF
EKLUTNA
Mr. Leggett. Thank you, Senator.
[Phrase in Native tongue] Aaron Leggett [speaking in Native
tongue].
Hello, everybody. Again, my name is Aaron Leggett. I am
currently president of the Native village of Eklutna, and the
senior curator of Alaska History and Indigenous Cultures at the
Anchorage Museum. As the president of the Native village of
Eklutna, and the only federally recognized tribe here within
the municipality of Anchorage, it is my honor to provide a
welcome here on the Dena'ina homeland.
As the Senator said, I think it is fitting that we are here
talking about education at Alaska Pacific University. A little
over two months ago, on this very campus, we celebrated the
50th anniversary of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, a
monumental piece of legislation.
One of the things that I was struck by was, as I was
sitting commemorating this event, my involvement goes back
about 20 years. I am not that old, but I started when I was
pretty young. I knew, I had an understanding of tribal
sovereignty and Alaska Native Corporations and how they are
economic drivers for our State. They are incredibly important.
The one thing that was interesting was during that
presentation, as I was sitting there, they interviewed about a
half dozen APU students who were about the same age I was 20
years ago, so, about 20. I was really struck by the fact that
the things they were saying were the exact same things I said
20 years ago.
So it told me that a whole lot really hasn't changed. One
of the fundamental problems, I believe, is with the lack of
education around tribes in Alaska and the important role that
Alaska Native Corporations play in our State economy.
It is my hope that through this Senate Committee field
hearing, working in partnership with Alaska Native entities, we
can transform education in our State the same way that we have
transformed health care that it is viewed around the world as a
shining model. But we can only do that when we tell the history
of Alaska from all perspectives and we have a true and complete
understanding of what it means for the State to have Alaska
Native Corporations and 220 something federally recognized
tribes.
I want to thank everybody who is here today. I am really
looking forward to seeing the outcome from this. This is really
important to me, not only to the Native Village of Eklutna, but
also to my role at the Anchorage Museum. We are committed to
telling the story of Alaska.
I am honored to be here. [Phrase in Native tongue]. Thank
you to all who came here today.
Senator Murkowski. Thank you, Mr. Leggett.
Let's proceed with the hearing. I am so pleased that we are
able to be here in Alaska for this field hearing in person.
Field hearings are an opportunity to bring the Senate and the
Committee to you, the Alaska Native communities that we
represent.
This is the first field hearing we have had following the
pandemic. Before the pandemic hit us all, I know education
certainly was front of mind to many of us. What we have all
gone through over these past couple of years has made it even
more of an imperative.
Many States are trying new strategies and ideas, employing
tools in innovative ways to enhance education opportunities and
outcomes for Native students. We are seeing that first-hand
here in Alaska, too. One of those ideas I want to examine at
this hearing is State-tribal collaboration on education
compacts.
It is important to remind ourselves that this idea of
compacting is not entirely new. In 2013, Washington State set
up the first state-tribal education compacting program in the
Country. To date, there are seven State compacted schools in
operation with tribes in Washington State. Each of these
schools previously were administered and managed by public K-12
schools, run solely by local school districts with oversight by
the State.
So this idea of compacting education programs and services
comes after decades of experience by tribes and tribal
organizations utilizing the Indian Self-Determination and
Education Assistance Act authorities for the betterment of
their peoples. So ISDEA has proven successful when tribes
assume control of Federal programs and services that uphold
Federal trust responsibility. Mr. Leggett has spoken exactly to
that.
For example, here in Alaska, the Indian Health Service
contracts or compacts 99 percent of its programs are under
ISDEA. The Alaska Tribal Health Compact is one of the most
successful tribal compacts in the Nation. It served as a model
for resolving issues arising out of tribal self-governance
compacts.
On the State level, we also have the Alaska Tribal Welfare
Compact. It serves as another model. It is these types of
agreements between tribes and the Federal or State government
that allow decisions to be made at the local level, which
reduces bureaucracy, helps tailor programs and services to
better assist our communities.
Building on self-determination and self-governance
policies, Alaska has an opportunity to improve the educational
outcomes of Native students. I am looking forward to hearing
from the Alaska Department of Education Early Development
Commissioner, Dr. Michael Johnson. We are pleased that you are
with us here this afternoon.
Julie Kitka, President of the Alaska Federation of Natives,
I am looking forward to this discussion and understanding more
about the current efforts to use State-tribal compacting to
address educational barriers that exist for Alaska Natives and
American Indians.
I am also looking forward to hearing about other
innovations, such as tribal charter schools. Mr. William
Naneng, from Sea Lion Corporation, is going to be participating
virtually to tell us about the tribal charter school in Hooper
Bay that he helped start.
We will also hear from long-time educator, Sandra Salaktuna
Kowalski of NANA, about her experiences in a variety of venues
and how that has worked and what barriers still exist to
helping Alaska Native students succeed.
I think we know statistics about education outcomes, and
many of them are not so good. The dropout rates for Alaska
Natives and American Indians are considerably higher than other
ethnicities and races in Alaska. For the 2020-2021 school year,
Alaska Natives and American Indians had the highest dropout
rates in the State, 4.6 percent compared to 3.1 percent
statewide. These rates are consistently higher overall for
Alaska Natives compared to non-Native students.
Ayyu Qassataq of First Alaskans Institute shared in a
recent dialogue hosted by UAA said, if a plant is failing, you
don't ask why it isn't good enough. You check its soil. Is it
getting enough water? Is it getting enough sun? You investigate
its environment.
It was these disparities that led the State and tribal
organizations like AFN and First Alaskans Institute to take
actions to try and find solutions. We have seen home-grown
solutions that are working. We see positive outcomes from the
SeaAlaska Heritage Institute and their award-winning Baby Raven
Reads program.
Here in Anchorage, we can look to the Cook Inlet Tribal
Council with their Super Fab Lab. I have had an opportunity to
visit and I know that many of my staff were able to tour
yesterday.
The Indian Affairs Committee has also held hearings on
restoring and perpetuating Native languages and cultures.
Native languages are more than just words. They are a vital
part of indigenous cultures, identities, and an important tool
to understand indigenous histories.
Language is integral to the continuity of culture for
future generations. Native language immersion is becoming an
effective tool in many States. We are seeing that certainly
here in Alaska. Research demonstrates that when Native youth
learn in culturally relevant classrooms, with culturally
relevant place-based curriculum, they succeed.
I was in Juneau these past couple days and had an
opportunity to go over to the program there at Harbor View,
with the Tlingit language program and listen to the kids as
they shared with me their Tik Tok videos that they are
learning, not just to say the words, but they are learning how
to share with one another.
These are some of the reasons why I have worked so hard,
and I think it is so important that we continue the focus on
Native language revitalization programs. So we will continue to
work to advance that.
Dr. Rosita Worl of the SeaAlaska Heritage Institute stated
in her written testimony that we had before the Committee, she
said, ``Quality and equitable education for all students and
the integration of Native arts, culture, history, language and
culture in schools, are critical to the survival of Alaskan
cultures, to the attainment of education success of Native
students, and to the well-being of students, tribes and
communities. We also believe that cultural diversity
contributes to the richness of our State and our Nation.''
I include that statement because I absolutely concur with
Dr. Worl. I think it is very appropriate in terms of why we are
here today.
With that rather lengthy, I was going to say it was an
introduction, but I am now turning to the introductions. Again,
I want to thank you all for being here, and committing to work
to ensure that our Native students receive quality and
equitable education.
So we will begin our testimony by coming around the table
here. We will begin with Julie Kitka. I have introduced her as
President of the Alaska Federation of Natives. Sandra Salaktuna
Kowalski is the Vice President of Shareholder Relations for the
NANA Regional Corporation. She is the second vice chair of the
Alaska State Board of Education.
Dr. Michael Johnson is the Commissioner of the Alaska
Department of Education and Early development. And Mr. Willian
Naneng is the General Manager of Sea Lion Corporation.
I don't really feel this is fair to tell you that you only
have five minutes to provide your summary and your testimony,
because I have taken so much time already. But I do think we
want to have an opportunity to have discussion and dialogue.
Know that your full written statement is incorporated as part
of the official hearing record. So if you don't get to all of
it, it will be certainly incorporated as part of that official
record.
With that, we will proceed to Julie Kitka. Thank you, not
only thank you for being here, Julie, but thank you for your
continued focus on prioritizing education and working to
address what we all know to be the real disparities when it
comes to Alaska Native students.
Thank you.
STATEMENT OF JULIE KITKA, PRESIDENT, ALASKA FEDERATION OF
NATIVES
Ms. Kitka. Thank you, Senator. It is an honor to testify
today. [indiscernible] Chairman Schatz [indiscernible] General
Counsel and Executive Vice President for [indiscernible] and
then [indiscernible] Vice President. So I recognize that there
are many questions that they struggle to answer particularly
about compacting [indiscernible] that facilitates the
negotiation of State compact negotiations with tribes and
social service and child welfare. It is a pretty
[indiscernible].
First of all, I wanted to just ask that the testimony and
the attachments that are attached to it be included for the
record.
Senator Murkowski. It will all be included.
Ms. Kitka. I draw your attention to the piece on
Transformational Education Post-Pandemic: A Path Forward. We
have been working with the State legislature [indiscernible]
education compacting, primarily working with the foundation
[indiscernible] as it attempts to do that. The [indiscernible]
foundation [indiscernible] State [indiscernible], taking into
account the special trust relationship that we have with the
Federal Government, taking into account the regulations on the
Federal side, taking into account the State of Alaska's
constitution, laws and regulations.
We are delighted to tell you that this is an absolutely
wonderful partnership between our community and the State of
Alaska. I can report that the Governor of Alaska supports this,
Mr. Johnson supports this, the State Board of Education
supports this legislation, and the legislature on the Senate
side and House side. Legislative hearings have been held on the
State's Senate side, and new legislation has been introduced on
the House side. I am struck by this bipartisan support and this
idea of the demonstration.
So I am thrilled at this progress because we think at this
point in time, as we are all coming out of this pandemic, as we
are dealing with the situation and all its confusion
[indiscernible] resources into our State. Everything
[indiscernible] expansion [indiscernible] broadens
[indiscernible] in education. We can collaborate with
[indiscernible] State [indiscernible] and facilitate that
[indiscernible]. So this is a great example [indiscernible].
I wanted to shout out to the chairman of the State Senate
Education Committee [indiscernible] president [indiscernible]
Senator Stevens out of Kodiak still a couple of years ago has
been working with us and updating it, trying to get a more
simplified approach in the legislature [indiscernible] about
[indiscernible] education to laser focus on how we can have
transformational education is in compact [indiscernible].
On just transformative education [indiscernible] accelerate
it [indiscernible] and look at the rate of change that we are
building in our minds, [indiscernible] computers to
[indiscernible], to [indiscernible], to artificial
intelligence, great changes happen so quickly. In education we
cannot just rely on [indiscernible] of the past. The very
strong way the transformational education that we are seeking
is not teaching about our culture, teaching about our language,
it is teaching through our language.
That is what is transformational about compacting. The
emphasis, innovation, the emphasis on culture-based education
which supports the needs of the child, the context in which the
child fits in, content that they are being taught, but
dynamically interrelated into the whole school system. And the
[indiscernible] value of parents, their whole education, but
just not satisfied that schools have [indiscernible] and our
comments are not negative to anybody. It is just the rate of
change is happening so fast that we need to accelerate to
overcome the barriers for our children for learning, for them
to achieve their full potential.
We think that culturally based education and language is
important for the family and the community. Cultural context,
the cultural content that the school [indiscernible] rigorous
assessment [indiscernible] we work with the [indiscernible]
demonstration [indiscernible] of asking people to take an
interest.
Also we know that essential emotional development of
children is critically important to their self [indiscernible],
their cultural identity, their sense of belonging and sense of
connectedness. That all leads to greater education outcomes,
student engagement, student achievement, and student behavior
in schools.
We also believe that we need to, besides authorize the
demonstration project on compacting, target more resources for
teacher preparation and development. Our teachers are so
important to us and their development should be viewed as an
investment in our children, not as a requirement or something
else.
We also view that we need to ensure that the broadband is
expanded to our communities and seamlessly integrated into the
school experience, including in our compact.
So our testimony today and the comments we put in is not
only for support for the demonstration of compacting, but it is
to ask for additional support for all the innovations going on
right now. Compacting is not going to be for every community
and every tribe. But let's go test it out, let's do several
demonstration projects, let's prove the value and the worth. We
have seen during this pandemic how strong our tribal health
system has been, how durable and innovative it is. We want the
same thing in our educational system.
I want to also note for the record that tribal compacting
is not just limited to the Bureau of Indian Affairs or the
Indian Health Service. The United States Government, the
Congress, has authorized and engages in compacts with the
island nations through the Compact of Free Association. We use
national security, national interests and policy in our
arrangement with those island nations. The compacting is a very
effective mechanism.
Also a number of years ago we moved some of the foreign aid
out of Foreign Aid into the Millennium Challenge Corporation,
in which those are five-year compacts that are for mostly low
and middle income countries. They fund things such as railroads
in Mongolia, or transportation systems.
What is so unique about the compact is you are able to set
up the goals at the beginning, you set up the accountability,
you pledge the resources for doing it and let people accomplish
what they are doing.
So this asking for the compacting on education is not new.
U.S. Federal policy has already shown it is for Native policy,
for national interest policy, as well as our programs that go
around the world to all these countries. It has really proved
out.
Mongolia, for example, had their first five-year compact.
They did so well they had it renewed for another five-year
compact. We are seeing a lot of progress on that. So we view
that with a lot of encouragement that this demonstration will
prove the success and hold us accountable to make sure it is.
Again, this is about systemic change. It is not about a
band-aid. It is about how do you drive systemic change, how do
you do it through our culture, how do you engage the Native
people in the education of their own children. But we do not
expect or want any lesser education, we want more, that is what
we are about.
Again, I probably could go on about other things, but it is
in the written testimony. We wholeheartedly support it, we
wholeheartedly support efforts to increase innovation,
incentivize.
I do have one request I would ask you to do, is that rider
that was put in in 1994 prohibiting resources coming into
Alaskan schools, we ask that that rider be withdrawn. That has
the potential to continue a period of harming our schools and
our educational system.
I want to give a little background on why we are making
that request. When that rider was put in, and Senator Stevens
put that in there, it was at the tail-end of the BIA schools
and the transfer of those BIA schools to the State. It was also
at the time in which the Federal Government was transferring
the railroad to the State, and transferring a lot of things.
What was at the heart of what was going on at that time was
the resources coming into the State from Prudhoe Bay. It was
the buildup of the permanent fund. And it was the recognition
that the State of Alaska could not keep doing all these things
on the Federal level when you had such incredible wealth being
created in the State in the permanent fund. It wasn't that the
Federal role in education should be diminished or eliminated.
We certainly think that that rider should disappear.
Do we want to turn education upside down on the national
level? No. We do not. So we want that cautiously done and
carefully done. But we don't want that rider anymore. We want
the opportunity to engage with the Department of Interior and
the Department of Education for improving education.
We have sent a letter to the Solicitor of Interior, Bob
Anderson, detailing a lot of this information to them, asking
for a legal opinion on use of the compacting authority within
the Department of Interior. They currently have broad
compacting authority which they push out to the Bureau of
Indian Affairs. We want to be able to use that compacting
authority in this as well as whether or not they are able to
use the authority to transfer some funding from other agencies,
such as the Department of Education.
The reason why we asked for that, and we don't have the
answer yet on that, is we didn't want to wait for you and the
Committee to get us the official language that says the
Department of Education can compact directly, or the Department
of Justice can compact. At this point, just so we can speed it
up and move faster, we want the ability to use Interior's
compact authority.
We think it would be beneficial on multiple fronts in the
Department, especially with the load of resources on
infrastructure and everything, if other agencies and
departments are able to run, target money through those funds
to get them out to where they need to be.
But on this education one in particular, we want to not
only look at what Interior has that would pertain, but more
importantly, the Department of Education and their efforts for
innovation.
Again, we are not seeking to overturn everything and cause
chaos. But we do want that provision removed, and for us to
move down a path to have full implementation of the Federal
trust responsibility. It is something that when we took on this
project working with the Commissioner, that was one of our
fundamental things we agreed on, is that we were going to do
everything we could to strengthen that Federal trust
responsibility. We weren't going to do anything to weaken it.
With that, Madam Chairman, I will conclude my testimony.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Kitka follows:]
Prepared Statement of Julie Kitka, President, Alaska Federation of
Natives
I. Introduction
Vice Chair Murkowski and Members of the Committee:
Good afternoon. My name is Julie Kitka, and I serve as the
President of the Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN). AFN is the largest
statewide Alaska Native membership organization in Alaska. Our
membership includes over 130,000 Alaska Natives and their institutions
set up to serve our people. AFN's membership includes federally
recognized tribes, regional tribal consortiums, regional non-profit
organizations, and Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) villages
and regional corporations representing every corner of the state.
Thank you for convening this hearing today. Senator Murkowski, we
commend you for your long-standing and continued interest in
legislation and legislative oversight of programs that are designed to
meet the distinct social, cultural, and economic needs of Alaska Native
communities and individuals. You have supported new initiatives in this
area and sought ideas for improvements in existing programs, and we
thank you for your support and leadership.
AFN requested this hearing today to urge the Committee to take
action to help us to strengthen the federal trust responsibility in
education for Alaska Natives, acknowledge the sometimes contradictory
actions of the federal government over the years, and direct the
Departments of Interior and Education to support the growing
partnership with the State of Alaska in evaluating and demonstrating
the potential of tribal compact schools as well as scale up other
innovative efforts which are going on right now all over our state.
I want to report that we have been working closely with the Alaska
Commissioner of Education, Dr. Michael Johnson, on a new type of public
school in Alaska--a tribally compacted school. AFN has been working on
the legal foundation of such a project, evaluating the relevant laws,
regulations, and policies at both the federal and state levels. AFN
desires to pilot a range of compact schools with the full weight of the
federal trust responsibility for education, as well as the full weight
of the State of Alaska constitutional mandate to provide education.
The worldwide pandemic of the past two years has created an
unprecedented disruption in the delivery of education to Alaska's
students and has demonstrated a far greater demand for innovation in
education methods, service delivery, and awareness of community needs.
From the COVID-19 pandemic, we learned that we need to make sure the
institutions around us have flexibility to adapt and meet the true
needs of the people. Within the Alaska Native community there is a
growing awareness that teaching about our culture or language is not
enough. Our parents are our children's first teachers. They need
support. Critical resources need to go into relevant teacher
preparation, professional development, curriculum development as well
as leadership training. We need to scale up the resources available and
broaden the opportunities. We need critical resources to evaluate
financial infrastructure, systems patterns and governance patterns that
work for us. In our efforts we are putting our children first. Our
parents are the frontline. Our children and their future, demands that
the Alaska Native people take greater ownership of the system of
education and ensure not only language and culture are at the heart of
the educational experience, but that our social and economic well-being
and aspirations for our future. We are ready to take on more
responsibility and accountability. We want to have a greater role in
decisionmaking and ensure our children can be all they want to be. In
short, we want to expand the imagination of our people and create a
path where we can put all our best efforts to create a better
educational system.
This is not wishful thinking. It is critical if we are going to
survive the rapid change which destabilizes our traditional communities
and devalues our people. This change has been accelerating. Some have
put the rate of rapid change to be 1000X the change that occurred in
our parents' generation. And it continues to accelerate all around us
and with leaps in technology.
The State Board of Education and the Alaska Department of Education
and Early Development have identified compacting as the mechanism that
will allow for the transformation of Alaska Native education, and the
Alaska State legislature is currently considering legislation that
would authorize a demonstration project for compacting of education
services for Alaska Native students. Through tribal compacting of
education, we will improve outcomes for students, schools, and
communities.
Compacting has long been one of the federal government's most
effective tools for the promotion of innovative and cost-effective
tribal programs, such as those under the Indian Health Service and
Bureau of Indian Affairs. We have great and long-lasting experience in
compacting in these areas.
We believe there is room in Alaska's educational system to create a
transformational educational system. We have the commitment and drive
to do our best to accomplish something better for our children.
The following written testimony attachments have been retained in
the Committee files:
Attachment A: Transformational Education Post Pandemic: A
Path Forward, dated December 2, 2021.
Attachment B: AFN White Paper: The Origins, Meaning and
Future of Indian Self-Determination, dated December 2021.
Attachment C: A link to three special webinars which were
held to support this effort by First Alaskans Institute on
transformative education and a discussion on what is possible
in Alaska as we move to tribal compacting over education.
Professor Graham Smith and Professor Linda Tuiwai Smith (Maori)
discussed lessons learned in their 40 years of experience in
New Zealand. (Webinar dates: February 11, 15, and 18th 2022. A
video link and written transcript are available.)
II. The Need for a New Approach
The indigenous population in Alaska is large and diverse. There are
229 federally recognized Indian tribes and at least twenty distinct
indigenous languages, some of which are now spoken by only a few
people. \1\ Over the years, you have heard a lot about the disastrous
history of education of Native children in this State--including
government policy to eliminate our traditional cultures, traditions,
and language and assimilate our children to be something they are not.
This has had tragic impacts on generations of Alaska Native people. I
am not going to dwell on that history, except to note its role in
creating the current educational crisis for Native students in our
state, where only about 68 percent of Native students in Alaska
graduate from high school--compared to 80 percent percent of all
students--and more than 5 percent drop out--compared to 3 percent of
non-Native students. \2\ It is also of note that, despite the fact that
22 percent of students in our state are Alaska Native, only 5 percent
of our teachers are Alaska Native or American Indian--a number that has
not changed for decades. \3\
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\1\ Diane Hirshberg, Ph.D., Educational Challenges in Alaska,
University of Alaska Anchorage Institute of Social and Economic
Research, February 2022, at 5.
\2\ Id. at 14.
\3\ Id. at 11.
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Alaska's vast size (land mass \1/5\ the size of the entire United
States) and the isolated nature of most of its Native villages also
present special challenges to traditional approaches to education. \4\
More than 300 communities in Alaska, the vast majority of which are
predominantly indigenous, are accessible only by plane or boat. \5\ The
pandemic only exacerbated the challenges to providing quality education
to Alaska's Native students, who struggled to adapt to remote learning
due to the lack of reliable Internet access in Alaska's rural areas.
The true impacts of the pandemic on Native education are yet to be
determined, as we are still in the pandemic.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\4\ Id. at 22.
\5\ Id. at 4.
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These historical, geographic, and practical complexities--and just
common sense--call for creative and flexible solutions that expand
access to and leverage modern technology and innovations. We have those
solutions at hand now if we exercise the right authorities and access
the tremendous value in teaching through culture.
The Alaska State Board of Education and the Alaska Department of
Education and Early Development recognized this need for innovation
even before the pandemic, and, in 2016, changed the Department's
mission and vision statements to include five strategic priorities
designed to ensure an excellent public education for all of Alaska's
students. One of those priorities was to ``inspire tribal and community
ownership of educational excellence.'' The recommendation based on that
priority, which the State Board later adopted, was to ``create the
option for self-governance compacting for the delivery of education
between the State of Alaska and Tribes or tribally-empowered Alaska
Native organizations.'' As part of this effort, AFN has partnered with
the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development to advance a
demonstration project that would establish the first tribal compact
schools in the state.
There has been important progress made in the education of Native
students in Alaskan schools that have adopted the teaching
recommendations of Alaska Native leaders, tribes, and tribal
organizations, educators, and academic experts. For example, Native
language education is now part of the curriculum, and many schools have
found ways to present other aspects of Native culture to students. But
it is clear that just teaching Native students about their culture in a
classroom is not enough to change educational outcomes. To influence
those outcomes and improve our children's future, we need our schools
to implement pedagogies based on and provided through Alaska Native
cultural perspectives.
Schools help shape the way students think about the world and
prepare them to live in that world. Academic research has established
the benefits of Alaska Native children remaining linguistically and
culturally connected to their tribes and communities. It is time to go
beyond theory and implement change that will transform the education of
Alaska Native students and improve their futures.
AFN has been working to support the State Board of Education's
priority of identifying a legal and practical pathway for a state-
tribal compact in which Alaska Natives could administer K-12 public
education with support from the local school board and community.
Legislation currently pending before the State legislature would
authorize the Commissioner of Education to test innovative ideas
through real-world experience, and then use that experience to evolve
programs to make them more effective. Aligning vision, goals, and
resources through demonstration projects to prove the value is an
important first step.
III. Benefits of Tribal Compacting of Education
Tribal compacting of education offers significant benefits to all
parties. A compact is a negotiated agreement between tribes and a state
and/or the federal government that sets forth the terms and conditions
of the relationship. Unlike contracts, compacts may set political
policies for the state and tribes ``and therefore have inherent value
even beyond their stated goals,'' \6\ and practices under the compact
may be changed without requiring new approvals for the change.
Compacting for the delivery of education means that Alaska tribes, or
tribally empowered Alaska Native organizations, will be able to partner
with the State to assume the responsibility (and receive the associated
funding) to carry out educational programs, functions, services, and
activities the State otherwise would be obligated to provide.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\6\ Intergovernmental Compacts in Native American Law: Models for
Expanded Usage, 112 Harv. L. Rev. 922, 924 (1999).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Because only one other state--Washington--has implemented a program
for the tribal compacting of education services, and because the
circumstances in Alaska differ in several important ways from
Washington, including the logistical challenges Alaska faces described
above and a lack of pre-existing BIA schools, the Department of
Education is committed to starting this endeavor into tribal compacting
of education with a demonstration project. Those of us who have studied
the needs here believe a test project will put Alaska in the best
position to ensure that, when a permanent program is eventually
implemented, it will best meet the needs of Alaska's Native students.
The present proposal before the Alaska legislature would authorize
a demonstration project for tribal compacting that would formally
recognize the tribal entity's authority to oversee certain functions of
K-12 public schools. The current proposal is for a five-year
demonstration period. Participation in the program would be voluntary
and structured to honor tribal sovereignty through government-to-
government negotiations and agreements.
The proposed demonstration project would improve education for
Native students in Alaska by:
Providing local control of schools in tribal communities
Allowing for improved recruitment and training of Native
educators
Allowing for K-12 teaching through cultural methods
Encouraging Native parents and community leaders to become
and stay involved with the education of Native children
Providing for Native language, culture, and vocational
education
Providing a reporting mechanism for ongoing review and
improvement of the compacting program
The demonstration project would offer tribes and Native communities
an opportunity to have a direct role in providing their children an
education grounded in and driven by their culture, language,
traditions, and values on a demonstration basis with the potential to
grow into broader use of state-tribal education compacting. Requiring
regular reporting on the program's implementation will also provide
valuable information to guide Native education planning in Alaska and
help ensure future success.
We have received great, thoughtful leadership from the Commissioner
of Education, and we are hopeful the legislation will pass in this
session.
IV. The Federal Role
We want Alaska's demonstration project for tribal compact schools
to be a new hybrid effort utilizing state and federal funding sources.
The exercise of tribal control over Native education arises from a
foundation of federal laws that have supported education for Native
American students based on the federal government's trust
responsibility. Considerable legal authority already exists for the
federal funding and operation of education programs for the benefit of
Alaska Natives. As just one example, the Johnson-O'Malley Act
authorizes the Secretary of the Interior, through the Bureau of Indian
Education, to enter contracts with tribes, tribal organizations,
states, schools, and private non-sectarian organizations to address the
needs of Native students. In addition, the Indian Self-Determination,
and Education Assistance Act \7\ authorizes self-governance compacts,
which are used primarily for tribes to assume operation of the Indian
Health Service and Bureau of Indian Affairs programs. \8\ ISDEAA also
authorizes tribal compacting of programs from other bureaus of the
Department of the Interior. \9\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\7\ P.L. 93-638, as amended.
\8\ See supra n.1.
\9\ The Department of the Interior publishes a list annually of all
non-BIA programs, services, functions, and activities that are eligible
for inclusion in self-governance agreements. There are required
programmatic targets. Currently nearly the entire Indian Health Service
and Bureau of Indian Affairs is compacted--with Alaska Native tribes,
consortiums or statewide compacts running for example the statewide
hospital, regional hospitals, subregional and village health clinics.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
AFN has asked the U.S. Department of the Interior for a legal
opinion as to whether it may enter compacts on behalf of other federal
departments, such as the United States Department of Education. If the
Department of the Interior has that authority, it may act as a conduit
for federal Department of Education funds supporting Alaska's tribal
compacting demonstration program on a temporary basis until direct
Congressional authority is obtained. AFN's initial legal analysis
suggests such authority exists under the Johnson-O'Malley Act and its
implementing regulations, the JOM Modernization Act of 2018, and the
clear compacting authority of ISDEAA.
One legislative fix that AFN urges you to immediately pursue is the
repeal of a provision included in the 1994 appropriations legislation
for the Department of the Interior and Related Agencies that prohibited
the use of funding other than through the Johnson-O'Malley Act to
support the operation of elementary and secondary schools in Alaska.
This provision was included at the request of Assistant Secretary of
Indian Affairs Dr. Eddie Brown because a few Alaska villages had
applied for the BIA to take over education services and the BIA did not
have sufficient funds to grant those requests. Dr. Brown asked for
language added to the appropriations bill that would prohibit the
expenditure of BIA funds to support the operation of elementary and
secondary schools in Alaska, and that language was included. Annual
appropriations legislation for DOI still regularly includes an
administrative provision prohibiting BIA expenditures to support the
operation of elementary and secondary schools in Alaska, except through
the Johnson-O'Malley program. \10\ AFN believes this provision violates
the federal government's trust responsibility to Alaska tribes as
currently applied to education programs now and looking forward and
asks this Committee to repeal that provision.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\10\ See, e.g., P.L. 110-161 (121 Stat. 2113).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
In a great many ways, our effort to develop a framework for
compacting lines up with the interests of the Senate Committee on
Indian Affairs. The most recent amendments to the Johnson O'Malley
program, a cornerstone educational program for the education of Native
Americans, arose in the Committee in 2017, and were enacted into law in
2018. There could well be a role for the utilization of the JOM program
in the compacting of the schools, and curriculum that we are working
on. More significantly, the oversight jurisdiction of the Committee
could be exercised to review the need for upgrading and improving the
delivery of education to Alaska Native students, which lags where it
should be. We at AFN believe very strongly that there is a unique and
strong role for the federal government to support efforts such as those
we want to undertake. It is in fact the federal trust responsibility
that underpins all the federal programs, and we cherish this
relationship.
Importantly, tribal education compacts in Alaska will be negotiated
and created on a voluntary basis in a manner that does not diminish the
Alaska Natives' right to self-determination or the federal government's
trust responsibility toward Alaska Natives.
V. Conclusion
This is a forward-looking effort, built on the experiences of our
history. We cannot rewrite the difficult history of Alaska Native
education in our state, but there is precedent--setting value in the
idea of tribal, state, and federal collaboration to promote innovative
and meaningful ways to support our children. The lessons we learn from
the demonstration project in Alaska might have other local, state, or
national applications in terms of American Indian/Alaska Native
programs or other multi-cultural programs or services. Establishing
this demonstration project is critical to the future of Alaska Native
children and offers hope in an area where hope has historically been
hard to find. We are excited about the possibilities, and we welcome
the opportunity to work with you on this issue.
Thank you.
Senator Murkowski. Thank you, Julie. I appreciate that. You
have answered several of the questions that I had in front of
me.
Sandy, welcome to the Committee, and thank you.
STATEMENT OF SANDY SALAKTUNA KOWALSKI, VICE
PRESIDENT, SHAREHOLDER RELATIONS, NANA REGIONAL CORPORATION
Ms. Salaktuna. Thank you. I am recently, being that I am
Vice President of Shareholder Relations for the NANA Regional
Corporation, I can tell you that I have been an education
professional all my life until recently, moving into this new
role. I wanted to be here today as a career educator, and let
you know that my passion has been creating healthy and engaging
and meaningful opportunities that contribute to the health and
well-being of my people. I come here to share my perspective on
growing up indigenous in an American school system and what I
see or what I envision about being an Alaska Native student.
I do want to share my appreciation to AFN for their work
with the Commissioner here. I am also a State board member, and
I want to share the State Board's appreciation for that level
of work and commitment. I think that we can all say that is
what has moved the wheel, and things are, there are some gears
now. We really appreciate that.
I also appreciate that the focus is on not diminishing any
of the Federal trust responsibility and helping us learn more
about the legal and regulation pieces that would support this.
I want to offer mine and the Board's appreciation to AFN, as I
am sure the Commissioner will as well.
But first and foremost, I am coming to you here as a long-
time educator. I would have to say that I have been telling
people ever since I have become a State Board member, and I
have had an ability to move about, that I don't think that
Alaskan classrooms are that different from classrooms in the
lower 48 yet. I think even though we have classrooms here that
use cultural standards to help guide lessons so that they are
culturally relevant, it still isn't much different than the
lower 48. The system is just built the way it is right now. We
have curriculum, textbooks, teaching practices, even our
extracurricular activities and our calendar year, they are
baked in from hundreds of years of the western education
system.
In the decades that I have worked as an educational
professional, I really have been, in the past few years I have
been able to put some words to some dissonance that I have
always experienced as an educational professional. I grew up in
the lower 48 and in Alaska. I have also attended one of those
tribal schools that you mentioned in Washington State. I
attended Chief Leschi Indian School when it was a brand-
spanking new school in the basement of a church. I have also
helped to start Nikaitchuat Tribal School in Kotzebue, Alaska.
And I have been a working member of many efforts to improve
outcomes for students through cultural activities and cultural
and language revitalization efforts.
We have to do more than change the resources we have in
front of our students. We have to get at the gut of what I feel
like I experienced as dissonance growing up. There is a point
when you are an Alaska Native student or an American Indian
student where you realize that you might not have been intended
to be there in that moment in that classroom. You are sitting
there in a history class and you are learning about manifest
destiny and U.S. assimilation policies and you are accountable
for that knowledge and you are answering test questions on that
information that you are learning in history.
And no one is addressing it, but it is occurring to you.
This has got to be happening, it didn't just happen to other
people, there is a point in your life where you are like, I am
indigenous, I am Native American, I am Alaska Native.
Everything here in this school system feels a little
disconnected, or I feel a little disconnected right now.
So the only way that I feel we can truly, for indigenous
people, have an education system that doesn't do that to them
is to have an education system that is not only by Alaska
Natives but it is for Alaska Natives, which benefits all people
in our area, and it is of Alaska Natives. We have created the
educational system that is most meaningful for our community.
I think I have already made the point, I am looking through
this here, that simply tweaking resources that exist won't get
at what I am doing. I think we can all acknowledge that when a
publishing company realizes that they need to change something
in a textbook used in American schools, it really doesn't get
at the heart of what is done when you are trying to rewrite
portions of textbooks to address American Indian and Alaska
Native issues and expect [indiscernible] still doesn't get at
it. It is still not of, for, and by the indigenous people in
the communities.
So that is a little bit about one of the reasons I have
been driven to work in this area as a public educator. I have
worked in the system, I was an administrator, one of those
gung-ho principals when NCLB came out. I was astonished at what
some of the implications would be. But gosh darn it, Alaska
Natives were a demographic that we were finally going to hold
schools accountable for, and that got me excited for about a
year and a half or two, because I started realizing about some
of the other mechanisms in it.
So I have been a good soldier as a public educator, in our
State system, responding to Federal regulations and other well-
intended practices that get put into place in classrooms in
Alaska. And all the well-intended practices aren't going to
make a deep enough difference unless we as Alaska Natives are
creating our own educational system that our students are
participating in.
I have this vision that we will have a fourth-grade boy who
is not even understanding he is in a science mode, but he is
out checking his rabbit snare, and he is understanding the
human impact to his environment, because he was taught by
elders already about what is respectful practices for
harvesting animals in that setting for that type of animal. And
he is learning about the human impact through his elders.
He is also able to understand the cultural practices and
the deep connections to the land through that activity, and not
through English, but through Inupiaq. I believe that is
entirely possible.
We are at a point now where there is collective energy and
synergy, not just in the Inupiaq region where I am from, but
through many arears of the State where we have people of all
age. I work with and work near people of all ages through
cultural and language revitalization work right now. That
synergy is really ready to bust loose of the systems that are
in place and help create the innovation and vision that is
ready to be put in place when compacting comes around.
As a side note, the State Board of Education right now, our
goal is to make sure we are removing the barriers for
regulation for State compacting, we are paying attention to the
overarching activity around tribal compacting. But we are also
paying attention to what school systems may need once this
innovation is allowed to happen, is empowered to happen.
So we are looking at teacher preparation as one of our key
pieces to make sure, we could get all kinds of regulations in
the way of that. But when we are thinking about an indigenous
teacher pathway, our State board is making sure that we are
already looking ahead to make sure we are supportive of it, we
are not going to get in the way of it, and we are actually
going to try to create help to support the pathways that do get
developed for teacher pathways and tribal compacting.
I know that Julie touched on this already, but I want to
give you a little bit of personal experience around language
revitalization and young children and how Inupiaq language
revitalization really is an additive piece of their growing up
in Alaska. English is always going to be there in Alaska. I do
not have to worry about any of my children or grandchildren
learning to read, write, or speak English. They are going to
get that.
But while they get that, if I don't also help focus on
being Inupiaq and their connection to their family and their
land, I think I take away something from them. My two youngest
sons, I have four sons, my two youngest learned to read and
write in Inupiaq first. They went to Nikaitchuat Tribal School
in Kotzebue.
But I could say that those two, when I look at all four of
my sons, they learned to read first in English, they went to
the public school, they learned to focus academically, and they
learned to be very respectful in a public-school classroom.
They had the grounding at Nikaitchuat Tribal School where they
learned to read in an orthography that is pretty recent. Let's
face it, our indigenous language orthographies are recent.
So what that means, when you are teaching children how to
read, is it is a really clean system for them to make sense,
based on what we already know about the science of reading,
sound-letter correlations, and picking up how to read words
that might be unfamiliar to them. These were kids that went to
Nikaitchuat who spoke English first, ended up in an Inupiaq
immersion program at three years old, and learned to read
Inupiaq. The skills they applied are exactly the types of
skills I see happening in really effective reading classrooms.
It is applied Inupiaq, and they are both strong readers for it.
The other thing that I want to share is while my kids were
at Nikaitchuat, I was a principal in the public school that
Nikaitchuat kids fed into. I have to say that those students at
Nikaitchuat, I saw them go from first, second, third, fourth,
fifth grade, and then they would exit into a middle school
setting.
I got to sit there at every quarterly award ceremony at our
school. I knew, because I was connected to Nikaitchuat, and the
Juneau Elementary, the public school was 500 students large,
but I always knew which ones were Nikaitchuat students, because
of my close involvement. At those award ceremonies, there was a
lot of academic recognition.
But I think what was most meaningful to our elders who were
involved with Nikaitchuat, and who understood what they really
wanted out of Nikaitchuat, was that most of those students
receiving awards for behavior, respectful behavior, engagement
and hard work, helping others, those were always, 20 students
came out of Nikaitchuat, 500-student school, I would say always
50 percent of them were Nikaitchuat students, because they had
had grounding toward respectful behavior toward elders,
respectful behavior toward teachers, ways that they were
engaged at the very beginning with their environment around
them I think really grounded them.
Knowing that they had that connection to their language and
culture that their family had provided for them, I think there
is a whole lot that goes into a child's sense of why school is
important. When you know that parents choose this for you,
there is so much value in what a child puts into it and what
they do after that for the rest of their lives.
So I really am excited about this conversation about
innovative practices in education. I have lost track of time.
But I did want to say that it is important for us not to forget
as we really work toward innovative programs that we make a
cultural foundation for our students, a language foundation for
our students, that we also know that this addresses that
otherness that I really believe that a lot of us who have come
through American westernized school systems feel as we start to
realize what a school, what an American school system does to
an indigenous person on their homeland. You are sitting there,
and you are indigenous, you are sitting in an Alaska Native
classroom and you are learning about things that really, you
start to think, was I meant to be here. Gee, I am on my own
land.
And I think that these innovative practices that we are
talking about can finally erase that kind of dichotomy or
dissonance, I don't know what other words to give it, that you
experience being Alaska Native in a classroom where it is not
of, for, and by your people that you are being educated in.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Kowalski follows:]
Senator Murkowski. Thanks, I appreciate that.
Prepared Statement of Sandy Salaktuna Kowalski, Vice
President, Shareholder Relations, Nana Regional Corporation
Good afternoon and thank you for the opportunity to speak with you
today. I am an educator by career, but my passion has been creating
healthy, engaging and meaningful opportunities that contribute to the
health and wellbeing of my people. I come here today to share with you
my perspective on growing up Indigenous in an American school system,
and what I envision will improve outcomes for Alaska Native students.
First, I want to point out that classrooms in Alaska, in many
regards, looks like classrooms in the Lower 48. The system is just
built this way--curriculum, textbooks, teaching practices,
extracurricular activity, and even school year calendars derive from
hundreds of years of Western cultural foundations that are not like the
cultural foundations in the communities these classrooms reside in.
I have worked for decades as an educational professional, and have
given my best run at improving outcomes while working within a Western
system, and I have also been involved with creating a opportunities
outside the system. Much of what has been tried in typical Alaskan
classrooms comes from well-intended educators implementing best
practices that work in classrooms in places like Texas. And for Texas,
this absolutely fits. But I tell you what, I've felt a dissonance at
times with this work. This is not only because the cultural
underpinnings of our communities are different (I will get to that
later), but also because from the outset, the intention of schooling in
Alaska Native communities was to ``Americanize'' Alaska's Indigenous
people through schooling.
There is a point in just about every Alaska Native and American
Indian student's journey through school when it occurs to us that we
weren't necessarily meant to be present in the classroom. In that
moment, one is aware that they are wholly intact, yet reading and
answering test questions about manifest destiny and US assimilation
policies. What's poignant for Alaska Native students is that this
realization occurs in classrooms that sit on our lands.
Tweaking the resources that exist doesn't get at the heart of the
transformative education that's needed to improve outcomes for Alaska
Native youth. Let's face it, even when a textbook publisher works to
accurately tell the story of America's Indigenous people, it's not told
for full benefit of the Alaskan Native and American Indian. The most
powerful way to create educational benefit is for Alaskan Natives to
construct our own education system.
Even with the injurious practices that have been implemented in
past decades, education for Alaska Native youth is ripe with
possibility. There is a resilience that has not been extinguished.
Throughout the decades before today, both elders and language and
culture experts have been dutifully preparing for a time when education
for Alaska Native students is of, for, and by Alaska Natives. In the
case of my own home region, there are transcribed and translated
interviews and stories collected throughout the 1970s and 1980s that
are waiting to be relearned and introduced back into our collective
knowledge.
Our students are worth this re-engagement. Imagine a 4th grade boy
is investigating habitat and human impact who is doing this while
checking a rabbit snare. In his own Indigenous language, he is learning
the respectful practices elders have passed on. When he harvests a
rabbit, he butchers the rabbit, speaking with his teacher in Inupiaq,
asking questions and responding to directions. Not only will this young
boy learn valuable knowledge to sustain our lands and ways of
understanding the environment and our place within it, but this boy
also feels validated and engaged in school.
I believe this type of experience is important. Alaska Native
students' academic, social, and emotional outcomes need transformative
change of this nature so that Alaska Native students can thrive. I no
longer want students to experience their ``otherness'' from the
classroom that sits on their own homelands. Instead, classroom
experiences should build identity, empowerment, and connection. Alaska
Native communities have cultural practices, rich histories, and
important perspectives on the environment and the treatment of
humankind, and this should be taught in school.
Visioning about Indigenous language revitalization often comes up
when this type of transformative change is discussed. Inherent in
Alaska's Indigenous languages is knowledge about the land, environment
and relationships Indigenous people have within families and with each
other. Teaching through the language provides the fullest access to
traditional knowledge. Through effective revitalization efforts,
Alaskan classrooms can be a place where children learn content such as
math, reading, science and history through their Native language. One
example of where this is happening is in a primary grade classroom in
Nome where the teacher has been working with fluent speakers and
curriculum developers to create math lessons in Inupiaq.
Incidentally, my two youngest sons learned to read in Inupiaq
before they learned to read in English at Nikaitchuat, the tribal
immersion school in Kotzebue, over twenty years ago. When they moved on
to the public school, as with many other Nikaitchuat students, their
academic reading skills were strong, not negatively impacted by having
learned both how to read in Inupiaq first.
There has been significant work by Indigenous groups around
language revitalization, and what has become clear is that the work
needs a new brand of curriculum and teacher preparation. Before we can
teach children, we must have the right kind of teachers. For
illustration of the kind of teacher needed, one of the effective models
used in Salish language revitalization. The approach has produced
proficient adult speakers who are equipped to teach through an
Indigenous perspective using curriculum they have developed throughout
their training. In this program, adult learners' work with elders
transcribing stories that they have recorded. This generates advanced
literature and documents for curriculum and publication. This process
also importantly documents precious elder knowledge.
The scenarios I have shared are just a few examples of Indigenous
education that gives Alaska Native youth a sense of place and belonging
that is absent in Western education. There are many exciting
developments that are converging on this front and there is already
synergy, collaboration and innovation amongst Alaskans who are seeking
to transform the educational experience for Alaskan Native children. My
hope is that you also have this vision and can support efforts to
enable innovations like these to occur. Thank you for your time, and I
am here to answer questions.
Mr. Johnson, let's turn to you, please. Thank you.
STATEMENT OF MICHAEL JOHNSON, COMMISSIONER, ALASKA DEPARTMENT
OF EDUCATION AND EARLY LEARNING
Mr. Johnson. For the record, I am Michael Johnson, and I
have the privilege to serve as Alaska's Commissioner of the
Alaska Department of Education and Early Development.
Vice Chair Senator Murkowski, thank you for fitting us into
your schedule, I know you are very busy visiting the State, and
for holding this field hearing. Thank you for all your work on
behalf of Alaska students that you do every day in the Senate.
As Member Kowalski said, thank you to AFN, the State Board
of Education, members of the legislature, the governor, all who
have rallied around this vision.
The vision of the State of Alaska's Department of Education
and Early Development is set forth in Alaska State 14.03.015,
stating that ``all students will succeed in their education and
work, shape worthwhile and satisfying lives for themselves,
exemplify the best values of society, and be effective in
improving the character and quality of the world about them.''
To accomplish this outcome, the Alaska State Board of
Education adopted the priority to create the option for self-
governance compacting for the delivery of education between the
State of Alaska and tribes or with tribally empowered Alaska
Native organizations. As you know, while some students are able
to flourish in our current system, far too many are not. We are
not, and must not be satisfied with the current status of
education outcomes provided for our students. When we see
students not able to realize their full potential, even with
the help of hard-working educators, we must examine the system
that is failing our students.
A State tribal education compact provides a pathway for the
needed systemic change in Alaska. For this reason, our
character and our conscience requires that we press on toward
systemic change. Though I have no doubt there were many good
intentions, our public education system started out without the
proper understanding, respect, and vision for Alaska's
students, particularly our Alaska Native students.
Because of that lack of respect and understanding, and in
some cases unfortunately deliberate disrespect, our education
system has not had a positive impact on Alaska Native languages
and culture. Our character and conscience now requires that we
demonstrate our respect and value of Alaska Native culture and
language by entering into compacts for education so our
students can restore and revitalize what has been diminished by
ineffective education outcomes.
Supporting tribal education compacting recognizes that the
growing achievement gap and educational failures are complex
and not simply a result of the lack of hard work by educators
or students. It sends a clear message that this is a problem
with the system of education and as such can be fixed by
addressing the need for systemic change. It is our obligation
as educational leaders to provide the necessary supports to
make this change. It can only come to fruition through true
partnership and honest engagement.
Throughout the past six years the Department of Education
and Early Development, tribes, native organizations and other
partners have had an ongoing conversation to determine what is
needed for students to be able to be supported to shape
worthwhile and satisfying lives for themselves.
In 2018, at the elders and youth conference, our tribal
liaison, Joel Isaac, asked the attendees, if they could design
the perfect school, what would it look like? Here is how they
replied, as summarized by Joel. They said, we would not get rid
of math, reading, and writing, or all standardized tests, but
we would have them secondary to cultural values; an equal
amount of native and non-native teachers; the community would
teach every child and there would be good food; traditional
languages and English would both be taught; and there would be
place-based curriculum.
This same group of elders and youth said that their
favorite thing about school was learning and learning new
things. Our students deserve an educational system that
provides for them a place to learn, belong, and excel at life.
Compacting is a critical and necessary endeavor that needs to
be supported by both the State of Alaska and the Federal
Government.
Finally, the pandemic has given us proof that this is our
pathway forward. When the history of this pandemic is written,
tribes will receive credit for how they responded and helped
care for all Alaskans. Many schools remained open throughout
this year because of compacted Tribal Health. Many of our
teachers, students and their families, Alaska Native and non-
Native, were treated and/or vaccinated through Tribal Health.
Tribes have proven that when we let go of the restrictive
confines of our systems and partner and coordinate with tribal
governments, good things happen for all Alaskans.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Johnson follows:]
Prepared Statement of Michael Johnson, Commissioner, Alaska Department
of Education and Early Learning
The vision of the State of Alaska's Department of Education and
Early Development is set forth in Alaska Statute 14.03.015, stating
that, ``all students will succeed in their education and work, shape
worthwhile and satisfying lives for themselves, exemplify the best
values of society, and be effective in improving the character and
quality of the world about them.'' To realize this vison the Alaska's
Education Challenge convened parents, lawmakers, teachers, and
education leaders from across the state who collectively recognized the
need for systemic change in Alaska's public education system. One of
the Alaska Education Challenge's five strategic priorities encourages
tribal and community ownership of excellence in education to help close
the achievement gap and increase equitable access to an excellent
education. To accomplish this outcome, the Alaska State Board of
Education adopted the priority to create the option for self-governance
compacting for the delivery of education between the state of Alaska
and tribes or tribally-empowered Alaska Native organizations.
While some students are able to flourish in our current system, far
too many are not. We are not, and must not be satisfied with the
current status of education outcomes provided for our students. When we
see students not able to realize their full potential, even with the
help of hard working educators, we must examine the system that is
failing our students. A state tribal education compact provides a
pathway for the needed systemic change in Alaska.
For this reason, our character and conscience requires that we
press on toward systemic change. Though I have no doubt that there were
many good intentions, our public education system started out without
the proper understanding, respect, and vision for Alaska's students,
particularly our Alaska Native students. Because of that lack of
respect and understanding, and in some cases deliberate disrespect, our
education system has not had a positive impact on Alaska Native
languages and culture. Our character and conscience now requires that
we demonstrate our respect and value of Alaska Native culture and
language by entering into compacts for education so our students can
restore and revitalize what has been diminished by ineffective
education outcomes.
A compact is a government to government agreement that forms a
partnership that is founded on the idea of shared vision, shared
resources, and shared work. It provides the essential legal framework
to be dynamically responsive while meeting the need for fiscal
stability and accountability. While the Department of Education and
Early Development is just starting to explore compacting with tribes,
Alaska's tribes have decades of experience in compacting. The
Department of Education and Early Development has spent the last six
years to build understanding and research the state tribal compacting
legal framework that would be necessary in Alaska. This includes
Alaska's Education Challenge, hiring a project coordinator to focus
specifically on tribal compacting, and the Alaska State Board of
Education establishing a State Tribal Education Compacting committee.
The state of Alaska works with the federal government through the
Every Student Succeeds Act and various other federal titles and
programs to carry out education in Alaska. There is a shared connection
between the state and federal government for meeting the need for
public education in Alaska. In addition, federally recognized tribes
also have a relationship with the federal government. This is a
significant consideration for Alaska as there are 229 federally
recognized tribes in Alaska, and one out of every four students in
Alaska is Alaska Native or American Indian. There are a large number of
tribes in Alaska and Alaska is a large state comprising 1/5th of the
United States land mass, however our population is small. This
necessitates partnership and collaboration with state, federal, and
tribal governments in order to meet the educational need in Alaska.
It is important to note that State Tribal Education Compacting is
an additional pathway for the delivery of public education in Alaska,
it does not force or require tribes to enter into compacts. State
Tribal Education Compacting does not terminate the current educational
system. Rather, it works to create an additional path to allow tribes
to conduct education through a culturally and linguistically authentic
delivery system that is not possible unless tribes have the necessary
recognized authority. Alaska is prime to implement compacting. The
Alaska Cultural Education Standards are renowned and serve as a strong
base for determining what success looks like in compacting. Tribes have
decades of experience in compacting and many have what is known as
mature compacting status with the federal government. Most importantly
there are communities, families, and parents that are ready and willing
to do this hard work to make this choice to improve the education
outcomes for their students.
Compacting recognizes the need for a systemic change that empowers
families to help students thrive. It does so by creating an inherent
sense of ownership, connection, and investment in the local community's
educational system in a way that has not been demonstrated in the
current system. Alaska is primed for success in state tribal compacting
because of the many years of experience tribes have in compacting and
the years of work that have gone into developing the Alaska Native
Cultural Education and Educator Standards. However, there are several
ways the federal government can work with us to ensure maximum success.
Compacting fundamentally provides a critical mechanism for tribes
to teach through their language and culture rather than trying to adapt
to English ways of teaching. As a result careful consideration must be
made to provide a method for evaluating student success in this
cultural educational model. Alaska has already done the critical first
step of defining Alaska Native Cultural Education Standards. There must
be federal provision for assessments that demonstrate success based on
the educational models and these rigorous Alaska Native Education
Standards at the federal level. This in no way lowers the educational
standards, however it provides a method that accounts for evaluating
student success that captures proficiency in the Indigenous and Western
education skills simultaneously.
Supporting tribal education compacting recognizes that the growing
achievement gap and educational failures are complex and not simply a
result of the lack of hard work by educators or students. It sends a
clear message that this is a problem with the system of education and
as such can be fixed by addressing the need for systemic change. It is
our obligation as educational leaders to provide the necessary supports
to make this change. It can only come to fruition through a true
partnership and honest engagement. Throughout the past six years the
Department of Education and Early Development, tribes, and native
organizations have had ongoing conversation to determine what is needed
for students to be able to be supported to ``shape worthwhile and
satisfying lives.''
This is what tribal Elders and youth had to say when asked, ``If
they could design the perfect school what would it look like?''
I would not get rid of math, reading, and writing, or all
standardized tests, but I would have them secondary to cultural values.
An equal amount of native and non-native teachers. The community would
teach every child and there would be good food. Traditional languages
and English would both be taught. Place based curriculum.''
This same group of Elders and youth said that their favorite thing
about school was learning and learning new things. Our students deserve
an educational system that provides for them to learn, belong, and
excel at life. Compacting is a critical and necessary endeavor that
needs to be supported by both the state of Alaska and the federal
government.
And finally, the pandemic has given us proof that this is our
pathway forward. When the history of this pandemic is written, tribes
will receive credit for how they responded and helped care for all
Alaskans. Many schools remained open throughout this year because of
compacted Tribal Health. Many of our teachers, students and their
families, Alaska Native and non-native, were treated and or vaccinated
through Tribal Health. Tribes have proven that when we let go of the
restrictive confines of our systems, partner, and coordinate with
tribal governments, good things happen for all Alaskans.
Thank you.
Senator Murkowski. Thank you very much. I appreciate that,
Mr. Commissioner.
Now we have Mr. William Naneng, who is with us virtually.
He is with the Sea Lion Corporation. We will get him on the
screen here.
STATEMENT OF WILLIAM NANENG, GENERAL MANGER, SEA LION
CORPORATION
Mr. Naneng. Thank you, Honorable Vice Chairman Lisa
Murkowski, and Honorable Chairman Brian Schatz. Good afternoon.
Thank you for the invitation to talk today. My name is William
Naneng, General Manager of Sea Lion Corporation, an Alaska
Native Village Corporation in Hooper Bay, Alaska.
As an advocate for those in my community and for rural
Alaska education systems, my message to you is that the rural
western education system has long recognized, for many reasons,
that it has not successfully worked for our Alaska Native
students. Its product has adversely affected many of the
predominately Native populated communities.
There is a process of attending to Alaska Native students'
needs, experiences, and feelings, and intervening so that they
learn particular things and go beyond the given. The new rural
school statistics of the State of Alaska indicate Alaska
Natives have the highest dropout and lowest college graduation
rates in the Country. We have shown as an example of one
possible way of seeing through the outcomes, Hooper Bay Charter
School students academic assessments, we can begin to reverse
those extremes in Alaska Native students coming out of most of
our rural schools, beginning with this national U.S. Senate
hearing to address what we all think of as the causes of the
present condition. For instance, high rates of absenteeism
among our Yupik students, which comes across as a lack of
enthusiasm about learning and achieving to outsiders.
What is perceived as lack may be further from reality.
Yupik parents and our students want to succeed in reading,
mathematics, and science.
We have a continual problem in retention and high rates of
suspension and expulsion among the students in our community.
Native cultures have a lot to offer to the society, which can
be used as a fulcrum to flip this all around.
I live with these individuals and I have seen them
successfully engage in our difficult and complex subsistence
way of life. We are not seeking for shortcuts, enabling
[indiscernible] get individauls to see how vital education is
to us.
In our community, indigenous families embodied change as we
formed Hooper Bay Charter School and received final approval to
operate by the State Board of Education in the autumn of 2019.
Now, Hooper Bay Charter School has improved the lives of the
students fourth through eighth grade in the short time we have
operated.
Our school must overcome continual challenges. Most
notably, rural schools like Hooper Bay Charter School require
funding for innovative pathways to train and employ local
indigenous educators. Also, the charter school has been forced
to lease inadequate space resulting in low enrollment. Our
Alaska Native students are truly deserving of their own
facility. It is imperative that communities like Hooper Bay
have an assurance of equitable resources to pursue adequate
education systems.
Multi-age and multidisciplinary student pairing, having
different age groups, age and grade groups in the classroom
setting seems to facilitate higher learning and knowledge
retention among Alaska Natives. This may be more culturally
appropriate.
Hooper Bay Charter School has used a multidisciplinary and
multi-age approach to students in fourth through eighth grade.
This interdisciplinary model has many advantages. It allows the
students to learn by making connections between ideas and
concepts across different disciplinary boundaries.
Students learning in this way are able to apply the
knowledge gained in one discipline to another different area
and discipline in a way to deepen the learning experience. In
this model, the students will become highly motivated and stay,
having a vested interest in pursuing local science and
engineering topics that are relevant to them. As a result, the
content is often rooted in life experiences, giving authentic
purpose for learning and connecting to a real-world context.
Consequently, learning becomes meaningful, purposeful and
deeper, resulting in a learning experience that stays with a
student for a lifetime.
An interdisciplinary model also allows students to cover
topics more in-depth, because they are considering the many and
varying perspectives from which a topic can be explored.
Critical thinking skills are used and developed as students
look across disciplinary boundaries to consider other points of
view and begin to compare and contrast concepts across subject
areas and synthesize ideas.
There are also many advantages to a multi-grade model,
namely the opportunity to experience leadership for older
students, cooperative learning, and a culturally appropriate
family and community inclusive atmosphere.
In summary, as children growing up in rural Alaska and as
first-time students, our parents, our elders, as they prepared
us for school, they would project to us that the school was a
safe environment by saying, be loving to others. Similarly, our
charter school principal's model, as the students assemble for
class, would say out loud, be kind to others, and have the
students repeat the same words. The principal leads by
instructions to the staff and to the students. The school
encourages the parents and extended family members to be
involved. This community involvement extends to the classified
staff by allowing them to lead in TREKs.
On the onset of the COVID pandemic and the uncertainty it
created, the school put together lesson packets for each
student. We had 65 percent pick-up of those instruction
materials by parents. The staff delivered the remainder of the
packets to their homes.
Our observation through the grade school academic
assessments in the first year of the charter school, the fourth
through eighth grade students were not ready to be taught in
the grade level that they entered, and they will not very
achieve proficiency unless the instructors provided remedial
lessons to get them near where they should be. The general
schools and educational system have been moving Alaska Native
students along so they end up graduating with a ninth or so
grade level education.
The strength and the success of the University of Alaska
Anchorage, Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program is
their adamance and insistence that student enrollment is based
on their level of knowledge in subjects like reading and math.
Otherwise, when many rural school graduates start off with
college credit courses, they are set up for failure.
This was the impetus for change in Hooper Bay. Our
community took control of our students' academic future. When
the charter school idea was proposed to the Alaska Native
Village Corporation board of directors, the immediate
acceptance did not happen overnight. Rather, it was built
through many years of their educational support by providing
scholarships and donations to student activities.
When I went before the State Board of Education, the first
two questions I was asked was, how would we get the parents
involved and improve student attendance. My answer was, many
students do not live in traditional family settings. Many of
them live in dwellings with extended families and multiple
single parents.
Establishing the school with the approval of the State
Board of Education, Lower Yukon School District Regional School
Board and the Native Village of Hooper Bay, it offered our
tribe a means to access Federal funding created to benefit
Alaska Native students by developing new school activities
based on science, technology, engineering, and offering
remedial lessons, we were able to create curriculum which
facilitates literacy, mathematics, and science in a manner that
is culturally familiar to the students.
More importantly, academic policy committee, the governing
board has learned how fragile this is in its infancy, due
mainly to lack of infrastructure like facilities and utilities
that the Honorable Senator Murkowski had mentioned earlier.
Many rural village political elected representatives also lack
the savvy and resources to firmly establish the foundation it
and the Sea Lion Board of Directors have built. Another being
our disproportionate reliance on Federal funds.
Our recommendations are, other than the need for proper
public infrastructure of facilities and utilities, pedagogy is
a universal concept. Our Yupik cultural way of knowing should
be included by academics of elders participation. Elders guide
practice by doing and experiential learning, detailed
observation, intuitive analysis, cooperative learning and
listening. Native elders understand about early childhood
development, children's needs, and that they can succeed. The
charter school has begun to develop curriculum that reflects
our environment. This should become the Federal Indian
education curriculum.
Village science and village math used by Yupik elders
should be used to make our youth understand the basic science
and math concepts. Honoring our children's cultural lifestyle
should be part of the focus of traditional learning of our
Yupik way of life. Focusing on weather prediction, flora and
fauna management, managing fisheries, learning subsistence
fishing and hunting practices. It is about self-esteem. Above
all, it means self-esteem.
Just as Hooper Bay structured its charter system within the
school district, this should expand, and expand more Indian
education funding into this program. This is about local policy
control.
What I am recommending is not new. It is the Federal
Government that can enact these policies to make innovation
happen and make our Native students proud of who they are.
The pedagogy of Alaska Native cultures taught in the school
curriculum can only succeed if the State and Federal
bureaucracies adopt the local sciences, mathematics, and Native
lifestyles and accept it into the norm. Indian education funds
should also be about local policy, local control and decision
making.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Naneng follows:]
Prepared Statement of William Naneng, General Manger, Sea Lion
Corporation
Good Afternoon. Thank you for the invitation to testify. My Name is
Nuyaq William Naneng, General Manager of Sea Lion Corporation, an
Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 village corporation of
Hooper Bay Alaska. Sea Lion Corporation has 643 shareholders of Yupik
descent and seven directors who control investments and policy of our
ANCSA corporation.
As an advocate for those in my community and of rural Alaskan
education systems, my message to you is that rural western education
system has long recognized, for many reasons, that it has not
successfully worked for our Alaska Native Students and its product has
adversely affected many of the predominately Native populated
communities. There is a process of attending to Alaska Native student's
needs, experiences, and feelings, and intervening so that they learn
particular things and go beyond the given. New rural school statistics
of the State of Alaska indicator is showing as an example of one
possible way, seen through outcomes of the Hooper Bay Charter School
students' academic assessments. We can begin to reverse the extreme
spectrums of Native people labeling coming out of most rural schools.
Beginning with this national U.S. Senate hearing to address what we
all think of are the causes of present conditions for instance, high
rates of absenteeism among our Yupik students, which may come across as
a lack of enthusiasm about learning and achieving to outsiders. What is
perceived as a lack, may be farther from the reality. Yupik parents and
our students want to succeed in reading, mathematics, and sciences. We
have a continual problem in retention, and high rates of suspension and
expulsion among the students in our community. Native cultures have a
lot to offer to the society, which can be used as a fulcrum to flip
this around. I live with these individuals and have seen them
successfully engage in our difficult and complex subsistence way of
life. We are not seeking for short cuts, enabling, but get individuals
to see how vital the education is to us.
In our community, indigenous families embodied change as we formed
the Hooper Bay Charter School (HBCS) and received final approval to
operate by the Alaska State Board of Education in the autumn of 2019.
Now, the Hooper Bay Charter School is improving the lives of up to 60
students, grades 4 through 8, every year. But our school must overcome
challenges. Most notably, rural schools like Hooper Bay Charter School
require funding for innovative pathways to train and employ local
indigenous educators. Also, the charter school has been forced to lease
inadequate space resulting in low enrollment. Our Alaska Native
students are truly deserving of their own facility. It is imperative
that communities like Hooper Bay have an assurance of equitable
resources to pursue adequate education systems.
Multi-Age and Multi-Disciplinary
Hooper Bay Charter School will use an interdisciplinary and multi-
age approach for students in grades 4 through 8. An interdisciplinary
model has many advantages. It allows the student to learn by making
connections between ideas and concepts across different disciplinary
boundaries. Students learning in this way are able to apply the
knowledge gained in one discipline to another different discipline as a
way to deepen the learning experience. In this model, students will
become highly motivated as they have a vested interest in pursuing
local science and engineering topics that are relevant to them. As a
result, the content is often rooted in life experiences, giving an
authentic purpose for the learning and connecting it to a real-world
context. Consequently, the learning becomes meaningful, purposeful and
deeper resulting in learning experiences that stay with the student for
a lifetime.
An interdisciplinary model also allows students to cover topics in
more depth because they are considering the many and varied
perspectives from which a topic can be explored. Critical thinking
skills are used and developed as students look across disciplinary
boundaries to consider other viewpoints and begin to compare and
contrast concepts across subject areas, synthesizing ideas.
There are also many advantages to a multi-grade model, namely the
opportunities to experience leadership (for older students),
cooperative learning, and a culturally appropriate family- and
community-inclusive atmosphere.
Summary
As children growing up in rural Alaska and as first-time students,
our parents or elders, as they prepared us for school, they'd project
to us that the school was a safe environment by saying: ``be loving to
others''. Similarly, our charter school principal's motto, as the
students assemble for class would say out loud: ``be kind to others''
and have the students repeat the same words. The principal leads by
instructions to the staff and to the students. The school encourages
the parents or extended family members to be involved; this community
involvement extends to the classified staff by allowing them to lead in
TREKs. On the onset of the COVID pandemic and the uncertainty it
created, the school put together lesson packets for each student and we
had a 65 percent pick up of those instruction material by parents, and
the staff delivered the remainder of the packets to their homes.
Our observation through the grade student academic assessments in
the first year of charter school; the 4th-8th grade students were not
ready to be taught in the the grade level they enter and will not very
well achieve proficiency, unless the instructors provide remedial
lessons to get them near where they should be. The general schools and
educational system have been moving the Alaska Native students along,
so they end up graduating with 9th or so grade level education. The
strength and the success of University of Alaska Anchorage, Alaska
Native Science and Engineering Program is their adamant and insistent
the student enrollment is based on their level of knowledge in subjects
like reading and mathematics, otherwise when many rural school
graduates start off with college credit courses, they are set up for
failure.
This was the impetus change in Hooper Bay, our community took
control of our students' academic future. When the charter school idea
was proposed to the Alaska Native village corporation board of
directors, the immediate acceptance did not happen overnight. Rather,
it was built through many years of their educational support of
providing scholarships and donations to student activities. When I went
before the Alaska State Board of Education, the first two questions I
was asked: how would we get the parents involved and improve student
attendance? My answer was many students do not live in traditional
family setting, many of them live in dwellings with extended families
and multiply single parents. Establishing the school with the approval
of the Alaska State Board of Education, Lower Yukon School District
Regional School Board and Native Village of Hooper Bay, it offered our
Tribe, a means to access federal funds created to benefit Alaska Native
students. By developing new school activities based upon Science,
Technology, Engineering and Mathematics and offer remedial lessons, we
were able to create curriculum which facilitate literacy, mathematics
and science in a manner that Is culturally familiar to the students.
More importantly, Academic Policy Committee, the governing body has
learned how fragile this is in its infancy, due mainly to lack of
infrastructures in facilities and utilities and many rural village
political elected representatives lacks the savvy, and resources to
firmly establish the foundation it and the Sea Lion Corporation Board
of Directors have built. Another being our disproportionate reliance on
federal funds.
Recommendations
1. Other than the need for proper public infrastructures of
facility and utilities, Pedagogy is a universal concept. Our
Yupik cultural ways of knowing should be included by Academics
of Elders participation. Yupik Elders guide practice by doing/
experiential learning, detailed observation, intuitive
analysis, cooperative learning and listening. Native Elders
understand about early childhood development, children's needs,
and that we can succeed. The Charter School has begun to
develop curriculum that relects our environment. This should
become part of the federal Indian Education curriculum.
2. Village science and village math used by Yupik Elders should
be used to make our youth understand basic science and math
concepts.
3. Honoring our children's cultural lifestyles should be part
of teaching to focus traditional learning of our Yupik Way of
Life. Focusing on weather prediction, flora and fauna
management, managing fisheries, leaning subsistence fishing and
hunting practices, etc. It's all about self-esteem.
4. Just like Hooper Bay structured its own charter system
within the school district, this should expand. Expand more
Indian Education funding into this program. This is about local
policy control.
What I am recommending is not new. It's the federal government that
can enact such policies to make innovation happen to make our Native
students proud of who we are.
The pedagogy of Native cultures taught in the school curriculum can
only succeed if state and federal bureaucracies adopt local sciences,
mathematics, and Native lifestyles are accepted into the norm. Indian
Education funds should be about local policy control and
responsibility.
Senator Murkowski. Thank you, William. I appreciate that.
It has been helpful to hear both from William and Sandy in
terms of the reason why we are having this discussion about
alternatives and recognizing the role that compacting can play
here.
I want to start off my questions, perhaps a little more
technical, and I will direct them to you, Julie, and to you,
Commissioner. It is kind of along the lines of how we will
effectuate this.
We have, as part of the record, we have written testimony
that has been provided to us by the U.S. Department of
Education. It states that STEC schools in Alaska would be
eligible for the department's formula funding if the schools
are authorized by the State in a way that meets the Federal
definition of a local educational agency or a school district.
We know that formula funds, whether Title 1 grants that come,
or Title 2, Title 4, Impact Aid, these are all programs that
would be eligible through the department.
So we are at a point where we are trying to figure out how
we advance this through the State. I guess the question to you,
Julie, is whether or not you are satisfied with the Department
of Education's testimony that seems to indicate that we don't
need legislative authority or a demonstration here in Alaska.
Are we in a good place there? We have legislation that is
working its way through the process. But I am trying to make
sure that here in the State, we are going to be doing something
consistent that U.S. Department of Education is going to be
good with our approach.
Ms. Kitka. Madam Chair, I think the best way to think of
this is we are doing a hybrid. So there will be a Federal role
and there is a State role. We want to protect the Federal trust
responsibility on education, but we also want to maximize the
State of Alaska's responsibility under the constitution of what
they are obligated to do. So it is really a hybrid.
Senator Murkowski. Do you think that hybrid, if I can
interject, do you think that hybrid does protect the Federal
trust responsibility when it comes to --
Ms. Kitka. With regard to the Federal trust responsibility,
that is what I would consider a living responsibility. It will
always adapt and change. It is kind of like the way I describe
ANSCA. It is a living law, intended to meet the real social and
economic needs of Native people. So we keep coming back to the
Congress, we need this, we need that, as circumstances change.
It is the same way with the Federal trust responsibility in
education. It depends on the needs of our people and what we
need from the Federal Government and the Federal Department of
Education. Nothing will ever ``satisfy'' it, but do I think
that there needs to be legislation introduced today on the
Federal level to authorize compact schools? No. Do I think that
we need to remove the rider? Yes. I think that will be good,
and it would also be a sign that we are moving more to equity
in treating Alaska Native education, but it doesn't need to
immediately turn anything upside down.
Senator Murkowski. Let me ask you about that, though, on
the rider itself. I understand what you shared about why you
are making that specific ask here. But I want to make sure that
it is clear, you are not suggesting that we have BIE schools
here in Alaska.
Ms. Kitka. This is all forward-looking. It is not
backwards. We are not asking for BIA schools. We are asking for
State schools with the Federal trust responsibility supported.
At this time what we think the Federal Government needs to do
is remove that barrier.
We also think that the Federal Government should
incentivize innovation. We need more funding and resources for
incorporating indigenous knowledge into curriculum. I will give
as an example, AFN had a National Science Foundation grant
together with the Annenberg Foundation that went for 10 years.
It was all on incorporating indigenous knowledge into
curriculum. We need to multiply that and scale those types of
efforts up.
That effort, we had a partnership with the State, we had a
partnership with 23 school districts, the University of Alaska.
We had Oscar Kowagley, we had a number of distinguished Native
educators involved in that. We need to scale up those types of
opportunities but particularly incorporating indigenous
knowledge into curriculum, also into teacher development and
preparation. There just is not enough current resources going
into these things. We think those two in particular need to go
side by side with the compacting.
Plus, we need to have the Federal Department of Education
incentivize innovation. Whether or not you are talking about
the XPrize----
Senator Murkowski. Are you talking about incentivizing the
innovation? Because I think that is what we are talking about
here, we are trying to look at the delivery of education
outside of just the math and reading. So share with me what you
think that might look like.
Ms. Kitka. I think, to use an adaptation of technology, the
e-learning. In our health system, we are moving a lot to the
tele-health. How can we incentivize our schools and our systems
to develop the best of the best? Really, my standards for the
compacting and for our whole education system is, I think we
have a race to catch up to keep those standards up really high.
So incentivizing adaptation of technology, incentivize the
development of curriculum, incentivize collaboration. One of
the things that I think this work with Commissioner Johnson has
proved is we can do a lot more working together with the State
and Federal Government than just by ourselves. Incentivize
collaboration, ways that we work together, not one telling
another what to do on that, but work together.
I really do think our future as Native people here depends
on our developing our young people to be the best they can be,
that they are well-grounded, they are secure, they are healthy,
the sky is the limit on what they can do, whether they want to
be an astronaut, a scientist, a teacher, if they want to be a
fisherman. We cannot lower our aspirations for our children.
But what we have to have is an educational system that
values where they come from, their culture and values, and
support what their parents want for them on their culture and
values, and not have people at odds with each other. That is
where I think we can make some systemic change. I know people
have said, well, how do you measure some of this? I think we
have to let that process go as we are having our tribes
negotiate with the State, and go through the negotiation
process, where you would build accountability into these
compacts. But let some of that unfold, we don't have the
answers all today. But we do know what we want, we want better
things for our children.
But we also pay attention on the Federal level. There are
these massive resources moving around from the infrastructure
bill and other things. Some of that will be going into
education. We don't want any of that to be prohibited for our
rural areas and our communities.
Senator Murkowski. Let me ask you, Dr. Johnson, on this
issue of how do we judge success? That is a question I would
actually like to ask all of you. What is that metric of success
for our Native students around the State? You deal with a
system that has assessment standards that you have to meet in
order to take advantage of certain Federal resources, that
level of accountability. Oftentimes you don't have the level of
flexibility that I think we would like to have as we are trying
to allow for a transformative approach to education.
But when you are trying to make this systemic change, that
can be a bit of a challenge, too. So I think I neglected to
just say thank you for the extraordinary collaboration I think
we have had between the State and AFN and so many on this
issue. I think it demonstrates a commitment to get to yes, and
to try to be innovative in this space.
But you have a situation, again, where STEC schools still
have to work in coordination with U.S. Department of Education.
They have their requirements in terms of what eligibility for
receiving Federal formula grants, what those requirements are
for STEC schools. So it is going to be, as I understand it, it
is going to be DEED that is going to be responsible for
determining whether or not the STEC schools meet the definition
that has been set out by the Department of Education. So it is
not Department of Education there.
But are you comfortable with where we are right now in
ensuring that this pilot that we are talking about and these
schools can be authorized in conformance with this definition?
It is kind of technical and weedy. But yet, when we are trying
to talk about resources that come, we want to make sure that we
are going to be setting this up in a way to take full advantage
of those resources. Are we in a good space?
Mr. Johnson. Thank you for the question. I think so, but
first, I will say the department, we are proceeding making
assumptions that, because we are in a good space that we will
be in a good space tomorrow. But it is a complex system that we
are operating here. We certainly want to be respectful of that
and respectful of all our partners. So we are trying to proceed
carefully and cautiously.
The second thing I would say is, the reason I feel like we
are in a good space is because my confidence isn't in the
bureaucracy, it is in our partnership with the tribes and AFN.
Thank you for the part you played in providing COVID relief
funding. We saw that as a great opportunity, so we called AFN
and said, would you be willing to partner with us, and we could
give them a grant. Because the way it seems like we have always
done it before is the bureaucracy has confidence in itself and
then presents possibilities. But what we decided is, we can
give them a grant and say, will you help us imagine the
possibilities, then the bureaucracy reacts to that instead of
the other way around.
So I think we are in a good spot, because we are placing
our confidence in the partnership with the tribes rather than
the bureaucracy. They are helping us navigate our own
bureaucracies, because they have expertise, especially with the
Federal Government, that we don't have.
Senator Murkowski. We just have to look at it a little bit
differently, which is what we are trying to do here, is look at
things a little bit differently.
But to the point that Julie made in terms of assessments,
we kind of figure that out as we go. You are in a situation
here where you are going to be introducing new statewide
assessments, I guess a whole assessment system later this year.
How do we fit this in that? Walk me through that. Again, I
realize that we may be trying to push something, or the round
peg into a square hole type of thing. If we are, tell me that.
Because I want us to be in a place where again, we are able to
maximize resources, maximize partnerships. But I also know that
when you are dealing with Federal funding and opportunity, they
are not as flexible a system as we would like them to be.
Mr. Johnson. Right. So I guess I will start with the place
where I think we all are aligned, the U.S. Department of
Education, the Secretary. He was invited and spoke on this at
AFN and we appreciated that. The tribes and the State
bureaucracy, the Department of Education, the place where I
think we all agree is the destination. That is a great
education for every kid. And the Federal Government, the
Federal bureaucracy, everybody acknowledges that that is where
we all want to be.
What we are proposing is not a new destination, but a
journey, a new pathway to get to that destination. That is
where we have to work through all these rigid requirements, and
things like that. So we keep reminding everybody of what we
agree on.
The other thing I would say is, the reason I think this is
a great time is because after the pandemic, there is a hunger
to explore new ways of doing things. What did we learn from the
pandemic, and what is it going to look like post-pandemic. That
includes the U.S. Department of Education . I know in meetings
that I have with my fellow State chiefs, they may not know what
that looks like but there is certainly an appetite there to
explore.
So I think the time is right, as President Kitka said. We
may not have all the answers today, but it seems like the
opportune time to be connecting with those partners and say, we
have an idea and maybe this is an idea that will satisfy that
appetite there seems to be for innovation.
So that doesn't provide you a specific example. I just
think the time is opportune.
Senator Murkowski. I appreciate this. Because as I am
listening to you, I am thinking, wow, I lead off with all the
reasons why it can't be done, all of these barriers that are
out there because you have this inflexible system. I am just
reminded of the desire to try to do something different, even
though you know that you have a system that is just hard. But I
think it is also a recognition that the status quo is not
helping our kids.
Mr. Johnson. Right.
Senator Murkowski. If you just sit back and accept the
status quo, we will put more generations of young Alaska
Natives behind.
Sandy, I want to ask you, because I had the benefit of
having my two sons in a language immersion program here in
Anchorage. It was a two-way immersion. The thing that I loved
most about it was when your son, who is in kindergarten, first
grade, says, I am so smart on the first day of the class,
because the teacher is talking in English, and I get it. Then
in the afternoon, when it's full-on Spanish, he doesn't know
the words, his best buddy who was maybe struggling on the
English side of the morning, is now the expert. It empowers the
language and the skills, it is so empowering in ways that I
think sometimes as adults we forget that.
But I also recognize that we can't do any of this unless we
have the teachers. William has mentioned the role of the elders
involved, which I know we value and we appreciate. But I am
curious to know as to how we build out the teachers that we
need in order to do what every one of you is suggesting.
Because we just can't take a teacher who has been in the
classroom here who is a super-great math teacher, but she may
be from Iowa, great teacher, but you can't make that
translation to what we are talking about here."
So what do we need to be doing more of? The fact that we
are here at APU, the fact that Ilisagvik has good programs,
what more do we need to do? How can Congress help to facilitate
the growth of more of our educators?
Ms. Kowalski. Let me start off by describing the vision I
have for what a teacher program might be like. First of all,
that we it look nothing the teacher programs we have now.
Because in order to revitalize language and culture in the
community, you have to prepare the adults who are going to be
teaching in those classrooms how to cycle through and create
more of a curriculum. There isn't a lot of curriculum material
readily available for an immersion program. Some are farther
ahead, but there isn't a lot. It is going to take decades of
that kind of forward-moving work to make this the corpus strong
for language revitalization.
So a teacher preparation program has to orient a teacher
who can work with elders, that is why it looks nothing like the
teacher pathway program we have now, who can work with elders,
who can work with transcriptions and translation and help
create that corpus of material that is being captured with the
elder right then, or even from elder recordings from the 1970s
and 1980s. In my region, we have tons of valuable environmental
knowledge captured in recordings when John Shaffer and other
people who were just coming out at the time in ANSCA, they
realized those resources were going to be needed. They saw
ahead, and they created programs where all of that was
captured.
So our teachers, our future teachers in an indigenous
school, need to able to approach all that knowledge. So they
have to become adult learners of the language right away. And
they have to be able to approach elders in a way that helps
capture that knowledge that the elders have, and capture the
way that the elders understand learning should be.
I don't think there is an elder I have ever worked with who
doesn't understand from their life experience in the rural
community how we should treat each other. That is important. So
our teachers have to be oriented toward an indigenized way of
approaching and creating a classroom environment. That happens
by working with the elders, by working with others who working
in this effort, and working with the knowledge that it is
important for our students who are going to be in that
classroom, that knowledge that is going to be totally grounded
in history, culture, stories, celebrations, those exist. We are
rapidly losing elders who know it.
Senator Murkowski. Is that being done anywhere?
Ms. Kowalski. It is, yes. There are language revitalization
programs that help, that do capture the elders' knowledge and
create teachers while they are capturing the elders' knowledge.
The Salish language program in the northwest area is an example
of a revitalization effort that, it sounds small, right now it
is like eight teachers who have graduated as proficient
language speakers.
But when you think about gaining eight language speakers,
the offside is like my language right now, we don't have that,
we are just losing speakers every year. And we are losing the
elder ones. The Salish language program and other language
revitalization efforts are creating young adult speakers with
decades of professional years ahead of them for teaching in
classrooms, creating curriculum, helping our government
councils bring back the language into governance work. It is
ripe right now.
I do have to say, there is a lot of energy out there from
young people who are graduating from college with communication
degrees, education degrees, engineering degrees, where they are
trying to make space in their own personal life, knowing they
will be a young parent or aunt or uncle. They are also making
space for this type of work and energy while they perform full-
time lives. They are also the people who are creating the
vision for the future. They see themselves as parents and
grandparents. They already know that they are going to be
elders who have a responsibility to recapture and move forward
things that we have lost in the last 50 years.
Senator Murkowski. So let me ask, on that, William, you
mentioned this, that you had a couple of challenges, you wanted
to try to do more to involve parents in the schools, but also
to get student attendance up. It is this issue of parents in
the schools, whether it is just to be an involved parent, or to
get that adult who is saying, I want to be that teacher, I want
to be that elder, I want to be there to share the cultural
values there as part of the classroom. I think we all know that
for many that are not in school now, but who went through
school, that the education system was not only not built for
them, it was something that they have tried to forget. As they
have tried to forget, it has been a challenge to not only
involve themselves as parents in the school, but even to
encourage their children that attending school is meaningful.
So William, I don't know if you can speak to that aspect of
it and share if you have seen a level of success in doing that.
But I think it is something that we can get the students, get
the young people excited about what is going on the classroom.
But I am worried that there is a generation gap in terms of,
not enthusiasm for education, but just feeling the value of
being in that school.
So William, I would like you to speak to that, then
Commissioner, if you can comment on that as well, I thank you.
William?
Mr. Naneng. Thank you, Senator Murkowski. We suggest that
while we are waiting for things to change externally, we need
innovation in instruction, that can help to teach all students
where they are in their learning pathways. All too often, we
think that learning science and math, also cultural learning,
are outside, or they are in the core curriculum of our people.
For too long, culture has been a separate class. This does not
help Native students learn.
I would like to share one thing. Our people here know when
there is going to be a successful berry season by looking at
the environment that is happening right now. When there is a
crust of ice on top of the snow, we can predict there will be
an abundant berry season. Also, at this time, until the breakup
of the Yukon River, if there is a prevailing wind that is going
on, we know that there is going to be an abundance of salmon.
This climate change that we are observing right now has
caused that prevailing wind that used to go to the Gulf of
Alaska to now come up the Bering Sea, and it is blowing that
water that is coming onto the Yukon maybe across to the cost of
Siberia. So that could be one of the main reasons why there
might be salmon crises that are happening. The salmon catches
that are happening right now may not be getting reported across
the Bering Sea.
Science and math are already in our culture. It is not a
western concept. The western concept of science and math is
based on Native culture, Native culture. Those are my answers.
I was going to provide an example, maybe I should mention
it right now, the Pythagorean theorem is only known now as we
know it because it was written then. But it was used by Native
people thousands of years before. So that is my answer.
Senator Murkowski. Math and science are what we would
classify as the educational attainment, but you are probably
learning more in physics and science, and to your point, the
Pythagorean theorem.
Commissioner, in terms of the parental involvement aspect,
and what that means also for student engagement, would you
comment on that?
Mr. Johnson. Yes, I think, and maybe I will start broad and
comment. You articulated this well. I can go to bed and sleep
well at night knowing there are risks in doing something
different. It is really hard to sleep well at night knowing
that we are going to get up and do the same thing that we did
yesterday and get the same outcomes.
So I think that we don't, I think the whole concept of
tribal compacting is to do just that, to create more of an
engagement, student engagement and parent engagement, and do
that through a new journey to that destination of a great
education through tribal compacting.
I think that, and you said this well, too, in other places
in the Country the public education system is truly viewed as a
place of opportunity. So people see that as an economic pathway
out of poverty and those sorts of things.
But because of our history, I think Alaska Native people
see the public education system, because of what happened, as
more of assimilation than opportunity. So by doing tribal
compacting, we give them an opportunity, we all can let go of
how that has happened, and have a new beginning with a new kind
of system that will have risks associated with it, because it
is new. But it won't be the same system that created that kind
of context.
Senator Murkowski. Let me ask each of you, and I suggested
it a few minutes ago, the proposal that we are talking about
which would be this education compact between the State and the
tribes, I should ask, do you see a role for the ANCs?
Ms. Kitka. Yes. The first part on that is, when we talk
about the demonstration, we don't know yet how many projects it
will be. It might be 10, it might be 15, it might be 5, it
might be 3.
Senator Murkowski. Will it be dependent on capacity?
Ms. Kitka. It will depend a lot on capacity and how quickly
the Commissioner and his team can scale up, and skilled we are
at facilitating negotiations on key things, as well as, again,
I view it as the incentives that you put all around it, that
people have the resources that they need to do.
In regard to the role for corporations, you are as familiar
as I am that corporations are considered Indian tribes for
certain purposes under Federal law. In fact, I think for about
200 different laws that they are considered. I think that is an
open question, whether or not that plays into this compacting
of schools right now. I don't believe the corporations using
their tribal status do any compacting at all. But we are not
looking at precluding anybody from anything. At this point, we
are just trying to test it out.
One of the areas that we also thought would be a selling
point for this compacting is looking at the experience of the
Bureau of Indian Affairs when they did compacting for the first
time. Congress authorized 10 tribes to embark on that. Tlingit
and Haida was the first one from Alaska that participated. They
studied it really, really carefully, the budget, so that when
they were in negotiations with the State they knew what they
were talking about, they knew what they meant to do and what
they couldn't do.
The second year the opened it up for 10 more tribes. And
Kawerak in Nome was the second tribe and organization that was
able to take advantage of it. They built on what Tlingit and
Haida did in studying the budget.
I remember when we Loretta Bullard executed that first
compact for Kawerak. They were able to squeeze out of the
system $750,000 that went more to the grassroots level and was
picked up on by different levels of the government. So I think
not only compacting is an efficient mechanism on that, but I
think we will see, as we build more flexibility into that, we
will be able to stretch the resources.
Senator Murkowski. Then to the question that I was going to
ask of each of you, we are able to stand up a project, and
again, how many has yet to be defined. Many things still to be
defined. What would you describe as success from this education
compacting? How do you define success? I will let you start,
and we will just go around the table.
Ms. Kitka. I would define success as tribal ownership over
education. I look back to when we first started dealing with
the sobriety movement in the Native community. We had lots of
problems with alcohol.
Then all of a sudden, you had one person stand up at the
AFN convention and say, you know what, I quit drinking and it's
now been 10 years. Then a little bit later, you would have
more. You had a whole shift in attitude and respect in the
Native community, where they no longer would tolerate drinking
in public Native meetings. In fact, it became a badge of honor
when you could talk about what you had done and how you were
doing it.
I think success is, at the AFN convention you have
communities saying, we have finally taken over this education
system, look at what we are accomplishing and doing, and look
how well our children are. We have great attendance records and
our children are learning about their history, they are
learning about their environment.
I think you will see the growing sense of that. It is not
something you will be able to tell them the first year or
second. It is when the enthusiasm and the energy is harnessed
to make that happen. Health compacting could have fallen flat.
In fact, the negotiations for the health consortium, that
negotiation went on two years, then they hit a roadblock. They
couldn't get that last part. Congress had to come in and step
in, that expression, divide the baby, solve the last problem
for that to go forward.
We may have that same thing in education, where people put
in the work, but you have one particular obstacle that is in
our way. In that case, go back to the legislature and say,
wait, we have a problem here, we need more flexibility here, go
to the Congress and say, we need more flexibility. But it is
building up that momentum and that enthusiasm where people are
really proud.
I think you will just see it over the years, even just at
the AFN convention, on helping with education, what
[indiscernible] that pride. You give people the ownership and
they will take the responsibility, and giving them the
flexibility to do it.
Senator Murkowski. Sandra, how would you define success?
Maybe in your view, because you have been involved in different
approaches, clearly, maybe it is not necessarily the
compacting, but what does success look like with regard to
education for Alaska Native children?
Ms. Kowalski. Long view and short view. So, long view,
adults will be professionals, they will have certificates, they
will be able to support their families and provide for their
families, from the land, from employment. And they will be able
to communicate with their elders and their future generation in
their indigenous language. Because in that language
encapsulates everything that makes us strong.
Short view, how would we know this is working? You will
have students who aren't dropping out, they see themselves in
their curriculum and their daily activities in school, because
they go home to an environment that is right now very different
than a lot of classrooms, the way that they are set up. But
they will be more engaged in school, will have a higher
graduation rate, less absenteeism.
I took notes when William was talking, because I remember
that, William, that absenteeism was one of the reasons you guys
went the charter school route. That is a real issue. When I was
in Northwest Arctic just recently, one of our communities
talked about the high absenteeism rate.
The Inupiaq instructor said, that is funny, because on
Inupiaq days, all those kids who are never here come back to
school that day. They come back to fish with their teachers,
they come back to get in a boat, get on the land. But they are
not attending school those other days. Which to me says that
the real disconnect of that human spirit, and yes, there are
other things that happen, including do parents support the
education that your child is getting in a school that exists
right now.
What I see right now kind of goes back to some of the
things Julie said about leveraging technology and the resources
that will provide, or an innovative school, it is kind of
happening already. We have young parents learning these
cultural practices through social media right now. I am telling
you, there is in-depth interest and movement on the part of
young parents and young family members. They are already
innovating, moving, sharing, connecting already through some of
the social media platforms that have broken down barriers for
them.
I do think that when these parents see the schools also
teaching some of the things for themselves, you are going to
see high parent engagement. I don't know if you remember
GearUP, the Federal program that used to operate, it was a
college preparatory program for middle school. They had GearUp
in my district.
We thought what we were doing was providing opportunities
for seventh grade students to understand the training and
career opportunities that could be provided for them in the
region. But we had a challenge with how we were going to
chaperone seventh graders to come into one village together to
do this.
So the best way out for us was to plan for their parents to
travel with them. It turned out the parents were way more
engaged than their students about what we were teaching their
seventh-grade students, because they hadn't seen those
opportunities either, yet. The same thing has the potential to
happen in this transformed educational system. Parents will
finally have the opportunity to reengage in learning
opportunities they didn't have provided for them. I think that
could be a powerful message to the elders who are waiting for
this to happen and the children who need for this to happen.
Senator Murkowski. Thank you. Commissioner?
Mr. Johnson. As I said before, I think success, the
destination hasn't changed. That is, and maybe you were in the
legislature when this was put in statute, but 14.03.015, that
``all students will succeed in their education and work, shape
worthwhile and satisfying lives for themselves, exemplify the
best values of society, their culture, and be effective in
improving the character and quality of the world about them.''
I think that is still success.
I would add, based on your opening comments and the events
of the day, that would include treasuring their freedom and
being willing to defend it.
Second, I would say that I think success is something that
we have already seen and got a taste of, which is why we are
here and so passionate about moving this forward. Sandy alluded
to it, and that is that Alaska Native people are super-excited
about educating their kids in the system that they get to do
that in.
We have seen through this conversation a partnership with
AFN, so many people, hundreds of people showing up to webinars
that President Kitka has hosted, really interested in this
topic, and educating their kids. I think that is a taste of
success that should motivate all of us to keep going and
exploring this pathway.
Senator Murkowski. William, what do you see as success?
Mr. Naneng. Thank you. I would like to let the tribes know
that what goes in front of them are theirs, they own it. Also
learning helps the students, encourage students that are
stewards of their community.
So I would like our students and our instructors to know
that all this, science, math, and literacy are ours. I want to
say that when we engage in subsistence activity, when we go
out, we may not always succeed or get what we are going out
for. We may have to go out maybe multiple times before we even
are able to harvest or gather what we go out to do.
So like our Commission stated, it is a process. It is not
something that you just learn one time. You have to continually
learn it. It is not just a one-time thing. I would like our
tribes to know that what goes in front of them are theirs. That
is a success.
Senator Murkowski. It is about that ownership.
We are just about to the 4:00 o'clock hour, which means we
have to wrap here. But I want to give everybody an opportunity
to make any final or concluding remarks that they want to make
sure we get on the record.
But before we do that, I am going to ask one last question
to you, Commissioner, just in terms of readiness within the
department to undertake the kind of demonstration project that
we are taking on. In that, do you look at this as different
than what the State engages with, for instance, communities
that are wanting to establish some type of charter school or
other school type? Do you have a model that you can work with
to make this easier, or is this entirely different? I am
wondering about the readiness on your end.
Mr. Johnson. Thank you. We are ready, and part of that is
because we have the good fortune of having a State board of
education that said, be ready, we think this is a priority. So
we are ready. That doesn't mean we have all the answers. But I
don't want us to have all the answers and give to them. I want
to have this partnership. Because that is what is making it
work.
So we have models that I think we can draw upon, but not
one that we want to set on the table and say, let's do this. We
want to create this new pathway and journey with our partners,
and build something new. Instead of, as I said before, us
building it and saying, hey, here is a great new idea, letting
them say, hey, could we do this, and work with it.
So I think our charter laws in this State require that
everything runs through the local school board and tribal
compacting would be different in that. So our charter laws in
Alaska wouldn't be the perfect model. But there are other
States with different kinds of charter laws that can inform the
pathway. I know AFN and others are looking at those models. You
mentioned the State of Washington.
So we have lots of resources to draw upon. But at the end
of the day, I hope this looks very Alaskan, and has lots of
fingerprints on it.
Senator Murkowski. I think you said it, Sandra, I wrote it
down here somewhere, it is education by Alaska Natives and for
Alaska Natives.
So we are at 4 o'clock. I would like to offer each of you
an opportunity to share anything to supplement what you have
already said, or if something has not been touched upon, we
welcome that. I have been going around the table this way, so I
think I am going to go to our friend and colleague who is here
virtually. William, if you would like to add anything final.
Also know that, I am not meaning to put you on the spot,
but this record is going to be held open, so there will be an
opportunity to supplement in writing. But I know it is
oftentimes just much easier while we are in the midst of this
conversation, to add any final thoughts you might have.
Mr. Naneng. Thank you, Senator Murkowski. We need a system
that supports tribes' ability to educate our own students. This
includes infrastructure, infrastructure for buildings, culture,
and language
Right now, we struggle, how can we do this. Many of our
first-time Yupik immersion parents are not Yupik speakers,
Yupik is something that they don't know. So somehow, one of the
innovation steps might be to do some reverse engineering, or
something like that. That is my thought. Thank you.
Senator Murkowski. Thank you. I so appreciate what you
provided to the Committee, and your leadership out there in
Hooper Bay. Thank you very much.
Commissioner Johnson, final thoughts?
Mr. Johnson. Just to thank you, again, for holding the
hearing. I thank your staff for all the support they provided
leading up to it. Thank you for all the partners.
I am not afraid, I am not worried, I have every confidence
that tribes in Alaska are going to help light this pathway
forward, and that in the future, I will look back and consider
it a great privilege that I got to be part of this
conversation. Thank you.
Senator Murkowski. Thank you. We appreciate your leadership
at the State level. We know it is not an easy job. But I will
tell you, it is very heartening as one who deals with folks who
work within, whether it is State administrations or Federal
administrations. Oftentimes there is a hesitancy to try to
explore new ideas, because it is just harder. So not only your
willingness, but the State Board of Education, the
administration that is behind this, it is appreciated. Thank
you for that.
Ms. Kowalski. I will just put this out there, I know you
asked the Commissioner if the department was ready. There
really is a sense right now of move forward and not to move
forward right now. It is because of how carefully this has to
be done, so that nothing pulls the breath out of it in the
future.
So when we ask the department, are you ready, they are as
ready as they should be. Because me as a State board member, I
am going to be saying, the department better not get in the
way. So you had better be ready to be not ready, so that there
is time to understand what negotiation is, and all of that, all
of those pieces are key.
So when people say they want us to go, I have State board
members who ride in the car with me and are like, Sandy, why
aren't we doing anything? It has to be done well enough that it
is going to be a successful demonstration project. There is so
much that is going to come before that I don't even understand
it. People like Julie understand it much better.
I think it is important that we make sure it is done well
and done right and it absolutely gets to the heart of what our
tribes really want. So there is going to be a lot of local-ness
to it as well. I just wanted to say that.
Senator Murkowski. That is good advice. I think there is a
desire to make it happen, but we also want to make it happen
right. It should not be viewed as, well, that was a nice social
experiment.
Ms. Kowalski. Right.
Senator Murkowski. This is about kids, children, and their
education. So keeping that always top of mind, and ensuring
that while we want to move with efficiency, we do want to make
sure we have it right. Thank you for that guidance.
Julie?
Ms. Kitka. Thank you so much for your time and attention. I
will leave one mental image for you, when you think about this
tribal compacting. We need partners on the Federal side to go
along with us. We are going to need additional resources in
incorporating indigenous knowledge into the curriculum.
I will give you an example. Think of the map of Alaska that
we all know, and the map of the United States where Alaska is
in a little box. Think how difficult it is to try to convince
other Americans how big Alaska is and how important it is, and
that we are one-fifth the size of the United States.
Just because the educational system and the culture have
put us in a little box, that is what we are going to be trying
to overcome in this whole system. In order for this compact and
our tribes to be successful, they need additional resources and
incentives on the Federal level to support them as they move
along, and support the teachers and put resources in some of
the other innovations, so everybody is not saying, well, you
are just taking money away from me, and you are doing this. It
all needs to be forward-looking and supportive.
I offer you that map example as what we are trying to
overcome with doing this.
Senator Murkowski. And it is a good reminder, and well
said.
As we are focused on how we can do right by Alaska Native
children here in this State, I am reminded as someone who has
been on the Indian Affairs Committee since I came to the United
States Senate, I am reminded that the Federal Government really
has not done right by Native children across the Country. We
see that in many of the assessments that we see about these
gaps in learning.
Sandy, you mentioned No Child Left Behind. While we didn't
like NCLB, it really did manage to shine a very directed target
on who we were failing. We were failing, we were failing,
Native children. In fairness, within that system, within the
BIE system, in my view we are still failing. Perhaps it is
because we have not been able to get out of the format, the
structure that has been in place.
There is an effort to say, well, we just need to put more
money towards it. But if the system is broken, if the system is
not workable, putting more money towards a broken system isn't
going to change it.
So I listened to the level of optimism and the willingness
to really bring about systemic change. I think that perhaps as
we have done with compacting for health care and demonstrating
to the rest of the Country how we can do it differently in
Alaska and provide first level quality of care in a place where
it is really hard to do, that perhaps we can be the model for
how we educate our indigenous populations, and Alaska can once
again lead. Because right now, we are doing a disservice to
Native children.
So Julie, I hear what you are saying about the resources. I
am not naive to know that there are fights that go on about the
allocation of monies. It happens to be within my Appropriations
Subcommittee. So I know very, very well.
But this should not be viewed as a threat to others'
budgets. Hopefully, we can shape this so that it is viewed as,
there is a new approach to finding solutions to what has been a
failed system for our Native children.
We have some work to do. You have given us some important
suggestions. Know that this hearing record is going to be kept
open for two weeks. So you may see Committee members that will
be submitting follow-up questions for the record. We would ask
that you continue with providing your insights there. Again, if
there is anything you might wish to supplement for the record,
know that we welcome that as well.
These are important, important conversations. I am pleased
to have been able to bring the conversation back to Alaska. We
want to thank everybody who has been involved in organizing
this field hearing. Thanks to the APU staff. I want to thank my
staff, who have been very helpful and to the Committee staff as
well.
A recording of this hearing is going to be posted on the
Committee's website, so that is out there. For those who have
participated virtually, we thank you for that. For those who
have traveled to get here, we wish you safe travels back home.
With that, the meeting stands adjourned. Thank you,
everyone.
[Whereupon, at 4:10 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
Prepared Statement of the U.S. Department of Education
Chair Schatz, Vice Chair Murkowski, distinguished Members of the
Committee:
Thank you for the opportunity to submit written testimony on the
effort in Alaska to establish State-Tribal Education Compact Schools
(STECs). The U.S. Department of Education (Department) applauds
Governor Dunleavy, Commissioner Johnson, and Julie Kitka, President of
the Alaska Federation of Natives, for their continued leadership to
establish a framework for the first STEC to open in Alaska. As this
initiative moves forward toward a pilot stage, the Department stands
ready to provide support and technical assistance to help ensure that
Tribal sovereignty and self-determination, paired with community
ownership, are paramount in this effort, and that the establishment of
STECs transform educational opportunities and outcomes for Alaska
Native students across the state--from cities to regional hubs and the
most rural and remote villages. Your collective commitment to high-
quality, transformative education will also benefit non-Native students
and improve outcomes for all.
As it relates to Federal funding, future STECs will be eligible to
receive formula grants as a local educational agency (LEA) provided
they meet the definition of an LEA in section 8101(30) of the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended (ESEA).
Essentially, STECs must be a public board of education or other public
authority legally constituted within Alaska for administrative control
or direction, or to perform a service function for, public elementary
or secondary schools. The Alaska Department of Education and Early
Development (DEED) is responsible for determining whether STECs meet
this definition, not the Department, although we are able to assist
with technical legal questions regarding the statutory definition. If
STECs are LEAs and therefore receive formula funds, they would carry
out educational programs consistent with the statutory and regulatory
requirements of all Alaska LEAs. For discretionary grant funding, the
authorizing statute and implementing regulations would dictate STECs
eligibility. For instance, under the Alaska Native Education (ANE)
program, eligibility criteria allow for Alaska Native Organizations
(ANOs) to compete for discretionary grant funding, either independently
or in partnership with an LEA.
Lessons from the Alaska Native Organizations (ANOs) currently
implementing new ANE projects funded through the American Rescue Plan
(ARP) should also be central to the effort to establish STECs. The
historical increase in ANE funding under the ARP in 2021 allowed ANOs
to serve more Alaska Native students and communities. For example, as a
result of ARP investments, Alaska Native students and communities are
now benefitting from new high-quality early learning and enrichment
programs. STECs have the potential to develop innovative and promising
pathways for student success by building upon existing strategies from
ANE programs while addressing community challenges with solutions that
strengthen Tribal self-determination.
The Department is a steadfast ally and advocate for Alaska Natives,
Native Americans, and Native Education. The Biden-Harris Administration
respects and values the nation-to-nation relationship that the federal
government shares with Tribes, and we take our trust responsibilities--
including those in education--seriously. We applaud Alaska Native
leaders and educators for designing innovative solutions rooted in
Alaska Native values and cultures to strengthen education through
STECs, working in partnership with your communities and the state. The
Department seeks to improve educational opportunities and outcomes,
from cradle to career, for all students. For Alaska, we recognize that
locally driven solutions can be the most sustainable and transformative
for student outcomes. Through STECs, Alaska Native students will have
opportunities to: honor their cultures through incorporating Indigenous
knowledge into educational programs; learn and speak their languages;
engage with Alaska Native teachers, leaders and mentors; and receive an
excellent education that prepares them for college, competitive
careers, and contributing to their communities.
Please do not hesitate to call on the Department for assistance
with the STEC initiative and thank you for bringing attention to this
historic opportunity to transform Alaska Native education. The
Department learns every day from Native students and leaders how
important community is for engaging in traditional cultural practices
and fostering resilience in Alaska Native youth, leading to improved
outcomes for students and communities.
______
Prepared Statement of the Cook Inlet Tribal Council (CITC)
Thank you for the opportunity to provide Cook Inlet Tribal
Council's (CITC) testimony about transformative and innovative
strategies for better educational outcomes for Alaska Native students.
My name is Gloria O'Neill, and I serve as the CEO/President of CITC
where we provide social services to the 40,000 Alaska Natives in the
Anchorage area. This hearing is important because it allows us to share
our youths' stories of successful educational achievement and the
innovative approaches we use to educate our youth for today's (and
tomorrow's) world.
Research and experience across the Indian country has demonstrated
that cooperation among tribes, tribal organizations as well as state
and federal school systems and integration of community-specific
culture and language programs into school curriculum is essential to
the educational success of Native students. To accomplish this, CITC
emphasizes the need for Native communities to have ownership of and
responsibility for the education of their youth. While working in
collaboration with regional, state, and federal entities, Native
communities have the knowledge to effectively lead the development of
innovative and culturally-informed school curricula that strengthen the
educational outcomes of our youth.
CITC dedicates significant investment in improving outcomes for
Alaska Native Youth and carries this forward in our organization's
vision: ``We envision a future in which all Our People--especially Our
Youth, the stewards of our future--have access to vast opportunities,
and have the ability, confidence, and courage to advance and achieve
their goals, infused with an unshakeable belief in our endless
potential.'' At CITC, educating our youth is an essential component of
our commitment to our mission, which is to connect Alaska Native/
American Indian people to their endless potential. We accomplish this
through an innovative approach to youth education, such as infusing
cultural traditions into our FabLab Science, Technology, Engineering
and Math (STEM) programming, developing a digital badging system, and
by integrating after-school programs with classroom work in a cohesive
wrap-around approach that address the whole student and family.
In 2013 CITC, in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT), installed a Fabrication Lab (Fab Lab) to support
STEM-related education for Alaska Native students in Anchorage, Alaska.
The Fab Lab houses 21st century technology, such as 3D printers, a
laser cutter, sand blaster, vinyl cutter, molding equipment, and
ShopBots that require proficiency with design software and 21st century
STEM skills to bring ideas into the physical world. Over the past nine
years, CITC has had great success using the Fab Lab to develop programs
of cultural relevance to Alaska Native students. These programs
establish high cultural relevance and low barriers to STEM
participation through project-based learning activities that
incorporate contemporary youth culture as well as traditional Alaska
Native culture and STEM skills, because using the fab lab equipment
requires the students to understand and use computer programming.
Projects include: Dog Sled building; Eskimo Yo-Yo making; skateboard
design, and application of traditional cultural motifs to T-shirts.
Alaska Native students who participate in CITC Youth Empowerment
Services (YES) programs graduate from high school at significantly
higher rates than their nonparticipating Alaska Native peers. CITC has
committed to a fabrication-based approach to science, technology,
engineering, and math (STEM) intervention due to our initial successes.
Including the Fab Lab as a core element of program design has enabled
CITC to engage elementary and middle school youth in hands-on project-
based STEM learning, using state-of-the-art 21st Century technology, as
well as supporting high school students' progress through the Anchorage
School District (ASD) math and science curriculum. Currently, CITC
operates five separate programs that incorporate Fab Lab activities to
supplement ASD STEM instruction for Alaska Native students.
In 2017, the Fab Lab logged 2,954 student contact hours, and CITC
successfully adapted the Fab Lab service model for in-school use in a
remote Alaska setting, installing a full Fab Lab at the high school in
Utqiagvik, Alaska, North America's northernmost community.
Additionally, CITC also piloted STEM Learning Labs, offering year-
round, fabrication-based STEM enrichment programs at multiple Anchorage
schools and community venues used by Alaska Native families.
In 2020, the CITC Board of Directors charged the organization to
``Re-define education, based in culture and values, and co-designed
with the community, with an openness to radical new learning models
that leave four walls behind.'' Over thirty-five years of commitment to
learning and education prepared CITC to move forward with its radical
new learning models. We identified that ``education is not only a path
to selfdetermination,'' but actually the path to self-determination.
CITC's long-standing work to combine the benefits of traditional
knowledge and innovation, create new career opportunities, and partner
with national and local leaders has shown that there are ways to learn
and grow outside conventional education pathways.
With funding from the Department of Education Indian Demonstration
Program and Alaska Native Education Program, in 2021 CITC implemented
Fab Lab/STEM focused Innovation Stations that extend the original Fab
Lab model to sites across Alaska by installing Fab Lab equipment
packages scaled for in-school use in 17 urban, rural, and remote
schools. Innovation Station addresses the persistent educational
challenge presented by disparities between the academic preparation of
Alaska Native/American Indian students and the rest of the population
by (1) strengthening the integration of Native cultures and languages
into school climate and classrooms and (2) promoting 21st century
technology for Native education. Innovation Station's focus on STEM
instruction, a key project component, builds on research findings
confirming that academic achievement gaps persist in science
achievement among ethnically diverse students; gaps can be observed in
science course enrollments leading to careers in STEM fields and the
effective promotion of racial and ethnic minority students' educational
achievement in STEM is of critical importance.
Innovation Stations also build on high quality research suggesting
that culturally relevant STEM curricula can improve academic outcomes
for Alaska Native/American Indian students. The table below indicates
key programs that demonstrated positive results in evaluations.
Table 4: CITC YES: Culturally Based Education Programs
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Journey Building
Title Fab Lab Schoolyard Transitions Ahead Our Future
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Age K-12 7-12 5-6 & 8-9 Middle High
school school
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Type field Afterschool In-school In-school School
trip; and after- within a
after- school school
school; intervent
day camp, ions
mobile
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Place CITC; CITC Title 1 Title 1 High
schools; schools schools diversity
community public
schools
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Goals Innovation School Support STEM Support Increase
through engagement; skillbuildin STEM, number of
21st graduation/ g through culture, Alaska
Century GED culturally community Native
STEM + attainment; based youth students
tradition career STEM science projects, in higher
al Alaska skills academic level
Native skills STEM
culture & and through
values S.E.L. project
based
learning.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
What makes Innovation Station different from former CITC Fab Lab
programs is that the program intervenes with students sooner,
intervenes in-school, engages the full spectrum of elementary students,
and provides professional development for classroom teachers.
Innovation Station will leverage the considerable expertise of CITC's
YES department s to (1) adapt for in-school use existing programs that
provide culturally relevant out-of-school fabrication-based STEM-
enrichment to high need students, who are disproportionately Alaska
Native, and (2) scale up existing programming to create a network of
urban, rural, and remote Alaskan elementary schools with resources to
implement Innovation Station instructional units.
Annual professional development opportunities are a key project
component, building on findings by school administrators that confirm
improved academic outcomes after instituting a research-based,
culturally relevant professional development program for teachers
serving Native American students. Most teachers report personal
background, informal study, or living in the community as the source of
cultural knowledge relevant to Alaska Native/American Indian students
rather than formal instruction; 71 percent of all Alaska Native/
American Indian 4th graders, and 75 percent of all 8th graders had
teachers who reported attending no professional or community-based
formal programs for assistance in developing culturally specific
instructional practices to teach Alaska Native/American Indian students
in the past two years. Only 11 percent of fourthgraders in low density
public schools, and 26 percent in high density public schools, had
teachers who reported attending 1 or 2 professional or community-based
programs for help developing such practices in the past 2 years.
Teachers from partner schools will be trained to use Innovation
Station equipment, and to implement CITC field-tested activities
through annual in-service events. In addition, CITC will train teachers
in the process of using 21st century STEM skills to bridge maker
culture, youth culture, and Alaska Native culture, so that teachers are
able to adapt materials to reflect their own school's distinct
linguistic and cultural heritages and specific curricular needs.
While performance outcomes are still being evaluated, the ways
rural schools in Alaska Native communities are using Innovation
Stations are exceptionally creative and impactful. For example, the
Tatitlek Community School is using their Fab Lab equipment to emphasize
the preservation of the Sugt'stun language. Teachers have used Fab Lab
equipment to label items in the school with Sugt'stun words; posted
signs with numbers, shapes and colors in the Tatitlek Fab Lab; and, in
partnerships with CITC Fab Lab staff, build wooden boxes engraved with
Sugt'stun words and names, thus fully integrating language into the
school environment. Similar language and culture activities are being
explored and celebrated with Fab Lab equipment and tools in the
communities of Nanwalek and Tyonek.
CITC continues to invest in innovation and access to technology to
prepare students to move to the next level. Using this approach, in
FY21, CITC served 1,029 students through aligned educational services
and was able to maintain its 97 percent graduation rate (in contrast to
55 percent for AIAN district-wide) for the seniors participating in
CITC classes. CITC's youth education program offered over 10,000 hours
of student tutoring in CITC after-school programs and its Fab Lab and
new micro labs supported students for another 10,480 hours. It is not
enough to simply change the current education systems--we must also
offer a variety of learning models that serve to nurture and identify
the potential in each of our Alaska Native students.
Radical Learning Elements
To that end, CITC has also implemented a micro-credentialing
program that promotes job skills development, professional development
skills, and Fab Lab safety training for all ages of youth. Digital
badging is recognized across the world as a way to demonstrate
accomplished skills, comprehension and expertise through quick, deep-
dive online tutorials and the ability to articulate the application of
the topic(s). Unlike formal education credentialing, badges provide
immediate feedback that a student has made the effort to grow their
knowledge base and knows how to apply it. For CITC, the ability to
provide badging and micro-credentialing creates access to educational
opportunities our participants would not be able to receive in a
college or job training school setting.
Holistic Wrap-Around Services
CITC's full suite of services, which includes employment and
training, child welfare, recovery support as well as education has
created an environment in which the student's whole self and whole
family can be engaged in and part of the solution. Using the Five
Factors assessment tool, our participants define for themselves what
success is, and the various departments within CITC support each and
the student/family to remove barriers and achieve success on their
terms. CITC's innovative Parents as Teachers tutoring program brought
parents into the school, and other programs within CITC support and
train both students and their families to achieve success, while
holding close the relationships and cultural strengths of Alaska Native
values that lead to self-determination.
Conclusion
This combination of dedication to innovation and the transformative
power of education integrated with culture and values in the three
domains of classroom/after school, Fab Lab and digital badging have
charted a path to preparing our students for the jobs of the future. We
look forward to working with you to make transformation a reality.
______
Prepared Statement of Morrie Lemen Jr., Executive Director, Inupiat
Community of the Arctic Slope
The Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope (ICAS) supports efforts
to develop a plan for tribal compacting. ICAS has the capacity to plan,
implement and manage a Pre-k-12 tribal education school and educational
system to provide tribal schools in all 8 village communities of the
North Slope of Alaska. ICAS an IRA Tribe, has the governmental
authority to establish and operate a fully functioning Tribal school
system. However, ICAS does not have a tax base to support a robust
education system. Given that the United States Government and the State
of Alaska have the revenue generating sources to support tribes to
provide education services to youth in their communities, and ICAS has
the ability to provide high quality education in a manner that reflects
the unique Inupiat culture and native ways of learning and knowing, we
believe that a compacting agreement is beneficial to all parties.
Throughout rural areas of Alaska, which are predominantly Alaska
Native communities, our indigenous youth are performing well below
state and national testing averages as evidenced by the required state
test (PEAKS) for English/Language arts, and math. The chart 1 below
shows the decline in academic performance (the percentages are far
below proficiency measures) by North Slope students over the past 5
years and graduation rates between 22-32 percent. The evidence clearly
shows that our native youth are not being adequately served by the
current public education system. The federally recognized tribes have a
tribal constitutional responsibility and right to develop an education
system that will support a high-quality education for its citizens.
Chart 1--Total=Total student population; AN=Alaska Native
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
English
Language English
Far below Proficient % North Slope Arts Language Math Math AN Graduation Spending Per Student
Borough SD (ELA) Arts Total Rate
Total (ELA) AN
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2020/2021 70.39 76.73 56.52 62.49 73.27 $39,680.00-$5,000
2018/2019 64.1 72.47 39.81 45.52 76.99
2017/2018 61.92 68.94 35.47 40.08 68.15
2016/2017 55.71 63.75 28.4 32.84 78.38
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Defining what tribal education is, starts with stating what it is
not. Tribal education is not:
1. Adopting the current traditional system and delivering
educational services with tribal educators.
2. Adding Native culture to the current curriculum
3. Putting up indigenous pictures, symbols and words in the
classroom and calling it tribal education.
4. Teaching the native language and culture as a second
language and sub-culture of the current American system.
Creating an effective tribal education system is:
1. Building a tribal system from the foundation up utilizing
the tribal language, culture and values.
2. Creating teacher certification standards and requirements
based in the native language, culture, values and education
practices of the local tribe.
3. Preparing youth to effectively work in both the broader
American society and the local indigenous communities.
4. Building infrastructures and places to learn that align with
an indigenous education model that has been time-tested for
thousands of years.
5. Schools that have teachers from their local communities who
are grounded in the local indigenous language, culture and
practices.
6. Compacting, not contracting between federal and state/local
governments that respects the sovereignty of the tribes and
focuses on outcomes rather than process and operational
mandates.
Benefits of Tribal Education
For thousands of years, Alaska natives were educating their youth
to successfully live in one of the harshest environments on our planet.
Through native education, tribes successfully established communities
that were healthy and self-sufficient. The community focused practices
ensured that all members of the community had food security, housing
and organizational structure that supported healthy communities and
lifestyles. Prior to colonization, and assimilation practices, there
were not excessive dysfunctions and social ills. We now have the
opportunity to return to our traditional ways that were successful and
through education, guide our youth to become healthy, productive
adults, able to determine their life trail that supports their families
and communities.
ICAS asks the United States to honor the various treaties and
obligations to support tribal sovereignty in establishing and managing
robust tribal education systems by providing funding and opening the
door for Alaska Tribes to develop their own sources of perpetual
revenue. Alaska tribes are not able to fully exercise their sovereign
rights if other governmental entities are their only source ofrevenue.
ICAS supports the concept of tribal compacting and can continue to do
so to the extent that the tribe has the freedom to exercise its
sovereign rights to the fullest extent.