Courageous Conversations: Tackling the Issue of Inequity for Alaska Native Students

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Courageous ConversationsTackling the Issue of
Inequity for Alaska Native Students

• Terry Cash, Ph.D.
• Assistant Director
• National Dropout Prevention Center
• Clemson University
• The findings and conclusions expressed in this
  presentation are those of the author and do not
  necessarily represent those of the National
  Dropout Prevention Center

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Objective To engage, sustain, and deepen the
conversation about racial inequity in Alaska
public schools

• Framing the issue
• Historical Perspective
• Findings and Conclusions
• Statistical Evidence
• State-Level Evidence
• District-Level Evidence
• School-Level Evidence
• Strategies for change What can be done?
• As a school leader, teacher, staff member
• As an Alaska Native
• Jointly

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Alaska Native Student Success ProjectJuneau,
Ketchikan, Sitka
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Alaska Native Student Success Project

• Three-year project to develop and implement
  research-based, data-informed and evidence-proven
  strategies that reduce the number of students who
  drop out of school, focusing on Native student
  success. 
• This project will answer three questions about
  our dropout prevention programs
• Are we serving students who truly need the
  services?  
• Are we using dropout prevention strategies that
  are effective? 
• Are there other factors in our school working to
  push out students or defeat dropout programs?
• Districts involved Juneau Borough School
  district , Ketchikan Gateway Borough School
  District , Sitka School District
• Project partners Central Council of Tlingit
  Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, National Dropout
  Prevention Center, Alaska Staff Development
  Network

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Historical events continue to have a significant
impact on the educational experiences of Native
students -Eric Matthes (2008), Sitka School
District
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Research shows that cultural discontinuity
between the average public school and the Alaska
Native communities it serves is partially to
blame for the gap between Alaska Native
achievement and white student achievement
(Alliance for Excellent Education, 2008)
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Framing the Issue from A Historical Perspective

• Neglect of Native Education Organic Act of 1884
• Great Death Cultural Genocide 1900-1930
• Survivors 1930-1959
• Johnson-OMalley Act 1934
• Civil Rights and Anti-Poverty Programs
  1960s-1970s (an anomaly)
• Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act 1971
• Molly Hootch Tobeluk v Lind Consent Decree
  1976
• A Generation Turns On Itself 1950s 1990s
• Spiritual Bonding Family Hope for the future

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Findings and Conclusions

• The Numbers are Shocking
• Violent deaths
• Alcohol related incidents disease
• Domestic violence
• Imprisonments
• Teen pregnancy
• Academic achievement
• School dropouts
• Unemployment

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Evidence

• State-level Policy and Practice
• Inadequate and inequitable funding
• (vertical equity the unequal treatment of
  unequals)
• Assessment is one-dimensional
• Lack of a fully funded early literacy program
• Poorly funded (and organized) Career Technical
  Education (CTE) program
• Mandated seat time for over-age students and/or
  students retained
• Sanctions for low-performing schools

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Equity?

• Yupik village school playground

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Evidence

• School District Policy and Practice
• Blame the student/family/culture
• Programs that are fee-based or require
  transportation
• Sports fees/travel
• Attendance policies practice
• Inequity in funding
• Inequity in services
• Low numbers of Native teachers/administrators (No
  identified aggressive Alaska Native recruitment
  process in place)
• Lack of systemic implementation of Alaska
  Standards for Culturally Responsive Schools

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Evidence

• School-level Policy and Practice
• Blame the student/family/culture
• Inequity with regard to all cultures that
  arent white
• Low expectations
• Belief that the issue is related to poverty and
  not systemic cultural inequity and bias
• Failure to understand that there are differing
  levels of Native identity and place
• Overt and subtle racial bias and attitudes
  (stereotypes)
• Feeling of not being welcomed at the school
  (students parents)

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School-Level Policy and Practice(continued)

• Retention of students who do not pass one core
  course (test-based grade retention and course
  grading procedures)
• Informal practice of counseling students out
  (suggest going for a G.E.D. instead of diploma)
• Curriculum irrelevance
• A prevailing sense of helplessness on the part
  of school staff to address the problem of
  hopelessness among Alaska Natives

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Strategies for Change What Can We Do?

• As a school leader, teacher, staff member?
• Break the silence (but simply talking is not
  enough)
• Examine how the entire system/institution
  increasingly became an inappropriate and harmful
  environment for students of color
• Develop a systemic framework for equity and
  anti-racism transformation based on the Alaska
  Standards for Culturally Responsive Schools, as
  well as, personal, school-level, and systemic
  anti-racist/equity leadership

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Strategies for Change What Can We Do?

• As an Alaska Native?
• Work to ensure all children learn accurate
  information about historic and contemporary
  Alaska Native people.
• Use Alaska Standards for Culturally Responsive
  Schools to review school or district-level goals,
  policies and practices.
• Encourage Native parents to become more involved
  in their childs education at home, as well as,
  have a greater presence and voice at the district
  and school level.
• Seek to have a respected Tribal or Village Elder
  added as a de facto (non voting) member of the
  local school board.
• Encourage teachers to more aggressively invite
  Elders to their classrooms, not to always talk
  about history, but real time issues facing
  Alaska Natives.
• Move away from finger pointing , blaming, and
  defensive postures, toward a more conciliatory
  and pro-active approach to resolve issues
  seemingly antithetical to Alaska Native
  interests.

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Strategies for Change What Can We Do?

• Jointly?
• Work together to sponsor a cultural orientation
  camp and community mentoring program for new
  teachers to learn about and adjust to the
  cultural expectations and practices of the
  community
• Support regular community/school potluck
  dinners to celebrate the work of students and
  teachers and to promote on-going interaction and
  communication between teachers and parents
• Work together with appropriate school personnel
  to insure the availability of Elders expertise
  in all aspects of the educational program in the
  school (with regard to equity)
• At the home, community, and school levels, more
  aggressively bring to light issues of inequity
  and racial bias at their lowest level, and
  proactively seek solutions

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At one time, we had an educational system among
our people, among all our cultureswe gave that
responsibility to someone else. And its a
responsibility..Its a responsibility that we
have to our children. It is our responsibility to
teach them.Alaska Native Elder, 2005Alaska
Native Student Vitality ReportInstitute for
Social and Economic ResearchUniversity of Alaska
Anchorage, August 2006