While much progress has been made over the last few years between Cook County School District I.S.D. 166 and Grand Portage Local Indian Education Parent Committee (LIEPC), more needs to be done, said Grand Portage Education Director Maria Burnett as she addressed the I.S.D. 166 school board on Thursday, April 20.
The goal of the joint effort is to make sure all native children attending school get the same chance at a quality education as their non-native counterparts.
On January 25 and February 22 the groups met to discuss and approve a resolution that stated, “The Parent Committee has found most of the District’s educational programs to be adequate in meeting needs of American Indian students.”
District accomplishments cited by Burnett included the Orton-Gillingham training for all county teachers; the installation of bi-lingual signage (Ojibwe/English) throughout the school building; opening an Ojibwe Language room; the inclusion of Indian Education staff to participate in classrooms; setting Native American goals for 2016/2017, and a credit recovery program.
But the resolution also contained “non-concurrences,” and Burnett read those as well to the school board.
Non-concurrences occur when the LIEPC feels the school district has not met standards set and agreed upon by both parties.
“Although, the District has one school board meeting in October of each year in Grand Portage, they [school board] have not been proactive in promoting commentary from parents and the community as a discussion/action item on the agenda for the meeting to comment on whether Indian children participate [in school] on an equal basis. The LIEPC has suggested there be several meetings held in Grand Portage to give more parents the opportunity to attend one of them and to voice/comment on equal participation by their children.”
Testing results need to be shared with Grand Portage parents, said Burnett.
“The district should have a meeting in Grand Portage to review school data and provide statistics on the participation of Indian children and non-Indian children in the various programs and activities. Other than parent teacher conferences held once a year in Grand Portage, the community is not given any data (testing results) on how Indian children compare to non-Indian children.”
An Opportunity for Achievement (OFA) committee was formed to give suggestions to the district so it could modify its educational program to ensure that Indian children participate on an equal basis with non-Indian children, but, said Burnett, “The OFA committee had one meeting, ideas and goals were discussed but with the resignation of the former superintendent, it has not moved forward.”
Another standard set and not met by the school district, said Burnett, was to allow tribes and parents of Indian children an opportunity to review materials and provide input on the needs of Indian children and recommend ways the school district can help Indian children benefit from the LEA’s educational programs and activities.
“We have made requests and recommendations that culturally relevant educational materials be implemented in the social studies curriculum such as: ‘Why Treaties Matter,’ and ‘Tribal Sovereignty,’” Burnett said.
“In LIEPC meetings, community members have offered to come and speak about culture and traditions of students, but have yet to receive an invitation. Our Indian students need to know that their culture and community have self-worth and are valid, and are important enough to be taught about not only to them but others as well. There are some teachers that incorporate Native words and teachings.
The LIEPC would like to have an inclusive and integrating methodology that all teachers could teach.”
A few more non-concurrence items were listed. Burnett asked to re-establish the OFA committee to address the achievement gap between Indian and non-Indian students. She also called on “all school staff, teachers, and administrators to attend diversity training and professional development that address the needs and learning skills of Indian students and to incorporate culture relevance in curriculum, pedagogy, assessment and school atmosphere.
“We want to continue efforts of communication and collaboration between the LIEPC and Cook County School District because our students are entitled to have every opportunity to attain their full academic success.”
School board member Deb White said she would like to be in charge of re-starting the Opportunity of Achievement Committee and the board was fully behind her.
By resolution, the school board must respond in writing to the non-concurrences within 60 days. In the board’s answers, they must state its reasons for accepting or not accepting and implementing the recommendations.
Serving on the Grand Portage LIEPC with Burnett are Stacy Spry, Desiree Likiaska, Brittany Deschampe, Debra Owens, Angela Crow, John Morrin, the tribal rep, and Jaden Aubid, the student rep.
Why is there an educational gap?
“My mother was six years old when she was sent [hundreds of miles away] to boarding school,” said John Morrin, Grand Portage tribal representative on the LIEC who attended the school board meeting with Burnett.
The goal of boarding schools was to assimilate Indian children into the mainstream way of American life, Morrin said. It was also a way of dismantling native families and nearly destroyed native tribal languages and culture.
Morrin gave a brief history of the U.S. Federal government’s attempts to educate Indian children.
In 1819 Congress passed the Indian Civilization Act, which authorized up to $10,000 a year to support religious groups and individuals who wanted to live with and teach Indians. Mission schools came out of this act.
In 1872, Charles A. Eastman, a Santee Sioux also known by his Sioux name of Ohiyea, was a brilliant mission student who became an author and a doctor and wrote about the indigenous people’s plight. Ohiyea was one of the first to document the damage the government had done to the native culture, and its failure to live up to its treaties.
In 1879 government schools opened and in 1886 the Carlisle School (among the alumnus was Jim Thorpe) started, with the school’s founder, Army Captain Richard Henry Pratt, saying in an 1892 speech, “Kill the Indian in him, and save the man.”
During the 1920s, federal policy concerning Indian schools came under fire as Indian reservations remained in poverty. A 1928 independent report by the Brookings Institution, known as the Meriam Report, sharply criticized the quality of education provided by government-run schools. Vocational programs were seen as an attempt to provide student labor to keep the schools running and save the government money. That report called for child-centered, culturally appropriate education.
In 1966 advocates called for colonized indigenous peoples of the world to chart their destination. This came on the heels of the founding of the United Nations, and it inspired Native American Indian bands. In 1966 the Rough Rock Demonstration School opened its doors to children. The Navajo Nation in Arizona started it. Two years later, citing high dropout rates of Native Americans, the Navajo began the first Tribal College, and in 1978 Congress passed the Tribally Controlled Community College Assistance Act.
Education for Indian children is getting better, said Morrin, but against the backdrop of what has taken place, the efforts to improve must continue.
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