Project
6.1
SCHOOLS SERVING NATIVE AMERICA: A SERIES OF CASE STUDIES
Demmert 11/17/98
INTEGRATED SUMMARY DOCUMENT
SCHOOLS SERVING NATIVE AMERICA: A SERIES OF CASE STUDIES
Schools and programs that serve Native American students (American Indian, Native Alaskan, and Native Hawaiian) have not been universally regarded as successful. Early educational programs stressed domestic training for women, farming and ranching for men, and work with machinery or blacksmithing. Some of these early programs were successful, but more recent academic efforts have resulted in significant levels of students leaving schools early, or not doing well academically. Surprising as it may seem there are records of successful for individual students, for low percentages of all students, and some schools that have been relatively successful. The success or failure of students, tribes, or schools depend to some degree upon the period of history, the group referred to, and who is operating the school. Success may also depend upon the attention given to strengthening the language and cultural base of the students served by the community or school.
Historically Native groups like the Cherokees and the Native Hawaiians operated their own school systems. Some of these early schools were very successful in that those students were multilingual; spoke higher levels of English that the average population living around them, and significantly influenced the development of the territory or state in which they lived. Some, like the Native Alaskan, even influenced state legislation or federal policy for the U.S. government at large. Today, there are increasingly greater numbers of Native Americans that operate their own school systems with support from their state, the federal government, the church, and/or a philanthropic organization. The general tenor of many of the reports on the education of Native students is that both Bureau of Indian Affairs and public schools serving Native America have not been very successful in educating many of the students that attend them. The academic performance levels are below national averages; the numbers of students leaving school early are very high; and the social environment of the school seldom supports the language and cultural base of the Native community served.
There are certainly a variety of reasons that some of these early schools serving Native America were unsuccessful. There are certainly a number of reasons that schools serving some Native communities and students today happen to be very successful. I have my perspectives about what some of these reasons include, but there is little hard evidence about what students are actually experiencing in the school setting. In an effort to identify and understand what is happening in a mix of these schools, I decided to organize a series of case studies on schools or programs that serve Native communities that incorporated a Native language and cultural curriculum. I looked for a school or program that was viewed as relatively successful (students viewed as doing well academically, and a school that was supported by the community). I looked for ten such schools or language and cultural programs, contacted them through a process of working with a group of educators that were nationally or regionally known to the local community, and worked on an agreement to do a case study on each. I anticipated that 5 — 7 of those sites would work with me (through a local person called a field investigator), and complete the process. An ambitious undertaking, but one that is continuing to move forward albeit slowly and painstakingly.
The field investigators and five sites (located in Alaska, South Dakota, Hawaii, Oregon, and Minnesota) have completed the collection of information and completed a draft of a case study of the school or educational program selected. Five of the original ten sites considered have not made much progress, and may not complete the process. Changes in school boards, school administration, or other priorities have delayed the process for those not completing the case study. Two educational programs from the group that have not collected information or written anything are still interested in working on their case, the Navajo, and the Zuni Pueblo. If things work out we may still end-up with seven case studies.
I was personally interested in generating a local awareness about the role research could play in providing support, introducing challenging new ideas, and in providing direction for a given program. I was also interested in promoting the development of research (case study) skills among local educators working with Native communities. Finally, I was interested in testing whether we could identify a set of characteristics that were consistent across the set of case studies. The field investigators and a small group of select Indian educators met with me at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington early in the developmental stage to discuss the ideas behind the project and their interest in participating. They serve as a national board, monitoring the series of case studies, to insure that the needs of the Native communities are not compromised, and that what ever we complete (as a final report) is worth publishing.
- Five of the case study sites that have completed a draft of the case study, and one that is still working on collecting the information, met a second time at Western Washington University to present the information they had collected. After listening to each case study site present what they had completed, we discussed their impressions of what they had found, and what might be common across each of the case studies. The preliminary information suggested the following:
- That each of the case study sites had a local educational leader that brought the ideas for the school together or program together, building a partnership between the community and school or program;
- That the faculty, students, and members of the community were in support of promoting the language and culture of the community as a part of schooling; and
- That traditional knowledge and educational systems my still have a role in the educational process and that they certainly have a place in supporting self and group identity as Indian, Native Alaskan, or Native Hawaiian.
These preliminary findings will be tested as the completed case studies are analyzed, and as we take another look at the communities if that becomes necessary.
There are two pieces of this series of case studies that are yet to be completely developed and implemented. They are on the discussion table, and some general agreements or actual activities have occurred. First, the case study investigators and representatives of the school have discussed the possibility of developing a partnership that will enable them to work together in the future, giving support and generating new ideas that each might try. Western Washington University has created an electronic communications system that allows each school to interact with each other, to work with individual field investigators, to work with other educational resource people, and to interact with the principal investigator. This electronic communications system will serve as a major tool for the consortium that will be built. Second, a number of Circumpolar Nations that are part of a consortium of Ministers of Education and educators that work, or have spent their lives working in the north, are conducting a series of case studies or research projects that will complement the series of case studies about Native schools serving Native students. The Native American group and the circumpolar group have met and discussed some of the information each has gathered. This discourse will continue, and help lead to a more in-depth understanding of what is happening in their respective school systems, and whether there are any common characteristics that cut across each of their sites. Worth analyzing and understanding from my perspective.
The cross-national perspectives and understandings that are common knowledge to the circumpolar group have not generally been available to the participants of the case studies serving Native America. Some of these cross-national perspectives and understandings include the following:
- There are school or program characteristics that cut across countries and projects or schools;
- Each location is in a different stage of development, some ahead in some areas, some behind in some areas;
- Each has something to learn from the exchange of information and the discussions that take place;
- Each has recognized that the issues of indigenous languages and cultures are at the forefront of their concerns and priorities; and
- There is other information to learn about that will benefit each in some way or another and lend support to the activities that each are engaged in at an individual site.
The original proposal intended to present a series of case studies that focused on the following: 1) determine the extent to which schools have changed as a result of greater local authority and responsibility; 2) to identify characteristics that are consistent across schools; and 3) to measure and evaluate the attitudes of Native students about their educational performance and future perspectives.
The information will be available for the schools and communities to use for their own purposes, for policy makers to consider in their development of programs and support of school activities, and for any long range strategic planning and legislative activity that might occur.
Methodology
Seven sites were to be selected from a variety of locations within the United States for description and analysis. A mix of schools and programs serving Native students were chosen for study. The selection of these sites were made by the principal investigator with the advice of a national coalition of Native educators and other experts. The schools chosen for participation depended upon their meeting the definition of local control under this study, the schools willingness to participate as partners in the study, and the availability of local field workers for conducting interviews and collecting information.
A consortium of nationally known and respected educators serve as an oversight committee to insure that the purposes of the study are carried out and that the research standards established for the study are met. In addition, the information generated from the case studies will be available for the benefit of the participating schools, for other schools interested in an analysis of the information gathered for the seven sites, and for policy considerations in each participating community.
Regional investigators (who will also serve as regional trainers) were selected and trained in the case study method, and are responsible for training local people in data gathering techniques and the data collection process. They are responsible for organizing the information gathered in accordance with the criteria set forth in the handbook and for submitting the information gathered in the format developed by the principal investigator. The principal investigator is responsible for writing the narrative for each case study except where regional coordinators have been selected to handle that responsibility.
The studies included the use of oral interviews and written questionnaires in the languages of the communities in which the schools are located. The principal investigator was responsible for training the regional trainers, developing the guiding principles, developing the instruments to be used in the study, and providing other information to be used. The principal investigator is responsible for reviewing the information gathered, chairs the advisory committee meetings, analyzing the information, and has the primary responsibility for producing the final report. The principal investigator is responsible for working with the advisory committee and keeping the committee informed of the progress and any problems that surface requiring changes in the methodology or sites selected.
The advisory committee will review the final report and approve it for release (in partnership with the selected sites), and use by the various sites, or decline to approve the report and, therefore, its distribution.
Guiding Principles
1. The principal investigator and advisory committee will insure that the study is conducted in a manner that does not violate the cultural integrity of the school and community studied (this includes approval of the standards adopted for this study).
2. The interviews conducted at each of the sites selected for this study will be conducted in the language of the school and community.
3. Participants responsible for training, gathering information and being interviewed will have the purposes of the study explained.
4. Project schools or programs considered for selection must have been in existence at least five (5) years in order to be selected.
5. Each site selected for the case study shall have the opportunity to review their case for accuracy and have inaccuracies corrected.
6. Community members, school administrators, and students selected for interviews shall be randomly selected.
7. The anonymity of interviewees will be protected unless written approval is obtained from a participant to release his or her name for a specific purpose.
Policies
? The selection of school sites will be made through a process established by the regional coordinators that includes approval by the schools and communities selected.
? There will be nothing in the process of collecting information for the case studies or in the reports that will be culturally or politically insensitive to the participating community and school.
? The data collectors and regional trainers will be selected because of their sensitivities to the cultural background of the communities and schools chosen for the case studies.
? Anonymity of persons interviewed will be protected. The names of individuals named in the study will only occur where it will add to the case and if the person(s) named gives written permission (or in the case of a deceased person, permission is given by the nearest relative).
? The advisory committee will have final concurrence on the release of the study. If this does not occur, the principal investigator may provide anonymity to the case study sites and use the study for academic purposes only.
Domains identified for data gathering and analysis include the following:
1. School-community relationships:
? Control and power
? Shared vision and values
? Level and quality of interaction between the two
2. Staffing patterns:
? Level of training
? Male female ratios
? Native and non-Native mix of employees
3. Culture and environment of the school:
? Languages of instruction
? Physical location
? Transportation
? Boarding school/day school
? Instructional materials
? School year
? Spirituality and moral fiber of school community
3. Nature and diversity of the student body
? Informal or traditional learning experiences in the family or community
? Academic performance
? Social development
? Citizenship
? Racial mix
? Health, diet and wellness
4. Demographics and history of the school
? Fiscal
? Governance
? Relationship between schooling and needs of the community
Specific areas of interest to be explored include the following:
The intersection between traditional mores and values (including language and cultural activities) and the resulting culture of the school. (Venn diagram: a series of independent and concentric circles used to show amounts of overlap between two activities or events, with the overlaps creating something new).
The learning opportunities that are identified as most important to the needs of the indigenous communities.
The use of traditional knowledge and systems of education that might be in evidence in the school or in the community, including:
? Whether members of the communities know or practice some of the more traditional areas of knowledge (i.e., medicine, science, mathematics, subsistence activity etc.).
? An appreciation for and an understanding of the balance required in the natural environment.
? An understanding that balance is required in one's life if one is to meet the challenges of life on a personal basis as well as respond to the expectations of a particular community.
Appropriate data gathering techniques include the following:
? Group process (asking and getting answers in a community gathering)
? Individual questions
? Personal interviews
? Written questionnaires
? Official records and files
? Participant observations
Field investigators and local interviewers were selected because of their general understanding of the community and for their personal demeanor and interpersonal skills (they must be closely attuned to that specific community and school). It is expected that this is necessary if accurate data is to be collected from the school and community members.
Assumptions:
* In general, the curriculum of schools under Native control will not have changed significantly from schools that are under the control of non-Native communities.
* In cases where a Native language and cultural emphases has been added to the curriculum, as a regular part of the culture of the school, students will have achieved higher academic performance levels than students in schools where the language and cultural activities are not a regular part of the school environment.
* Schools that have added a Native language and cultural curriculum will have a majority of students that have a positive self-image.
* Schools under Native control will have made a special effort to recruit Native teachers and administrators and have a majority of Native personnel.
* Schools that have Native teachers and administrators will have added Native language and cultural classes to the curriculum.
* Schools that have teachers that speak the language and understand the culture of the community will have forged strong student and community support.
* Communities that demonstrate significant control of their schools will have a distinct sense of ownership for their schools, and have a positive attitude towards the curriculum, the administration, and the teachers.
* Students that begin schooling using the Native language (where it is the first language of the home) will have higher standards of language usage in the national language than students that do not start school in their first language.
* Communities that have developed early childhood education programs, that are linguistically, developmentally, and culturally appropriate, will have students that experience high academic achievement in school, and have fewer social and cultural conflicts than students that do not attend early childhood programs.
Demographics
1. The general location of the community including a physical description, the size of the population, any industry (including any traditional economic activity), its general economic status, and a general educational level of its people.
2. A general description of the school, the number of students, the make-up of its faculty by ethnic background, the educational level of the administration and teachers, and whether the community is connected by road to larger cities.
3. A general description of the climate including average rainfall, average temperatures in the summer and winter months, and whether the terrain is forested, desert, or tundra.
The School and Program Description
1. A description of the administrative structure and authority and responsibility of administration and teachers.
2. A general description of the school setting and organizational structure of the different grades.
3. A description of the physical environment of the school, the school culture, and the attitudes of students, parents, teachers, administrators, and community leaders.
4. A description of the kinds of curriculum content and any relationships to traditional knowledge, culture, and language of the community.
5. A description of the academic performance levels of students (based upon the normal assessment and evaluation procedures practiced in the school).
6. A description of how the school acquired local control, whether through community or legislative initiative.
8. A description of how well the students do in the Native language (where it is in use), and in English (the national language).
The purposes, the methodology, the guiding principles, the policies, have all been followed closely and are consistent with actual events. The field investigators have become the national advisory board (the only major change in the project).
It is expected that a discussion of the case studies by the field investigators and their local meetings and discussion of the case studies will provide information that will influence change. The changes that occur will be a direct result of what the case study process, and the case studies themselves show as missing, or in need of strengthening. In addition, information gathered will become part of a national and international discourse on ways to improve academic performance and intellectual development among Native peoples. The case studies will add a small part to the larger picture that is emerging for policy makers, and for educators alike. These anticipated results are consistent with what the unifying themes of the projects and CREDE.
It is difficult at this point to measure how closely the project will fit the "Project to Program Unifying Themes," and the "Project to CREDE Unifying Themes," until the analysis and writing of the case studies is completed. I expect that they will be closely aligned because of the nature of the study. There is already some evidence of local program change as a result of preliminary reports from at least one case study. I expect that there will be more.
Dissemination of the case studies and final report is anticipated, and will depend upon the final quality and results of the case studies, and the comfort level of the case study sites.
It is too early yet to determine the future direction of additional research resulting from this study. I expect that the proposal that the RAND Corporation and I have developed to look at the NAEP information will be the next step.
