Neglected Responsibilities: America's Failure to Support Native Alaskan Students

These policy attempts have had little impact on the devastating effects of “highly qualified teacher” provisions on Native students. School districts are forced to look outside their communities for teachers who meet federal standards – over 70% of Alaska teachers are brought in from other areas (McDiarmid et al. 1). These outside teachers are ill-equipped to deal with the “physically and culturally foreign environment” of rural Alaska schools, and often stay in their positions for only one to three years before moving on to another district (Barnhardt 2). The impact of high turnover outweighs any benefit students might enjoy from having a “more qualified” instructor.

In Alaska, disproportionately high turnover rates are unique to rural areas. Urban Alaskan school districts have attrition rates similar to the national average of 13.7%.  By contrast, many rural schools annually experience at least 30% staff turnover, and sometimes even come close to a 100% change in teaching staff (McDiarmid 9). This is clearly unacceptable, and offers a unique insight on the causes of Native underachievement. Because much of this turnover is the result of federal policies, we must look to Congress for a solution to the problems it has caused.

To address the problems caused by existing federal policy, we should focus on ensuring that Native Alaskan students have access to schools where their cultures, languages and heritages are respected and embraced. While this is has the potential to be an expensive and daunting endeavor, I believe that we can make significant improvements simply by helping Native communities become involved in their local schools. It is no secret by now that the academic experience and performance of students improves when family and community members are part of the process, and it is hard to imagine a situation more appropriate for such involvement than rural, Native Alaskan communities – a place where the proverb “it takes a village to raise a child” can be implemented quite literally.

To facilitate this involvement, Congress must first modify the federal requirements for “highly qualified” education personnel in rural areas. The national standards requiring teachers to have an academic major or a master’s degree in every subject they teach may be reasonable for urban settings, but in small rural schools it is simply unfeasible. Congress needs to recognize that there are settings where one high school teacher is likely to teach multiple subjects, and make exceptions in federal law to allow for such situations. It should also be recognized that there are times when a teacher who is culturally competent and connected to the community is infinitely more valuable than an unexperienced teacher fresh out of an Outside school of education. To account for these variables, the HQT requirements should be altered or waived for rural Alaskan schools, and similar schools in other areas of the country.

Relaxing the HQT provisions will make it more likely that Native adults and other members of rural communities can become teachers in their own children’s schools. Teachers who live in or have grown up in Native communities are already used to the environment of rural Alaska and the culture of their particular area, so they will not have the same disruptive effects as an Outside teacher. Likewise, their connection to the community will reduce the chances that they will leave the district within their first three years, resulting in greater stability and more experienced educators for Native students.

Teachers who have connections to their communities are also more likely to be able to draw on the multitude of resources available to them, especially Native elders and other community members. An excellent example of the potential benefits from such resources is the tutoring program of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians in California, which was created in 1991 to address problems similar to those experienced in rural Alaska. The program started with a single community member who went from school to school helping students, and now consists of fourteen tutors who serve over 175 members of the Morongo tribe (ASH Institute). The tutors assist students directly in the classroom as well as helping after school with homework and general one-on-one advising, and stay with the same student for several years.

That program has had an undeniable impact: according to Harvard University, which gave the tutoring program an award in 2006, the Morongo Indian Reservation now has a 90% graduation rate and its students have made incredible improvements in grades and test scores (ASH Institute). Native elders are an incredibly valuable resource that are too often forgotten in education strategies for rural areas. If teachers were connected enough to draw on elders and other community members for their support and wisdom, we could see incredible changes in the state of Alaskan education.

Of course, changing federal teacher certification requirements is not going to result in an overnight increase in the number of Native teachers in rural schools. It will take an investment of time and money to ensure that there are community members qualified to teach in rural schools. Congress could help make this investment by designating funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to support Native Alaskans who wish to pursue careers in education. Funding has already been created through the Department of the Interior and the Department of Education for workforce development and postsecondary education opportunities (Department of the Interior). If some of these funds were offered to Native Alaskans with a match from Alaska’s Native Regional Corporations3, we could in a few short years dramatically increase the number of Native teachers in Alaska.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) also offers an opportunity for early childhood education in Alaska. The Department of Health and Human Services has designated $2.1 billion dollars in ARRA funds to be used for Head Start early childhood education programs. If some of this money is designated for schools in rural Alaska, it could provide further opportunities for community members to support the education of Native children.