“Breaking the cycle for unfulfilled promises by providing a path to excellence in reading, writing, and math achievement.”
In an effort to address the unfulfilled promises made to Native peoples, the Center will provide sophisticated approaches to teaching and learning to ensure high levels of achievement. This is not to deny that there are serious social and familial issues that face too many Native students. But to break the cycle of poverty, social isolation and educational malaise it is necessary to provide a research-based, sustained professional development grogram, so that existing and future generations of teachers of Native students are successful in the classroom.
A systematic and strategic plan exists for the National American Indian, Alaskan, and Hawaiian Educational Development Center. It began several years ago with Phase I, that initiated training in the Early Literacy Learning Framework of kindergarten through third grade staff in about a half of dozen schools in the south central region of Montana. These schools, on the Northern Cheyenne and Crow reservations, volunteered to have their teachers participate in Early Literacy Learning training at the St. Labre campus. After one year of intensive professional development, support and program implementation, literacy rates for 2nd grade students jumped from 19% to 100%. Similarly, when students were evaluated using Dolch Word List tests, 2nd grade scores jumped from 38% to 100%.
Also in Phase II, literacy coordinators were provided professional development and on-site support on the Northern Cheyenne and Crow reservations to support those teachers in participating schools at the St. Labre campus.
In Phase II, math coordinators were provided professional development and on-site support on the Wind River Reservation in central Wyoming. In both Phase I and Phase II, there was an initial research study conducted to ascertain whether the training provided to existing classroom teachers was an adequate support system, so that the teachers would be successful in the classroom in helping students reach grade level proficiency (for complete details click on Phase II Interim Evaluation Results 2004-06).
These astonishing gains achieved at a Wyoming Center school offer proof that the Center’s program is effective. Through a systemic approach focusing on professional development, mathematics curriculum, leadership development and appropriate assessment development as well as the engagement of parents and the community, student proficiency on the Wyoming State Assessment rose from 0% to 63% in three years. An early critical step was the establishment of a steering committee with representatives from both the school and the community. The program is based on a continuum for professional development, which ultimately results in providing all involved staff with an understanding of the assessment tools and how children learn mathematics.
In subsequent phases of this program, the Center will seek to replicate this success by recruiting schools from across the country to provide professional development and support to their teachers.
A key component of our success is our high level of accountability. Historically, programs in Native communities have been short-lived. Our relationship is long-term: Teachers will have ongoing assistance from on-site classroom coaches as well as ongoing professional development and sustained support.