Increase High School Graduation Rates of American Indian Students

WHEREAS, the National, Indian Education Association (NIEA) was established in 1969 for the purpose of advocating, planning, and promoting the unique and special educational needs of American Indians, Alaska Natives an Native Hawaiians; and

WHEREAS, NIEA as the largest national Indian organization of American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian educators, administrators, parents and students in the United States, provides a forum to discuss and act upon issues affecting the education of Indian and Na’ive people; and

WHEREAS, through its unique political relationship with Indian nationals and tribes, the federal government has established programs and resources to meet the educational needs of American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians residing on and off their reserved or non-reserved homelands; and

WHEREAS, a quality high school education should be expected as a basic part of the educational level for all America’s students including American Indian students, and is a necessity for entry level employment opportunities that provide an adequate wage as well as entry level into post-secondary training; and

WHEREAS, a quality education system, which should include as a minimum a high school diploma, must be provided in our Indian communities to not only support the development of a well-trained labor force bu to strengthen families and reduce the dependency on social services programs, such as Temporary Assistance to Needy Families; and

WHEREAS, NIEA recognizes that many of the Indians students who are entering high school as freshmen are not graduating from high school and as a result are faced with many barriers that limit their opportunities in continuing their education in post secondary training, seeking gainful employment, and creates barriers for future success; and

WHEREAS, NIEA recognizes that a wide disparity in educational achievement exists between the American Indian students and their non-Indian peers in our nation’s public schools as evidenced by the extremely high rates of between 40 – 60% of American Indian students who are leaving high school between their freshmen and senior year and not graduating as evidenced by the example of 50% graduation rate in the state of Montana between the years 1995-1996 and 1998-1999; and

WHEREAS, NIEA finds this an unacceptable achievement level for American Indian students in our nation’s public schools; and

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, NIEA will develop a data base from at least 10 other states that have this data available ( similar to the state of Montana that shows enrollments and graduation data by ethnic background) to document the disparity in graduation rates of American Indian students based on enrollment and graduation over a four-year period (Freshmen level through Senior), and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, NIEA will share the data with educational leadership, its membership, and advocate for strategies to increase the graduation rates of American Indian students.

Submitted by W. Stanley Juneau, Blackfeet

CERTIFICATION

I do hereby certify that the foregoing resolution was duly considered and passed by the NIEA Board of Directors at its October 28 – 31, 2001 meeting in Billings, Montana at which a quorum was present.