Native American Students

Future TrendsEnglish 202

Midterm – Lori Hain

Issues being faced by Native American Students

• More than one in three American Indian and Alaskan native children live in poverty• American Indian/Alaskan Native high school graduation rate is only 67%, also the Bureau of

Indian Education schools graduation rate is only 53%. The national average is 80%• Only 49% of Native American students graduate High School, National Average is 86%• 11% of Native Americans manage to earn a college degree compared to the 29% national

Average • 207% are more likely to be expelled compare to white students• Math tends to be a lower scored subject, scares for Native American are 2 to 3 times lower

than that of white students• More than half of Native students do not attend school in a public setting• The amount of Native Americans who are 25 years and older have not gained a high school

degree is 22% and from there is only 13% who have obtained either a bachelors degree or higher

Difference In StudentsRatios in Different Ethnic

Groups

There is a noticeable difference in the rate of which students are either expelled or suspended between white students, Black or African Americans and American Indian/Alaska Native. This is just one of the places where we are able to see the differences in attendance between the ethnic groups – not bas d on being home sick, playing hooky, etc. The high amount of white students at 26.1%, Black/African American at 6.5% and then American Indian/Alaska Native at 0.7%. This graph is giving us a good idea of the ratio as to how many students attend school and those that have either been suspended or expelled.-California School-

Problems faced by Native American Students

• The Native American high school graduation rate is 51%. Of those, approximately 5% proceed directly to four-year colleges and only 10% of those students graduate in four years.

• American Indian and Alaska Native students have a dropout rate twice the national average; the highest dropout rate of any United States ethnic or racial group

• Academically capable Native students often drop out of school because their needs are not being met while others are pushed out because they protest in a variety of ways how they are treated in school.

• About three out of every ten Native students drop out of school before graduating from high school both on reservations and in cities. Academically capable Native students often drop out of school because their needs are not being met while others are pushed out because they protest in a variety of ways how they are treated in school.

• 46 percent graduate high school and a mere 17 percent go on to attend college. Of this 17 percent, only 4 percent make it through the financial, emotional, and academic challenges of the first year of college

• One major challenge for American Indian students is believing that postsecondary education is beyond their reach.

• Another challenge is that American Indian students are often the first in their families to consider college.

• A lack of encouragement and interpersonal support (emotional or financial) can cause a Native student not to pursue college or to drop out.

Trying To Solve The IssueIn order to make the school experience better for native students and to reduce

the amount of dropouts, the schools need to have a change on how they are run and how the students are taken care of. Giving the students something to latch onto as far as teachers spending time one on one or in a group setting - just something that has substance to show that they are there for the students and to help them succeed. Teachers who care especially about the students need to be brought in - specially Native teachers that the students can connect to - as well as a curriculum that the students can relate to in Native schools to reduce cultural discontinuity, testing needs to be used in schools to help students learn rather than to track them into non-academic programs, and parents need to have the power to demand schools give their children an education that will strengthen Native families rather than separate Native children from their parents.

American Indian Education Foundation- The AIEF also works with partner colleges to help Native students stay in school until they graduate. What they

Offer:-

• This foundation does what they do to help Native American students to pursue a college education. They show students how to search for ways to pay for college, as well as walking them through the different steps to apply for college. Being there for the students when they need people to talk to on how they feel about attending college and the things that they need to get done to pursue the idea or dream to attend college. AIEF Offers:

• High-school-to-college transitional programs, which orient first-year Native students who often have only lived on reservations or in remote communities, and give them an experience of the campus, financial aid, dorms, and the student support center before classes start.

• Matching grant challenges, which motivate partner colleges to raise more of their own funds earmarked for American Indian students.

• Funding for tools required in nursing and other health studies, which avoids fees that are often unexpected and unaffordable for Native students.

• Emergency funding, which partner colleges can distribute to Native students for unexpected emergencies such as memorials at home or health issues. AIEF emergency funding reduces college dropout that arises from Native students leaving campus mid-semester for family reasons and lacking the funding to return to school.

- College Horizons -Here to help the Students!

• College Horizons is a non-profit organization that supports the higher education of Native American students by providing college and graduate admissions workshops

• College Horizons services current 10th-11th grade high school students and Graduate Horizons services college students and college graduates.

• Of the 2,800 Native high school students served by College Horizons, 99% have been admitted to college, 95% matriculate onto a four-year institution, and 85% have graduated college in four-to-five years! College Horizons is founded on the premise that bright and talented Native American high school students do not receive quality college-counseling and academic advising.

-Student Reviews-College Horizons is the GREATEST college

preparation program in the United States. The faculty and staff genuinely care about you and your future! I feel honored to have been in such a program and I wish I could go every year for

the rest of my life! - Alyssa F. -

College Horizons was a experience I'll never forget. I met so many new people that I know I'll keep in touch after this program. It was a place where I

felt included and a place where I belong. I learned so much from all the staff that really

helped me out on preparing myself for the next step of college.

- Rianne M. -This experience is life changing and you learn lessons

you will carry with you forever.- Kayla J -

Sources• Foundation Helps Native American Students Overcome Education Challenges -

http://www.manataka.org/page2641.html• Native American Students Left Behind-

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/11/06/native-american-students-left-behind

• American Indian Education - http://www2.nau.edu/~jar/INAR.htm• 2014 Native Youth Report -

https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/20141129nativeyouthreport_final.pd

• Judicial Branch Home, California- http://www.courts.ca.gov/23904.htm• Native American Students Left Behind -

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/11/06/native-american-students-left-behind