rvation.
“When you see these communities, and you see the struggles and challenges, ... you also see the promise that exists,” Juneau said. “We have a serious obligation to do as much as we can.”
Mirroring Montana’s undertaking to target high-poverty schools, North Dakota has focused its push on lowering dropout rates and boosting parental involvement. The state also conducted a survey in schools with significant American Indian populations to assess the needs of students and families, inside the classroom and beyond the wall of schoolhouses.
Acknowledging that many of the problems are deep-rooted, Fredericks said state leaders are expecting gradual improvement, not rapid turnaround.
American Indian students are the largest student subgroups in Montana and North Dakota, but the problems exist from coast to coast. The federal listening tour, which drew more than 1,000 people, made stops from New York to California and up to Alaska.
“Schools need to be the hubs in many of these communities,” said Chris Minnich, the CCSSO’s executive director.
Minnich, who made the trip to Montana, plans to take his findings to the council’s members when they meet for their annual policy forum next month.
One of the challenges they will face is helping students self-identify their ancestry and districts better identify American Indian students, possibly increasing the flow of federal funding to districts that serve them.
Minnich hopes the membership, which includes Roessel, the Bureau of Indian Education director, will find ways to improve outcomes and education for any number of American Indians and other marginalized student subgroups such as English-language learners.
“This is part of an agenda for children who need more than what we’re giving them,” Minnich said.
A version of this article appeared in the October 28, 2015 edition of Education Week as State Chiefs Look to Montana for Ways to Meet the Needs Of Native American Students