[Senate Hearing 110-726]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 110-726
NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND: IMPROVING
EDUCATION IN INDIAN COUNTRY
=======================================================================
FIELD HEARING
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION,
LABOR, AND PENSIONS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
ON
EXAMINING THE NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT, FOCUSING ON IMPROVING EDUCATION
IN INDIAN COUNTRY
__________
AUGUST 10, 2007 (Santa Fe, NM)
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and
Pensions
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/
senate
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COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR, AND PENSIONS
EDWARD M. KENNEDY, Massachusetts, Chairman
CHRISTOPHER J. DODD, Connecticut MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming,
TOM HARKIN, Iowa JUDD GREGG, New Hampshire
BARBARA A. MIKULSKI, Maryland LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee
JEFF BINGAMAN, New Mexico RICHARD BURR, North Carolina
PATTY MURRAY, Washington JOHNNY ISAKSON, Georgia
JACK REED, Rhode Island LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska
HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON, New York ORRIN G. HATCH, Utah
BARACK OBAMA, Illinois PAT ROBERTS, Kansas
BERNARD SANDERS (I), Vermont WAYNE ALLARD, Colorado
SHERROD BROWN, Ohio TOM COBURN, M.D., Oklahoma
J. Michael Myers, Staff Director and Chief Counsel
Katherine Brunett McGuire, Minority Staff Director
(ii)
?
C O N T E N T S
__________
STATEMENTS
FRIDAY, AUGUST 10, 2007
Page
Bingaman, Hon. Jeff, a U.S. Senator from the State of New Mexico,
opening statement.............................................. 1
Abeyta, Joseph, Superintendent, Santa Fe Indian School, Santa Fe,
NM............................................................. 1
Mountain, Hon. James, Governor, The Pueblo de San Ildefonso, NM.. 4
Prepared statement........................................... 6
Garcia, Hon. Veronica C., Secretary of Education, Santa Fe, NM... 8
Prepared statement........................................... 11
Wright, VerlieAnn Malina, President, National Indian Education
Association, Washington, DC.................................... 13
Prepared statement........................................... 16
Benally, Maggie, Principal, Window Rock Unified School District,
Fort Defiance, AZ.............................................. 22
Prepared statement........................................... 24
Gutierrez, Bernice, Teacher, Wilson Middle School, Albuquerque
Public Schools, Albuquerque, NM................................ 26
Prepared statement........................................... 30
Pasena, Samantha, Student, Santa Fe Indian School, Santa Fe, NM.. 31
(iii)
NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND: IMPROVING EDUCATION IN INDIAN COUNTRY
----------
FRIDAY, AUGUST 10, 2007
U.S. Senate,
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions,
Santa Fe, New Mexico.
The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:30 a.m., in
Santa Fe Indian School, Sante Fe, New Mexico, Hon. Jeff
Bingaman, presiding.
Present: Senator Bingaman.
Opening Statement of Senator Bingaman
Senator Bingaman. Let me make a short statement, and then
defer to our host here, Joe Abeyta, and have him make any
statement that he would like on behalf of the Santa Fe Indian
School.
This is a hearing of the Senate Committee on Health,
Education, Labor, and Pensions, otherwise known as the HELP
Committee. Senator Kennedy authorized me to have this hearing,
he is the Chairman of our committee.
In 2002, Congress enacted the No Child Left Behind Act,
which, in fact, was the name we attached to the amendments
enacted that year to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act
of 1965. It's been over four decades that the Federal
Government has been involved in trying to assist States and
school districts, and schools around the country in improving
education.
We are now preparing to reauthorize that bill again, and
the purpose of this hearing is to identify ways that Congress
can improve on the law, make it work better--particularly for
Native American students. And that is the focus of our hearing.
I have more of a statement to make here, but let me just
interrupt at this point, and indicate my thanks to Joe Abeyta
for his hosting this hearing, and all of the help and advice
that he's provided to me in the Senate over many years. Santa
Fe Indian School is the ideal place to host a hearing of this
type, and he was willing to do that, and we very much
appreciate it.
Let me call on him to make any statement he would like at
this point, do you want to use this microphone?
STATEMENT OF JOSEPH ABEYTA, SUPERINTENDENT, SANTA FE INDIAN
SCHOOL, SANTA FE, NM
Mr. Abeyta. I'm going to be fine, Senator.
I would first like to sincerely thank you for coming to
Santa Fe and taking the time to host these very important and
significant hearings regarding our children, and our concern
for their educational well-being.
I need to acknowledge the fact that for 30 years--it's been
a long time, Senator. You're not a recent visitor to the issue
of Indian education, but from the very beginning, you've been
available, been sensitive, and certainly been supportive. And I
think that this morning, if everyone has not had an opportunity
to see the newspaper, there is this incredible article that
discusses--is it $33.6, not million, billion dollars--that the
Senator is being thanked for by the President of the United
States in getting through the Congress.
Now, I don't know Senator if applause is appropriate at
these kinds of hearings, but----
[Applause.]
Thank you. In the tradition of our Pueblo community, and in
the tradition of certainly, Santa Fe Indian School, I'd like
to--with your permission--ask Mr. Pena, who is a former
Chairman of the all-new Pueblo Council and former Governor of
his Pueblo to please do the invocation for us this morning.
And I would ask everyone to please stand.
[Invocation given in Native American dialect.]
Senator Bingaman, thank you very much.
Just very briefly, Senator, I've been at the school for 30
years, and people are curious about my longevity. And one of
the reasons is, I try not to forget, I work hard at remembering
the people that I work for.
I'd like to acknowledge, please, if you'll allow me,
several Governors that are present this morning: Governor
Everett Chavez, from San Domingo Pueblo.
Senator Bingaman. All right, good morning.
Mr. Abeyta. You know Governor Mountain from San Ildefonso.
Senator Bingaman. Good morning.
Mr. Abeyta. Governor Pena, of course, is a former Governor.
Members of our Board of Trustees, our former Governor Yobi
Will from the Sukey Pueblo. The President of the San Trena
School Board of Trustees is a former Governor also, Mr. Martez.
With that, I'm looking forward to an opportunity to visit
with you about some major dollars that we need, Senator
Bingaman.
[Laughter.]
I hope you'll be of assistance.
[Laughter.]
It's truly a pleasure, and it's a special honor, and we
have such a respect for you and all that you've done for all of
us--not just Pueblo people, but Indians throughout the United
States of America--people all over. We respect you. Thank you.
Senator Bingaman. Well, thank you very much, Joe, for your
kind hospitality and your leadership here at the school, over
many years.
Let me go ahead and make a few more comments, here, before
we start on the testimony about--just sort of to set the
context for where we are with this reauthorization effort.
I think most of us agree that, by the time we start
measuring academic achievement of students in the third grade,
there already exists an achievement gap. And, unfortunately, it
is pretty clear that it's a gap between low-income and minority
students, and much more affluent students, or students from
much more affluent families.
In an effort to close the achievement gap, and with broad
bipartisan support, we did enact, in 2002, the No Child Left
Behind provisions.
It starts with the fundamental principle that every child
can learn, and needs to be given that opportunity to a much
greater extent than we've done in the past. No Child Left
Behind expanded the requirements for use of standards and
assessments to measure student academic achievement.
Now, States, and school districts and schools are held more
accountable for academic achievement of all students, and for
closing the achievement gap that I've referred to--the gap
between the children of affluent families, and the children of
lower income, or minority families.
This, by all means, is a great challenge, and there's been
a lot of controversy involved in the effort to implement this.
Some of the concerns that have been expressed are very valid.
States and school districts, obviously, have not received the
resources that that legislation identified as necessary from
the Federal Government to help. I believe that the inadequate
level of funding we've seen over the last few years have
undermined some of the best intentions of teachers and
administrators around the country.
Fortunately, that's beginning to change. This year, we're
looking at a billion dollar increase in title I funding, $500
additional for school improvement activities. There are a
number of provisions in the law that need to be changed, they
need to be rewritten. And, I'm the first to acknowledge that.
All States should be allowed to develop growth models. Schools
should be recognized for the academic growth of their students
as they progress to be more proficient in their academic
skills.
We need to recognize that one-size-does-not-fit-all, and
that the school improvement needs of one school may be very
different from the school improvement needs of another school.
And No Child Left Behind has not addressed that distinction,
adequately.
We need to do more to help States develop the proper
assessments and accommodations for students with disabilities.
And we support the States efforts to develop better assessments
and tools to measure academic achievement of those who are just
learning the English language.
Many Native American students are not proficient in English
when they begin school, as their communities continue to speak
their Native languages at home, as we want to see them
continue.
We also, I think--although these problems I just delineated
are very real, I think we also should acknowledge that we are
beginning to see some positive results from the legislation
that was enacted in 2002. There's evidence that the achievement
gaps between these various students is narrowing. No Child Left
Behind has provided the means to measure that gap. In fact,
before we had the provisions of No Child Left Behind, we did
not even track this achievement gap between Native American
students and their peers. That's one acknowledgement that we
need to recognize.
Clearly we have some substantial problems with the gap in
achievement continuing. Last year, the figures I have are that
about 35 percent of Native American fourth graders were scoring
at the ``proficient'' level on New Mexico reading assessment.
That compares with something in the range of 70, 72 percent for
Anglo fourth graders. There's similar gaps for students in
math, and for students at the eighth grade level. We have
significant gaps in college readiness among New Mexico's Native
American students and peers.
While Native Americans made up approximately 12 percent of
the student population in our State in 2006, only 5.5 percent
of all students who took advance placement exams in our State
were Native American.
There are other challenges that we undoubtedly will hear
about in the testimony we're about to receive.
We have before us a very distinguished group of witnesses,
and let me just indicate, we have the esteemed Governor of
Pueblo de San Ildefonso, we have New Mexico Secretary of
Education, she has worked hard on this set of issues during her
entire tenure, the President of the National Indian Education
Association, thank you very much for coming to attend this, and
participate. We have a school principal from Window Rock, we
have a teacher from Albuquerque, and most important, perhaps or
not perhaps, I think, without a doubt--most important is a
student. Thank you for being here.
I look forward to hearing from all of the witnesses, and
hopefully learning some things that we can take back to
Washington and use as we try to re-write this legislation to
make it more workable, and to make it serve the needs of the
Native American population better.
Let me just individually introduce the witnesses, and then
we will have them testify, and then after all witnesses have
testified, I'll have some questions that I'll want to ask.
Our first witness is Governor James Mountain, he is
Governor of the Pueblo de San Ildefonso, he's Chairman of the
Eight Northern Indian Pueblo Council. Governor Mountain, why
don't you lead off and give us your views. And if you could
move that microphone over and bring it close to you, so all the
people in the back can hear, that would be terrific.
STATEMENT OF HON. JAMES R. MOUNTAIN, GOVERNOR OF THE PUEBLO DE
SAN ILDEFONSO, NM
Mr. Mountain. With all due respect, Governors, Senator
Bingaman, panel, distinguished panel guests, and members of the
audience, thank you for having us here this morning, Senator.
As you stated, I am James Mountain, I'm the Governor of the
Pueblo de San Ildefonso. I am also honored to be the Chairman
of the Governors of the Eight Northern Indian Pueblos Council,
as well. I also serve as a shareholder of the all-Indian Pueblo
Council. And it's an honor to be here, meeting with you this
morning, in discussions of a very serious matter that is before
us, in regards to the reauthorization.
As you stated, Senator, there are several issues that are
at hand, and that are being worked upon. What my testimony has,
as I forwarded that to you--the gist of that, we have experts
here, educators, and of course, as you said very importantly,
and most importantly, is a student to testify on our behalf as
well--is the fact that this No Child Left Behind Act, I'd like
to try and summarize it in a sense that--I'm not one to jump to
conclusions and criticize. I appreciate the intention and
always look to give credit where credit is due--good, bad or
ugly, fair or not fair, right or wrong.
But the act, in my research and my interaction with this
has had nothing but--I've come across nothing that would enable
me to be a proponent of the act, in regards to our children,
our Pueblo children, our fellow tribal children. You can look
at some of the positive things, where some of the schools are
diligently trying to meet the AYP measures.
But what that leaves out is the lack of focus on the
cultural measures. And, in my opinion, as I stated in my
testimony is--what we are doing, once again, is copying
history.
And, what I mean by this is that, at a time that my father,
my grandmother--our elders, our ancestors in the recent
decade--the treatment of language in this is exemplified as far
as the old measures of the prohibition and the relocation
policies of old. That's how it seems to be coming across in our
interactions where--although we've worked diligently on our
end, and with your help, Senator, you've been a champion for
our people--to encourage the State schools, here's a perfect
example, the Indian School, of what it means to incorporate
your language and culture into the education that our children
receive, and allow our children to flourish.
And it not only is our children, but it's also our fellow
Hispanic children, and other minorities, as well. It also helps
to educate our other non-Native fellow members, to enhance
their understanding of our sacred tradition in our culture.
My point is, Senator, is that if the measurements of this
is focused strictly on reading and math--which are very
important to us and our people, as well, we need to elevate
those. But if we leave our language and our culture out of this
component, and there is no focus from the discussions I've had,
from trying to educate myself, and the background of this, on
those specific areas, we're recreating history. And, it's had
devastating effects, to this day.
There are statistics out there where many tribes have had
their language, and now we're down to just a few handfuls that
have a full understanding of their language. And this detracts
from some of the things that you have helped to champion, such
as the Esther Martinez Act, through Congress, to revitalize
language. And, if there's no focus, then basically we're going
to be suffering once again.
And we've had that tremendous impact upon our culture, as
far as losing our language. And once we lose our language, we
lose our culture. And basically, without being disrespectful--
it's genocide. It's killing our people. Because, if we can not
be provided the tools, in a fair and just measurement that
incorporates trying to educate our children, then we're getting
held back, we're taking steps backwards.
And that's why I make these statements as best as I can, in
a respectful manner, but the truth of the matter is that, that
is what is happening with the No Child Left Behind Act, as far
as the cultural and language component.
Because I can not make sense of the--I was forwarded a copy
from the Powacki Valley Schools, which is where the majority of
our children from San Ildefonso go, and our Tsuke kids go
there, some of our Santa Clara children go there, even kids
from Okiawinga attend there, as well. And a lot of our kids, of
course, come here to the Indian school.
But, with regards to the Powacki Valley Schools, the report
that I received, and the need for areas of improvement, at the
high school level, math and reading goals were not met by the
Native American, and economically disadvantaged subgroups. It
explicitly says that. That's a double negative for us.
And, we can sit here all day and go over the statistics, I
think we all understand the statistics, they're difficult
measurements. The State has been a proponent saying that it's
not helping our school districts. In a quote by our respected
Secretary, Ms. Garcia--Dr. Garcia--is, in a TV interview, the
week of August 13, she defined the distinction of the AYP as
``meaningless.'' And I'm trying very hard to try some positive
outcomes of this act. And Senator I can tell you today that as
far as the function of this act upon our people, our Native
American people, there's nothing I can say positive about it,
at this time.
And, I would encourage in moving forward, that if there's
something that we can do, if there's more consultation, if
there's more input that we can have inclusion on, on the moving
forward on this, then please, help us--which is what you're
providing today--help us understand how we can help you to get
this in place, so that it meets the standards of all of our
children, here in New Mexico. Because, as I stated--it's not
meeting the needs of my Native, my Pueblo children, nor our
tribal, fellow tribal children, as well.
Thank you, Senator.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Mountain follows:]
Prepared Statement of the Hon. James R. Mountain
Honorable Senator Jeff Bingaman, I am James R. Mountain, Governor
of Pueblo de San Ildefonso. I am also Chairman of the Eight Northern
Indian Pueblos Council, Inc. Board of Governors. I am honored and it is
my pleasure to have this opportunity to come before this committee on
behalf of my Pueblo People and share my thoughts and concerns about the
impacts of the No Child Left Behind Act.
While we appreciate the intent of the act, it is having tremendous
unintended consequences. I want in the essence of time to focus on
three areas as I know others will focus on teacher quality, testing,
adequacy of funding, and the problems with standardized tests amongst
other important and challenging issues.
I want to begin by attempting to paint the landscape before No
Child Left Behind by asking a few questions to put it into a context
and draw some conclusions from these questions.
COMPOUNDING EFFECTS/AFFECTS OF NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ON THE EXISTING
FAILURES YET TO BE RESOLVED
If States like New Mexico were already underachieving and their
schools seriously failing our Indian children as is evident by every
conceivable measure before No Child Left Behind (NCLB), ``What could we
reasonably conclude if the State argues that NCLB is compounding its
situation with all other students? '' ``If the State is arguing that it
cannot meet the demands of the unfunded mandates and we have argued
that there has never been adequate funding to meet the needs of our
Native children before NCLB, what else can we possibly delineate from
this fact? '' If before No Child Left Behind, we argued that the
standardized tests being used were culturally biased, then what now are
we left to presume with the focus of testing under the new law? '' And
now that there is a shift in the paradigm and the State as a matter of
policy and with explicit language in the laws, accepts the fact that
native language, culture and our history are important ingredients in
our children's education and under NCLB, there is increased focus on
reading, writing and math, which are the focus subjects tested under
the law, ``What can we reasonably conclude with how teaching native
language, culture and our history will be treated? '' ``How is the
treatment of language, alone, that has been exemplified by language
prohibition and relocation policies and laws, any different now, than
the Federal policies of the past? '' Parents are making the same
difficult choices our people were forced to make 30-40 years ago with
devastating results that haunt us today. And, ``what can we reasonably
conclude from the first Public Education's Department's 2005-2006
Education Status Report that reflects that every 1 of the 23
predominately Indian school districts failed to meet Adequate Yearly
Progress? '' And 17 of the 23 school districts were designated as
School Improvement districts for the 2006-2007 school year?
This alone should compel the State to opt out of the No Child Left
Behind Act. No Child Left Behind is in fact having the opposite affect
of its supposed intent by leaving too many of our children behind at a
tremendous cost and loss of our social capital, which is of utmost
importance to the well-being of our future. It is morally and legally
indefensible to allow this to happen.
INCREASE IN DROP OUT RATES AS THE FIRST INDICATOR OF FAILURE--
``THE SILENT EPIDEMIC''
The ultimate tale of the effects of No Child Left Behind is
reflected in the increasing rates of student dropouts and is being
witnessed more and more often at an earlier age.
The drop out rate for Native Americans is higher than the State
average. It has often been called ``the Silent Epidemic.'' Under No
Child Left Behind in 2005, you sponsored an attempt to restore funding
for school dropout prevention programs that was targeted to be
eliminated. In fact, it has been significantly reduced at a time when
the need is at the highest point. The Administration argued that the
loss of the drop out prevention dollars could be made up by using title
I funds for prevention. You stated that it was clear, that to allow use
of title I funds is insufficient to stem the tide. The ETS report which
you cited in 2005 concluded that the failure to provide adequate
resources for school dropout prevention is ``social dynamite.'' The
response on the part of this Administration since the inception of No
Child Left Behind has moved in the wrong direction. Its response is
horribly inadequate and a breach of its fiduciary and ``Trust''
obligation.
The impact of dropouts in our small communities at 6 percent can be
devastating and the impact over time greatly magnifies. Ten dropouts in
a community of less than 600 over 10 years is 60 people. These 60
people have relationships and this impact then has a domino effect and
begins to double. If the mean income of a drop out is less than $23,000
per year, then it becomes evident to recognize that families cannot
adequately survive. This then begins to create a vicious cycle that is
hard to break. These dropouts become a critical mass of change agents
in small communities. The economic impact is devastating and our small
communities are not immune. Senator Bingaman, as you stated, ``. . . an
educated workforce is the foundation for our future economic
strength.''
With the skyrocketing costs of living, the diminished level of
support by IHS for health care, the costs of gas and transportation,
the high unemployment rates, ``how are these people ever going to have
a realistic chance at enjoying a true quality of life in one of the
richest countries in the world? ''
This Administration's rationalization with how to make up for the
LACK OF FUNDS BY ROBBING PETER TO PAY PAUL BRINGS UP MY NEXT POINT.
INEQUITABLE DISTRIBUTION OF RESOURCES
This present scenario with regard to school funding brings me to
the next related point. As the Administration argued that the loss of
dropout prevention dollars could be made up with title I dollars, it is
precisely how in a State like New Mexico, it perpetuates an
indefensible behavior of abuse in the use of resources inconsistent
with legislative intent adding to the widening disparities. There is
already a tremendous inequity at the State and local levels stemming
from the blatant abuse in the use of Federal dollars intended to be
utilized to address the glaring unmet needs of our Indian children
instead of supplanting their operating budgets.
Recent legislative audits of school districts and their use of
State bilingual funds revealed such abuses. As a result of years of
extensive field hearings conducted by Congress, it has been concluded
that there were tremendous unmet needs of Indian children in public
schools, Congress increased the base funding for the regular program by
25 percent and 50 percent for special education programs. After Tribal
Leaders and school Administrators argued that the additional add-on of
25 percent to the regular program and 50 percent for special education
programs should be exempted from the Equalization Formula to be
utilized to address those needs as determined jointly by the local LEA
and local Indian Education Committees as required, the recent reports
reflect that those exempted resources are utilized for everything else
except to enhance programs for our native children with very little or
no involvement by the local Indian Education Committees.
``New Mexico First'' Recommendations
In conclusion, New Mexico First which you and Senator Domenici
created to bring New Mexicans together to deliberate on issues
important to New Mexico's future convened a Town Hall Meeting in 1998
to focus on American Indian issues in New Mexico. To the surprise of no
one, it prioritized the unmet needs of Indian children in education as
the immediate concern.
Among the seven recommendations, below are two priorities that
continue to elude us.
(1) Quality education should be consistent regardless of the
child's community or location of the school, with particular emphasis
on improving American Indian student achievement.
(2) Tribal leaders and all educational leaders should examine State
funding for public schools and the factors taken into consideration to
equalize funding for all schools serving American Indian students.
While we have made great strides in recent years, our inability to
resolve these fundamental and substantive issues can only bring us to
the conclusion that No Child Left Behind significantly compounds an
already difficult set of circumstances that adversely affects our
tribal communities and severely diminishes our children's likelihood of
reaching their full potential and realizing success in these school
systems. It expands into an area where there has been very little
discussion and it therefore becomes the very essence of infringement
upon our tribal sovereignty. We are caught up in a web that indirectly
neutralizes and minimizes our fiduciary responsibility to provide a
meaningful and fully effectuating quality of education for our
children. Fulfilling our vision and mission of education for our
purposes have never been so far removed as I feel it is today, as a
result of usurping our rights in the governance and funding of school
programs.
I thank you for the opportunity to share my thoughts and concerns
Senator Bingaman and thank you for the opportunity you are providing
through this forum to contribute towards a better and enlightened
understanding regarding the scope of the impact of No Child Left Behind
Act upon my Pueblo students and my people.
Senator Bingaman. Thank you, Governor, very much, for your
heartfelt testimony. And we will try to get--in the question
part of this hearing, try to get some more detail as to how you
think we ought to proceed.
Let me now call on our Secretary of Education for the State
of New Mexico, Dr. Veronica Garcia. She has been focused on
this set of issues a long time, and probably has more hands-on
knowledge of how these requirements are being implemented--need
to be revised here in New Mexico--than anyone.
Dr. Garcia, thank you for coming.
STATEMENT OF HON. VERONICA C. GARCIA, SECRETARY
OF EDUCATION, SANTA FE, NM
Ms. Garcia. Thank you, Senator Bingaman. Esteemed
Governors, past Governors, Superintendent Abeyta, fellow
committee members, and members of the audience, I want to thank
you for the opportunity to speak to you, and for you to take
back this information to your committee, and for coming to us--
I really appreciate you doing that.
I want to preface my remarks by saying, first, that I truly
believe in the spirit of No Child Left Behind. I agree that for
years we continued to see children, based on where they lived,
continue to lag behind on their educational attainment. And
when I say ``based on where they live,'' I often think that
when we look at these various subgroups, the common denominator
appears to be poverty, and also language for students are
tested unfairly, when they don't have the appropriate language
skills--academic English language skills.
English language learners, poor children, have significant
hurdles in attaining proficiency, and we must do all we can to
support them to attain this proficiency. This is particularly
true for our Native American students, who many live in rural,
isolated areas of the State, and may not be proficient in
English when they enter school.
NCLB focuses on accountability, and I think that that's
important. What it doesn't focus on are the impacts of poverty,
and what can be done at the Federal level to help ameliorate
that.
We need to look at, what are things that these children
need when they come to school, that come from poverty, that
have not had broad-based experiences before they come to school
in terms of Pre-K, or breakfast in a school, or after-school
enrichment. Or, how do we help rural, isolated areas attract
the very best teachers? Because many times these communities
have great difficulty in attracting.
And how can we develop a ``grow your own'' program, which I
think would really help to encourage young people graduating
from high school--be they live in the Navajo Nation, or Hickory
Apache, or Okiawinga or a San Ildefonso where we can get young
people that graduate from high school to commit to going on, to
getting their degrees in education, and somehow support them
while they're there, so they can be successful in higher ed,
but then come back to their communities. Think what a head
start we would have with those teachers, who already understand
the language and the culture. And not only how they would serve
as role models to those kids, and give them hope that they also
can be successful.
I want to share with you specific recommendations that I
believe will help. Three years ago, New Mexico participated in
a consortium of about 17 States. We found that New Mexico--
there was approximately $37 million that we felt we needed, as
more schools become identified--and I think it's necessarily
that more schools are failing, but it's a function of the
system that needs to be changed--we need additional support.
Schools that serve high numbers of Native American students
have NCLB designations as corrective action or restructuring,
and yet we do not have the adequate funding to provide them the
support they deserve.
Let me just go through the areas that I think need
changing, or could be revised to make the law more helpful and
more meaningful.
First, I want to comment that Governor Mountain's quote is
correct, and I say it all the time--the AYP designation, in and
of itself, is meaningless. It means nothing to parents. You
made it, or you didn't make it. And I don't care how often I
meet with editorial boards and say, ``Please don't say, you
know, X amount of schools failing.'' Because we could have a
school that might not make AYP because of a participation rate
of one subgroup. We could have another school that didn't make
AYP because it had low proficiency in low areas--they all get
the same rating. Or, I could have schools with high
proficiency, but because of a participation rate in one
subgroup does not make AYP, they get the same label.
What we need is a more gradiated system that is more
meaningful, that gives parents information about a school, as
opposed to a pass/fail that has no meaning, and I think
unfairly labels schools.
Second, increasing fairness by providing appropriate
assessments and timelines for proficiency of English language
learners and special education students. This is particularly
true for Native American students. Because, for example, if we
have students that do not--have not mastered academic English,
we have to test them--regardless--in mathematics the first
year.
Our tests are not--as you know, our standards are rated,
you know, the top seven in the country, we have an assessment
that's aligned to that. But they have to do word problems. They
have to read these word problems. If you don't have proficiency
in English, you cannot give them an alternate assessment. Right
there it is unfair for those students. It puts students who are
not proficient in English at a distinct disadvantage.
The timeline for English language acquisition for many
scholars in terms of academic language is 7 years. That is not
recognized in this current system. And second, the research
shows that if children have a well-developed academic language
in their own home language, when they make that transfer to
English, it will be a lot more effective and efficient, but
this system does not allow for that.
Third, you've already talked about this, Senator--growth.
There were 10 States that were allowed to apply for a growth
model, New Mexico is now in its third year of an aligned
system, so we'd be eligible to apply for growth, if the Federal
Government would open that window, and allow us to demonstrate
growth.
The next area is financial incentives, and I've talked
about that, to attract the best and the brightest to high-need,
rural, isolated areas, which many of our Native American
students live in rural, isolated areas. We need support from
the Federal Government to figure out how we can do that, and
also to be able to grow our own teachers.
We need to be able to provide technical assistance on the
best practices, and disseminate that information. We're
fortunate that here in New Mexico we have the Indian Education
Act, and the No Child Left Behind does not recognize that we
have, in the act, the maintenance of language and culture. And
the other piece that is out of sync, is that President Bush
signed an Executive Order on implementation of NCLB, and Native
American students. And it said that NCLB was supposed to be
implemented in line with language and culture. I have asked in
writing, I have asked publicly, I've been a part of meetings--
we've been able to get no real guidance from Bureau of Indian
Affairs, or from, excuse me, Department of Interior, or the
U.S. Department of Education, in terms of, well, how do we
implement NCLB in terms of language and culture? Right now, we
are required to use the same yardstick without any
consideration of culture.
We need to change the order of tutoring and choice. Usually
the parents that choose choice before they choose tutoring pull
out their kids from the school, and then we lose the parents
who are the most active in those schools. So, we need more
support in that area.
We need financial support to increase the school day, and
the school year, to our neediest schools. We need to have
better coordination and support between BIA schools and public
schools that move back and forth between the systems. And we
need more recognition that, in a State like New Mexico that has
an Indian Education Act, and the fact that we recognize the
sovereignty of our tribes and pueblos--the implementation of No
Child Left Behind, for example, the Navajo Nation, and
they're--I believe, title X--how do States still honor
sovereignty, implement No Child Left Behind, and deal with the
Executive Order? And so, we have all of these things that are
coming in conflict, that I think are not recognized by this
law, nor the Federal Government.
No Child Left Behind is designed on an urban model, and
currently, you know, in terms of restructuring, or meeting
highly qualified, where many teachers have to wear multiple
hats--how do we meet those needs? We need more flexibility in
these rural isolated areas.
Last, we need--in our MOU with the tribes--the tribes
certify that individuals have met their criteria for teaching
language and culture. Then the Department certifies them to do
that. In New Mexico, we support maintenance of language and
culture. And yet I feel that this works in counter to what No
Child Left Behind requires us to do, in terms of testing
students in English.
I had an opportunity over the last couple of years to hold
community conversations throughout the State of New Mexico, and
I also had the opportunity to visit many Native American
communities. And what I hear from them--and I'm going to share
with you--is that the current system often demoralizes them by
testing them and labeling them in a manner that is unfair to
them, and to their communities. I have heard groups say to me
that they would like to create their own version of AYP, that
also considers cultural competence and language competence, and
obviously, that is not recognized.
But, I want to say, in closing, that I am committed to
working with you to find solutions. And, I thank you for this
opportunity.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Garcia follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Veronica C. Garcia
Good morning. I'd like to thank Senator Jeff Bingaman for his
invitation to speak to this committee on a topic that is crucial as we
continue to move educational reform forward not only for the State of
New Mexico but for our entire country. Let me preface my remarks by
saying that I truly believe in the spirit of No Child Left Behind. I
agree that for years we have continued to see children based on where
they live to continue to lag behind on their educational attainment.
While members of various ethnic groups have been at the bottom of the
achievement gap I contend that the issue is related more so to poverty
and to the individual's facility with the English Language then their
ethnicity. Therefore, English Language Learners and poor children have
significant hurdles in attaining proficiency. This is particularly true
for our Native American Students who many live in rural isolated areas
of the State and may not be proficient in English when they enter
school.
NCLB focuses on accountability. However, I believe that it needs to
add to its focus the impacts of poverty and what can be done at the
Federal level to help States ameliorate the impacts of poverty through
other initiatives that will help support our students; such as: Pre-K,
breakfast in the schools, after-school enrichment programs, recruitment
of highly qualified teachers to hard to recruit areas, etc.
This morning, I will share with you specific recommendations that I
believe need to be made to NCLB if we are to have a fair system of
accountability. Further, the program must be adequately funded. Three
years ago New Mexico participated in a consortium of States and at that
time found that NCLB was under-funded in New Mexico by millions of
dollars. As more schools are identified in need of improvement the
dollar amount continues to increase. Schools that serve high numbers of
Native American Students have NCLB designations as corrective action or
restructuring schools and need additional support yet we do not have
adequate funding to provide them the support they deserve.
In general these are areas of NCLB that must be addressed:
Increase fairness by moving from a pass/fail model to one
that provides meaningful information to parents and communities about
their schools. AYP designations by themselves are misleading. We need a
graduated system or ranking that recognizes when a school is a high
performing school yet perhaps missed AYP due to say a participation
rate in one area.
Increase fairness by providing appropriate assessments and
timelines for proficiency for English Language Learners and Special
Education students. This is particularly important for Native American
Students. Many of these children come from nations that do not have a
written language. It becomes even more difficult for these children to
be tested when they haven't mastered proficiency in English. Secondly,
under NCLB children must take the test in mathematics in English
regardless of their English proficiency level. In New Mexico, our
standards-based assessment requires a significant amount of reading due
to the inclusion of word problems. This puts students who are not
proficient in English at a distinct disadvantage.
Increase fairness by recognizing the growth made by
struggling schools that have improved. New Mexico has not been eligible
to apply to utilize a growth model. It is our hope that we will be
given an opportunity to apply. The ability to use growth was limited to
10 States that had longitudinal data and a data system that would
support the utilization of a growth model. New Mexico is now in a
position to apply but we are not clear if the 10-State limit is still
in effect.
Provide financial incentives to school districts to move
their best and brightest teachers to schools of highest need. Many of
our Native American students live out in very rural and isolated areas
of the State. Many new teachers are looking for a lifestyle that is
more consistent with an urban setting (e.g. Starbucks, movie theaters,
night life, etc.) We need support from the Federal Government financial
incentives that districts can provide to help recruit top notch
teachers to these underserved communities.
Provide more support and technical assistance to States on
best practices and improvement models. There needs to be more support
to States to encourage the dissemination of best practices not only
within New Mexico but around the country. I believe that we have made
some gains here in New Mexico with the implementation of the Indian
Education Act that could be of service to other States that serve high
populations of Native American students.
Change the order of tutoring and choice by providing
support to improve the performance of the school. Hold after school
providers to greater accountability and performance outcomes.
Provide financial support to increase school day and
school year to our neediest schools.
Provide financial incentives to States that provide
quality professional development to its teachers based on best
practices for teaching. We need training for teachers in cultural
sensitivity if we are going to meet the needs of our Native American
Students.
Provide financial incentives to States that can
demonstrate strong partnerships between K-12, higher education and the
business community to improve the States educational systems. There
also needs to be the creation of an infrastructure that will support
stronger communication between the BIA schools and the public schools
as many of our students move back and forth between the systems.
In New Mexico we have the Indian Education Act that
supports the maintenance of language and culture and the provision to
teach it in our schools. The tribes and pueblos certify that
individuals within their communities have the skills to impart this
knowledge and through an MOU process the Public Education Department
credentials them to teach language and culture in the public schools.
However, there is no provision under NCLB for testing these children in
accordance with language and culture. Further, President Bush signed an
executive order that NCLB for Native American students needed to be
implemented in recognition of the language and cultural differences.
Yet to this day, the States have been unable to get guidance from
either the Departments of the Interior or Education. This is a critical
factor for New Mexico as there is a strong sentiment that an indigenous
evaluation of competence be developed for Native American students
dependent on the needs of each tribe and pueblo. While this is a
complex issue it is one that must be addressed.
NCLB is most easily implemented in a large urban district.
It is very difficult to implement in rural isolated areas. For example,
restructuring becomes very difficult. Where do displaced teachers go
and where do we find the teachers to replace them? Secondly, it is more
difficult to meet the requirements for HQT in these communities where
often teachers must wear multiple hats and teach several content areas.
There need to be more flexible ways to demonstrate competence for
teachers who choose to commit to teach in these hard to recruit
environments.
Lastly, it would be wonderful if there were Federal
incentives to grow your own teachers from Native American communities.
The advantages of having teachers who understand the language, culture,
and social mores of a community would have a head start in relating to
the young people they teach. They would serve as excellent role models
and I think could serve an integral component in helping closing the
achievement gap for our Native American Students.
I thank the committee for the opportunity to provide testimony
regarding the education of our Native American Students and NCLB. I am
very committed to providing leadership to close the achievement gap but
we must ensure that we are implementing strategies that help support
Native American Students. What I hear from community conversations that
I've had in Indian Country is that the current system often demoralizes
them by testing them and labeling them in a manner that is unfair to
them and their communities. I am committed to working with you to find
solutions.
Senator Bingaman. Thank you very much for your excellent
testimony.
Our next witness will be Dr. VerlieAnn Malina Wright, who
is the President of the National Indian Education Association.
NIEA is the oldest and largest Native education organization
representing American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native
Hawaiian educators and students. It was founded in 1969, it is
the largest organization in the Nation dedicated to Native
education advocacy, and professional development issues, and
embraces a membership of over 3,000 American Indian, Alaska
Native, and Native Hawaiian educators, tribal leaders, school
administrators, teachers, parents and students.
Dr. VerlieAnn Wright, thank you for being here.
STATEMENT OF VERLIEANN MALINA WRIGHT, ED.D.,
PRESIDENT, NATIONAL INDIAN EDUCATION ASSOCIATION, WASHINGTON,
DC.
Ms. Wright. Y'at'eeh, Aloha.
Thank you, Senator Bingaman for holding this important
hearing. As the 38th President of the National Indian Education
Association, I'm here to provide our views on improving NCLB
for Native children.
I thank you, and the pueblos and tribes in New Mexico for
your crucial efforts in passing the Esther Martinez Act last
year. We urge the HELP Committee to include the provisions in
Esther Martinez in NCLB.
We echo what the tribes here in New Mexico have known for a
long time--that using Native languages bolsters academic
achievement. Research strongly supports this. We actively
prepared for the reauthorization of NCLB by conducting 11 field
hearings with over 120 witnesses nationwide.
We previously submitted our legislative recommendations
based upon these hearing, to this committee in March. The
hearings were productive, but it also was clear that there is a
lot of frustration with NCLB, as conveyed in Governor
Mountain's testimony.
I would like to highlight a few key areas that we urge the
committee to improve in NCLB.
First, title VI needs to be strengthened. Title VII of NCLB
recognizes that Native children have unique educational needs
due to their cultures and traditions. The purpose of title VII
is similar to the purpose of the New Mexico Indian Education
Act--to provide culturally based education approaches for
Native students. These approaches increase student performance,
as well as awareness of their Native backgrounds. Innovative
school programs, that incorporate Native languages and culture,
as described in Ms. Benally's testimony, have proven academic
success in Indian Country. Students can meet NCLB academic
benchmarks, while also learning about their cultural
traditions.
Second, NCLB should support instruction in Native American
languages. New Mexico's Indian Education Act provides
opportunities for Native children to perform better
academically, because they're taught in a manner that is
consistent with their traditions, languages and cultures. Also,
programs such as the Navajo Immersion School in Fort Defiance
show how Native language immersion programs provide a proven
method for Native students to achieve academically in the areas
of: math, reading, science, art, social studies and languages.
NCLB should follow the example of New Mexico's Indian
Education Act, and the Navajo Immersion school. It should be
amended to foster these types of approaches to teaching and
learning.
Further, we agree with Dr. Garcia, that assessments of
competency should consider Native cultural traditions.
Third, cooperation among tribes, States, and the Federal
Government, in addressing the needs of Native students, must be
improved. We seek stronger emphasis in encouraging States,
tribes, local communities and the Federal Government to work
together in developing educational standards. Our proposed
amendments provide for the inclusion of tribal input, on the
development of State, local education agency, and school plans.
For example, San Filepe. Filepe Pueblo's written testimony
states that its local education agency in the State, should be
required to consult with Pueblo leaders and parents, in
developing educational plans, and that improved cooperation
would result in greater academic achievement by students
through the use of the Carys language and Native culture.
Fourth, more support is needed for teachers of Native
students. Many Native communities, like in New Mexico, are
located in rural areas, where quality teachers are in short
supply. We agree with Dr. Garcia, that programs that encourage
growing our own teachers are crucial. There are programs to do
this in NCLB, but unfortunately--they are not funded.
We urge this committee to help us fund these programs. That
includes pre-service and in-service education.
I will close by saying that Native communities have many
unique challenges, including poor housing, poor health care,
alcoholism, lack of transportation, and poverty, which all
affect our students' abilities to succeed.
However, if these four areas in funding are improved in
NCLB, the Native students and teachers will have the tools they
need to get on to the path to success.
Last, I would like to share with you a little bit about my
background. This is my 40th year in education, I'm an old buck.
[Laughter.]
But the role of the Federal Government in developing me as
a professional teacher, and the role of Santa Fe, I would just
like to share this short story.
I was a volunteer, as a senior, in the University of
Hawaii, M'Anoa, and I volunteered tutoring at a private
Catholic school that was close by. I also was the Debate Coach,
and we had an opportunity to come to Santa Fe, 40 years ago. I
brought my team of students, we won the nationals in
extemporaneous speaking.
Senator Bingaman. Terrific.
Ms. Wright. I became a teacher. I was a Finance Major in
Business, and I ended up becoming a teacher.
In the 1970s, there was the Education Professions
Development Act, and I received a fellowship to UCLA, and the
purpose--which is like, well over 30 years ago, Senator--was to
develop administrators and leaders. The Federal Government gave
me the opportunity, because I could afford a fellowship at
UCLA. Also, UCLA, at that time, was one of the top three
colleges in education, but I chose UCLA because it was the
cheapest airfare home.
[Laughter.]
The third, is that I came out of retirement in 1995 from
the Kamaamaa schools, a Hawaiian school, to help this Hawaiian
language immersion school. We are a K-12 school, we are now
moving a P-20--preschool to Ph.D., we're currently a P-16. And
I wanted to share with you that I think I could incorporate
some of the concerns and frustrations about NCLB.
In 1995, I came to help this school become accredited. We
were issuing our diplomas, and by the way, Senator, this is our
20th year, this is our 12th graduating class, and we always
have had 100 percent graduation rate.
Senator Bingaman. That's terrific.
Ms. Wright. Yes. And second, we became a Blue Ribbon
School, in the mid-, late-seventies--excuse me, eighties,
because we exceeded the national curve equivalences. But, when
NCLB came in within the 5 years, we became a restructured
school, okay? We went from a total interdisciplinary
curriculum, to silos of standards. And this is very difficult
for indigenous thinking, because we see everything as a whole.
However, I am pleased to announce that we just received a
6-year accreditation, last month, from WASC, and we also made
AYP.
Senator Bingaman. Very good.
Ms. Wright. I think that one of the areas that Hawaii, and
it has to do with leadership, in terms of the Superintendent.
Patrician Hamamoto made the commitment, No. 1, and her
technology system to track immersion students. And that way we
can now use data to drive instruction.
No. 2, it requires cooperation, and we have worked very
hard now to look at cultural indicators and facts, including
indigenous rubrics in classrooms that help Native children
succeed.
But, perhaps the most profound change is that our third and
fourth grade students are tested through the Hawaiian Alliance
performance assessment, they are tested in the Hawaii language,
and the legislature just approved developing a test for grades
5 and 6. We issued two diplomas--one in the Hawaiian language,
and one in English. And this past year, we graduated 13
students, 100 percent went on to higher ed. This year we'll
graduate 35, and we hope that we will have 100 percent entry in
college.
Thank you so much for allowing me to share my stories.
Senator Bingaman. Well, thank you for your excellent
testimony and thank you for coming back to Santa Fe for this
hearing.
Ms. Wright. It closes the circle, doesn't it?
Senator Bingaman. Yes.
Ms. Wright. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Wright follows:]
Prepared Statement of VerlieAnn Malina Wright, Ed.D.
On behalf of the National Indian Education Association (NIEA), the
oldest and largest Native education organization representing American
Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiian educators and students,
thank you for the opportunity to submit testimony to the Senate Health,
Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on the recommendations from
Indian Country on the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind.
Founded in 1969, NIEA is the largest organization in the Nation
dedicated to Native education advocacy and professional development
issues and embraces a membership of over 3,000 American Indian, Alaska
Native and Native Hawaiian educators, tribal leaders, school
administrators, teachers, parents, and students. NIEA collaborates with
all tribes to advocate for the unique educational and culturally
related academic needs of Native students and to ensure that the
Federal Government upholds its responsibility for the education of
American Indians. The trust relationship of the United States includes
the responsibility to ensure educational quality and access.
NIEA's top legislative priority is to strengthen the education of
American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians through
effective and meaningful education programs and approaches in the
reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). NIEA is
committed to strengthening NCLB for Indian Country through provisions
that provide for meaningful tribal involvement in setting the
educational priorities for Indian students and the inclusion of Native
language and cultural instruction.
NIEA has actively prepared for the reauthorization of NCLB by
conducting 11 field hearings with over 120 witnesses in Native
communities across the country. NIEA has also conducted numerous
listening sessions and meetings with Native students and parents,
educators, school administrators, and tribal leaders to learn about the
challenges Native people face under NCLB. Based upon this extensive
dialogue, NIEA prepared its Preliminary Report on NCLB in Indian
Country and its NCLB Policy Recommendations. In March, NIEA submitted
comprehensive draft legislative amendments to this committee and to the
House Education and Labor Committee for consideration for inclusion in
the bill that will reauthorize NCLB.
As an organization of Native educators, NIEA supports high
achievement standards for all children and holding public schools
accountable for results. Further, NIEA lauds the goal of Title VII of
NCLB to meet the unique cultural and educational needs of Native
children. Title VII affirms the Federal Government's support for
culturally based education approaches as a strategy for positively
impacting Native student achievement. NIEA wants to strengthen NCLB to
better serve the needs of Native communities, particularly those who
live in remote, isolated and economically disadvantaged environments.
NIEA's amendments to NCLB focus on several key categories as set forth
below.
IMPROVING AND EXPANDING TITLE VII TO ADDRESS THE UNIQUE CULTURAL
AND EDUCATIONAL NEEDS OF NATIVE CHILDREN
Title VII of NCLB recognizes that Native children have unique
educational needs due to their cultures and backgrounds. The purpose of
Title VII \1\ of NCLB is to provide culturally based educational
approaches for Native students. These approaches have been proven to
increase student performance and success as well as awareness and
knowledge of student cultures and histories. In general, these
approaches include recognizing and utilizing native languages as a
first or second language, pedagogy that incorporates traditional
cultural characteristics and involves teaching strategies that are
harmonious with the native culture knowledge and contemporary ways of
knowing and learning. It also includes curricula based upon native
culture that utilizes legends, oral histories, songs and fundamental
beliefs and values of the community. In addition, it involves parents,
elders and cultural experts as well as other community members'
participation in educating native children utilizing the social and
political mores of the community.\2\ Part A of title VII deals
specifically with the education of American Indian and Parts B and C
address the educational needs of the Alaskan Native and Native Hawaiian
students. NIEA has proposed amendments to focus the purpose of title
VII to include both academic achievement through culturally based
education and to increase the cultural and traditional knowledge base
of Indian students.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Title VII of the No Child Left Behind Act incorporates the
Indian Education Act of 1972.
\2\ Demmert, W.G. & Towner, J.C. (2003) Final Paper: A Review of
the Research Literature on the Influences of Culturally Based Education
on the Academic Performance of Native American Students. Northwest
Regional Educational Laboratory, Portland, OR.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Part A of title VII contains provisions for American Indian
Education and provides supplemental grants to local educational
agencies, tribes, Native organizations, educational organizations, and
others to provide programs and activities to meet academic, cultural,
and language needs of Native children. Native learning is strengthened
through instruction that integrates traditional cultural practices with
basic skills and embraces the knowledge of the environment, Native fine
arts and crafts, leadership, character education and citizenship.
Last year, the Department of Education advised Indian education
programs receiving title VII funding to shift their focus from the
teaching of culture to math and reading. In fact, the Department of
Education wrote a letter to the Superintendent of St. Paul schools in
Minnesota directing that there be a ``gradual shift of focus from
history and culture to reading and math.'' \3\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\3\ Correspondence from Bernard Garcia, Group Leader, Office of
Indian Education, U.S. Department of Education, to Patricia Harvey,
Superintendent, St. Paul Public Schools, received on November 4, 2005.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
This shift in purposes under title VII causes immense concern for
NIEA and our members. By law, Native children should have access to
culturally relevant and appropriate curriculum that supports their
academic achievement so that they may meet the standards that all
children are supposed to meet.
At each of the 11 hearings that NIEA held on NCLB, concern was
highly focused on the significant narrowing of the curriculum and the
decrease in the use of culturally appropriate teaching approaches known
to be effective for Native students given the increased focus on
testing and direct standardized instructional approaches. NIEA is
witnessing a broad-based reduction and diminishment of culturally based
education in schools which provide an effective and meaningful
education for Native students. In classrooms across Indian Country,
Native languages and cultures are being used less and less in teaching
Native students math, science, or reading because Indian children are
drilled all day long on the materials contained on standardized tests.
However, integrating native language and culture in conjunction with
these and other content areas is not mutually exclusive. Rather, it is
complementary and enhances knowledge and academic achievement.
Therefore, Native children's ability to learn better is enhanced by
integrating their native language and culture into the curricula.
Current research demonstrates that cultural education can be
successfully integrated into the classroom in a manner that would
provide Native students with instruction in the core subject areas
based upon cultural values and beliefs. Math, reading, language arts,
history, science, physical education, music, cultural arts and other
subjects may be taught in curricula instilled in Native traditional and
cultural concepts and knowledge.
Innovative programs that have proven academic success in Indian
Country incorporate language and culture. The Native Science
Connections Research Project (NSCRP), in Flagstaff, Arizona is a
research model that successfully integrates native language, culture
and traditions into the schools' science elementary curriculum. The
NSCRP model is applicable to other cultures, grade levels and academic
disciplines and demonstrates what works for Native American students in
achieving academic success in an era of accountability as marked by
NCLB. The Yukon Title VII/Indian Education Program in Yukon, Oklahoma
uses funding from title VII to purchase materials for arts and crafts
lessons that incorporate reading and math. Additionally, the title VII
program has helped each school (11 in all) update their libraries with
approximately 900 books with Native American content. The Anchorage
School District located in Anchorage, Alaska has developed a culturally
responsive 6-year instructional plan to chart a course for closing the
achievement gap while concurrently increasing achievement for all
students through implementation of a culturally responsive continuum.
The school district integrated recommendations from a coalition of
Alaska Native educational organizations based upon research indicating
that culturally related solutions (more Native culture, language and
teachers) were the reasons most commonly attributed for improving
schooling for Alaska Natives students.
Given that Native children are performing at far lower academic
achievement levels than other categories of students, title VII
programs should be expanded and strengthened to ensure that No Child
Left Behind also means No Culture Left Behind through the use of
culturally based education to meet the unique educational needs of
Native students. NIEA's proposed amendments to title VII provide for
more emphasis on meeting the unique cultural, language and educational
needs of Indian students through enrichment programs that supplement
other NCLB programs and will result in academic achievement of Indian
students. In fiscal year 2006, title VII served over 469,000 Indian
students and 1,196 local education agencies.
STRENGTHENING NCLB TO PROVIDE SUPPORT FOR INSTRUCTION IN
NATIVE AMERICAN LANGUAGES
Titles III, subparts A and B, as well as title VII currently allow
for Native language instruction; however, these provisions should be
strengthened so that schools can successfully achieve their educational
goals and meet academic standards. NIEA's proposed amendments to
support Native languages provide additional support for language
immersion schools and restoration programs in addition to language
activities inside the classroom. Research demonstrates that Native
children perform better academically when they are taught in a manner
that is consistent with their traditions, languages, and cultures.
Native language immersion programs, which have been proven to
dramatically improve Native student achievement in English and in
Native languages, highlight the reasons to strengthen title VII.
Specifically, Native language immersions programs have fostered
higher academic achievement and interest in learning from American
Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian students. Studies have shown
that, while Native American children and youth have exhibited stagnant
educational achievement Native language immersion has demonstrated
remarkable promise in educational achievement.\4\ National studies on
language learning and educational achievement indicate the more
language learning, the higher the academic achievement. Native language
immersion programs provide a proven method to enable Native students to
achieve academically in the areas of math, reading, and science as well
as in other content areas. For many Native students living in rural and
isolated areas, subjects that are taught in non-cultural pedagogies and
removed from a tribal perspective are often lost on Native students due
to the non-relevance of the materials to their environment, lives and
identities.
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\4\ Pease--Pretty on Top, Janine. Native American Language
Immersion: Innovative Native Education for Children & Families.
American Indian College Fund: Denver, Colorado. 2003.
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Solid data from the immersion school experience indicates that
language immersion students experience greater success in school
measured by consistent improvement on local and national measures of
achievement.\5\ For example, students in the Lower Kuskokwim School
District in Alaska receive instruction in their Native languages and
achieving Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). In a Navajo immersion school,
both the third and fifth graders are performing at higher levels than
their mainstream counterparts in the State reading, writing, and math
assessments. There are 18 public immersion schools in Hawaii and they
out perform Hawaiian students in public general education. Native
students attending language immersion schools are learning State
content standards of math, reading, writing, science, and social
studies in addition to Native language and culture standards. Native
language immersion students are meeting and exceeding the State
standards in English and academic standards nationally and are making
the academic benchmarks for AYP under NCLB.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\5\ McCarty, Teresa L. and Dick, Galena Sells. ``Mother Tongue
Literacy and Language Renewal: The Case of the Navajo.'' Proceedings of
the 1996 World Conference on Literacy. University of Arizona: Tucson,
AZ. 1996.
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While data specific to Native American language immersions schools
is continuing to be compiled, national studies from both the public and
private sectors emphasize the positive impact of language studies on
educational achievement.\6\ Language revitalization and maintenance
programs must be incorporated into NCLB so that the implementation of
education provisions does not hinder or preclude the offering of Native
American languages efforts, including immersion for Native Americans as
a part of their educational experience. NCLB must recognize and support
Native language revitalization and maintenance efforts of Native
American communities.
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\6\ Sugarmen, Julie and Howard, Liz. ``Two Way Immersion Shows
Promising Results: Findings of a New Study.'' Center for Applied
Linguistics, ERIC/CLL Language Link. ERIC Clearinghouse on Language and
Linguistics: Washington, DC. September 2001, p. 2-3.
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IMPROVING COOPERATION AMONG TRIBES, STATES, AND THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
NIEA seeks stronger emphasis in encouraging States, tribal
governments and communities, neighboring areas, and the Federal
Government to work together in developing the educational standards and
related assessments. NIEA's proposed amendments provide for the
inclusion of tribal input in the development of the various State,
local educational agency, and school plans. Additionally, NIEA's
amendments promote coordination of programs across titles I and VII to
foster better programming to meet the unique cultural, language, and
educational needs of Indian students.
NIEA supports the strengthening of NCLB assessments that considers
the cultural and educational needs of Native students. Assessments must
be linguistically and culturally appropriate. States should be required
to involve tribes located within their boundaries in the development of
State plans to allow for the coordination of activities under the
different titles of NCLB. Further, NIEA supports the strengthening of
NCLB to provide resources for collaboration among tribes, States, and
the Federal Government to allow for increased opportunities in the
development of standards that recognize the cultural backgrounds of
Native students. Local educational agencies should also be required to
consult and seek the input of tribes located in the areas they serve
when developing their district plans.
Throughout NIEA's extensive consultation with Indian Country, we
have learned that when a school is placed on school improvement for
failing to make AYP, they are often advised to focus their activities
on reading and math programs. This redirected and ill-advised focus
results in the exclusion of language and cultural programs to the
detriment of increasing achievement for Native students. NIEA has
proposed that school improvement plans include the input of tribal
representatives and promotion of culturally based education as a proven
method of increasing academic achievement.
IMPROVING SUPPORT FOR TEACHERS OF NATIVE STUDENTS
Many Native communities are located in rural areas where the number
of highly qualified teachers is in short supply. Research indicates the
negative long term effect on student achievement when taught by
teachers who are not highly qualified. Research also indicates that
these effects are cumulative. In one study, students assigned to
effective teachers for 3 consecutive years went from the 59th
percentile in the 4th grade to 76th percentile in the 6th grade.
However another group of students with similar characteristics were
assigned to less effective teachers and went from the 60th percentile
to the 42d percentile.\7\ NIEA seeks to strengthen NCLB by including
programs to build capacity within Native communities for increasing the
pool of highly qualified teachers. This initiative to provide for
improved professional development through pre-service and in-service
training for teachers and administrators would also prepare Native
peoples to become highly qualified teachers who are also cultural
practitioners and can continue upon a career ladder as school
administrators, board of education members, and community educators.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\7\ Beyond NCLB: Fulfilling the Promise of Our Nation's Children,
The Commission on NCLB, The Aspen Institute, Washington, DC. 2007 p.
30-31.
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The definition of ``highly qualified teacher'' in NCLB for teachers
who educate Native students enhances school accountability through the
achievement of AYP. When teachers are able to understand and apply the
culture and language skills and abilities of Native students in their
classes, the students flourish. This definition of highly qualified
should include opportunity structures for Native language and cultural
experts in the curricular programs of schools. NIEA supports the
strengthening of NCLB to meet the needs of Native peoples who live and
learn in their communities.
IMPROVING OPPORTUNITIES FOR PARENTS, FAMILIES, TRIBES, AND OTHER
NATIVE COMMUNITIES TO PARTICIPATE IN THE EDUCATION OF NATIVE CHILDREN
The schools that are successful are the schools where the parents,
families, tribes, and the local communities are actively involved and
engaged in the school's programs and activities. NCLB should be
strengthened to allow increased opportunities for parents, families,
and tribes and other Native communities to become more involved in
their children's schools and in the development of their educational
programs. NIEA advocates for increased parental involvement by
improving their knowledge, skills and understanding of standards-based
education and school accountability so that they too may advocate for
their children's educational success. NIEA supports NCLB in the
promotion of standards-based education as a family responsibility that
helps children to achieve.
IMPROVING THE MEASUREMENT SYSTEM FOR ADEQUATE YEARLY PROGRESS
The current accountability system needs to be strengthened to allow
for broader measures, including measuring individual students' progress
of academic achievement over a period of time within the 2014 goal.
NIEA supports NCLB provisions for alternative assessments that measure
academic, culture and language proficiencies through portfolio-based
measures of applied learning that are aligned to standards-based
education. Instead of focusing on statewide standardized tests in only
math, reading and science, NCLB could be strengthened to include
success on multi-disciplinary and multi-level curriculum and
instruction as additional measures of achievement.
Many factors in Native communities affect student and school
achievement, such as poverty, transportation, poor health care, and
poor housing. NIEA supports the encouragement of best practices that
increase Native student academic achievement but also seeks flexibility
in achievement measures to accommodate these extenuating factors.
Further, flexibility in the measurements for accountability could
accommodate Native language immersion programs, which have been proven
to significantly increase Native student academic achievement over
time. To further explain, Native language immersion schools have
reported to NIEA that they struggle in the early elementary schools
grades to meet AYP because the testing is in English. However, over
time, these same students in the latter elementary school grades
dramatically outperform their peers academically on tests in English
and are meeting AYP.
REQUIRING THE COLLECTION OF DATA AND RESEARCH ON THE EDUCATION
OF NATIVE CHILDREN
NIEA supports the strengthening of NCLB by providing resources to
conduct culturally based research. Support for best practices research
to educate Native students and use of indigenous research criteria for
federally assisted education programs benefits Native student
achievement and improves academic measures of school success. NIEA
supports the strengthening of NCLB to build capacity of Native
education systems to develop, implement, collect and analyze systematic
data on the educational status and needs of Native students. NIEA
supports the strengthening of NCLB to assist Native education systems
to use data to inform and improve student academic achievement. NIEA
supports the strengthening of NCLB through partnerships with Native
education school systems, higher education institutions and the
Departments of Education and Interior. This research initiative could
provide for partnerships to support efforts in Native communities that
improve education program services and program accountability.
INCREASING FUNDING FOR NCLB, SPECIFICALLY TITLE VII
When NCLB was enacted, Congress promised to provide the resources
necessary to meet its many requirements, provide school improvement
funds to schools that failed AYP, provide increased resources
especially for disadvantaged students and to help close achievement
gaps by improving teacher quality, student achievement, and program
accountability. However, NCLB has never been funded at the authorized
levels. NIEA supports the strengthening of NCLB Title VII through
resources that would support pre-service and in-service training for
teachers, resources that support national research activities,
fellowships for Native students, programs for gifted and talented
Native students, grants to tribes for education administrative planning
and development, educational services programs for Native students, and
educational opportunity programs for Native students. Only by funding
these critical programs on a sustained basis can we ensure that No
Child is Left Behind.
NIEA also supports the strengthening of NCLB by providing resources
that adequately fund title I programs. NIEA supports the strengthening
of NCLB by ensuring that title VII resources cannot be supplanted to
meet the shortfalls in other titles of NCLB. NIEA supports the
strengthening of NCLB through the inclusion of language that protects
the limited resources of title VII.
NIEA continues to be concerned with the inadequate funding in the
Department of Education and the Department of Interior, Bureau of
Indian Affairs, for Indian education programs and activities. Due to
the tight Federal budget, NIEA proposes in its amendments a moderate
increase from the current authorizing level of $96.4 million to $130
million for title VII, part A, subpart 1, which is an amount equal to
an increase of 5 percent each year beginning in fiscal year 2003. NIEA
has also increased the authorization for subparts 2 and 3 to $34
million, which is an amount equal to an increase of 5 percent each year
beginning in fiscal year 2003.
BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS SCHOOLS
There are only two education systems for which Federal Government
has direct responsibility: the Department of Defense schools and
federally and tribally operated schools that serve American-Indian
students through the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) within the
Department of the Interior. The federally supported Indian education
system includes 48,000 elementary and secondary students, 29 tribal
colleges, universities and post-secondary schools. Approximately 10
percent of Native children attend BIA schools while the remaining 90
percent attend public schools supported through the Department of
Education.
Only one third of the BIA-funded schools are achieving AYP. NIEA is
concerned about the applicability of State standards to Native children
attending BIA schools. More often than not, States develop the
standards without consultation and inclusion of the tribal communities.
Tribal communities are in the best position to determine the needs and
the appropriate assessment methods for Native students. NIEA's
amendments provide for the ability of a consortium of tribes, BIA-
funded schools, or school boards to apply for a waiver of the
definition of AYP. Currently, a single tribe, school board, or BIA-
funded school may apply for a waiver, however, considering the
significant amount of time and resources needed to successfully submit
an application, very few tribes, if any, have been able to submit an
application on their own. NIEA strongly supports the possibility of
developing and applying alternative tribal standards to measure AYP for
students attending BIA schools.
CONCLUSION
NIEA is committed to accountability, high standards and rigorous
education of our children; however, the implementation of NCLB by the
Federal Government does not enable Native students to meet their
academic potentials given the lack of consideration of their cultures,
languages, backgrounds, and identities. Cultural identity and rigorous
educational standards are compatible and complementary. We believe with
good faith collaboration that we can provide our children with an
education that honors their Native identity while simultaneously
preparing them for successful futures by providing them the opportunity
to incorporate into the curriculum their rich cultural heritage,
language, traditions, and native ways of knowing.
As part of its efforts on reauthorization, NIEA will continue to
perform as much outreach as possible so that the Congress can better
understand the needs of Native students, thereby allowing student needs
to be addressed during reauthorization of NCLB. We are extremely
appreciative of Senator Bingaman's and Senator Kennedy's unparalleled
support for Indian education. We thank this committee for making Indian
education a top priority and for holding this important hearing. We
hope that there will continue to be more congressional outreach to
Indian country, including additional field hearings in other regions of
Indian country, so that the challenges and issues impacting American
Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiians' students can be better
understood.
Senator Bingaman. Next is Ms. Maggie Benally, who is the
Principal of the Navajo Immersion School, that Dr. Garcia
referred to, at Window Rock Unified School District. Why don't
you go right ahead? Thank you for being here.
STATEMENT OF MAGGIE BENALLY, PRINCIPAL, WINDOW ROCK UNIFIED
SCHOOL DISTRICT, FORT DEFIANCE, AZ
Ms. Benally. Y'at'eeh. Thank you for allowing me to be
here. I'm Maggie Benally, an enrolled member of the Navajo
Nation and principal of Tsehootsooi Dine Bi'Olta', that's an
Immersion School. And, I would like to thank the Window Rock
School Unified District, the Navajo Nation, the National
Alliance to Save Languages, and NIEA for giving me this
opportunity to be here and testify on behalf of all Native
children in the State of Arizona, our neighboring State of New
Mexico, and throughout Indian country.
I am speaking from the heart because I was a school teacher
and now third-year principal at one of the schools in our
district, Immersion School. We are a small school, a K-8 school
and eventually plan to make it into a high school in the
future.
Window Rock Unified School District views No Child Left
Behind as an opportunity and improvement for our educational
services that the district provides to our students using
standard space learning and cultural-based education. I really
would like to emphasize that because if we did not do that, I
think we would not have been successful. We took it upon
ourselves to make sure that our students are educated using
cultural-based learning. And, we are, we embrace that change so
that students, each student will learn and be the best in this
District, in the Navajo Nation, and then throughout the
country.
What we did was, look at each of our core principles to
make sure that all our students are meeting them, and our
District is making sure that we are doing what we can for our
children. We looked at our curriculum, we look at our
restructure, we look at our assessments, we look at how
students are performing, we looked at staff performance, how we
communicate with parents and community, and we look at how our
school is supporting each other in the school district. And,
that is how we put our school together so that our school would
be successful in what we are doing, as far as meeting the goals
of NCLB.
Tsehootsooi Dine Bi'Olta' embraced the challenge to meet
the Arizona Academic content standards and with instruction and
Dine in English language. And, when we did that, we looked at
our curriculum and to make sure that we are looking at each
child and making sure that we are meeting the needs--what we
want them to do is learn the language, maintain the language,
and revitalize the language for students in our District.
As I mentioned earlier, we have K-8 and plans to develop or
expand to 9-12 and our plan is to develop an early college for
grades 6-12. That is our goal. And, what we would like to see,
as far as NCLB, is support in that area, more funding in terms
of getting what we need in academics, curriculum, instruction,
and the strategies that are used to help students in education
to help them achieve academically.
The success of the school is evidenced by the proficiency
level established by students in grades K and 2d, because in K
and 2nd the students are immersed in the Native language. There
is no English language introduced in those early grades. And,
these students have a higher proficiency level on Dine as
compared to their peers at the same age level when the school
was a program with an English medium school.
The curriculum was developed and implemented to address the
challenging academic content standards in the core subjects.
The standards are taught through rich content in the Dine
language, the Dine culture and language and the benchmark
assessments that we are using are developed by teachers because
we know the students, we know what they are capable of, and
there is research that is being done to help us validate and
have the reliability so that what we are doing in terms of
assessments are aligned to the Arizona content standards.
Window Rock Unified School District agrees with the goals
of NCLB for Native students. We do not make excuses, but as a
District school we make every effort that students at our
school and other students in the other schools in the district
are provided with quality education to increase success and
performance with the integration of language and culture into
standard space education.
By learning in two languages, students develop higher-order
thinking skills and develop a higher level of both Dine
language and English language proficiency. Students learn to
speak, read, write, and think in the Dine language, ensuring
the survival of the language for future generations.
For the past 3 years and this past spring, our school had
made AYP and this, this shows that when you implement and
develop curriculum that is culturally based, that will really
help schools and that is why we are asking for your help and
support.
Tsehootsooi Dine Bi'Olta' Immersion School is one of the
four Immersion Schools nationwide that is involved in
longitudinal study, that I stated earlier, to make sure that
what we are doing, in terms of assessment, is there's a
reliability and validity and that that will help us with
student achievement. Our graduation rate is up there. As far as
we know, the school, the students that graduated from our
school, all, each student have gone up to higher education or
no one, none of the students dropped out of our high school
when they got to that point and are now pursuing other
educational opportunities.
However, there are many challenges that No Child Left
Behind poses to our effort. Continued support is needed to
provide cultural and linguistic-related educational programs.
The lack of acknowledgment of the importance of the components
of the Native Language Act is evident in our State plans. That
needs to be addressed and looked at. Students are lumped into
ELL, that is English, Structured English Immersion under title
III, and that, I don't think is an appropriate thing for our
Native students.
It is also very difficult for school districts serving
Native students to find teachers who are fluent in the language
and also meet the highly qualified requirements for our schools
in the State of Arizona. I'm sure it is for other States. They
have to be certified. They have to meet the rigorous standards
and, that they have to go through even though our teachers are
qualified to teach the language. So, that we are also asking
help in amending and changing so that we have teachers who are
qualified, that can teach in our schools and the community.
The Immersion School in Window Rock Unified School District
isn't the only one of its kind in the Navajo Nation. Other
communities and public schools across Indian countries and
throughout United States have that desire to revitalize and
maintain their Native language. However, contrary State
policies hinders their ability to do so. We are asking that
that be looked at and through State and funding be provided to
help in those areas.
Tseehootsooi Dine Bi'Olta' Immersion School has been in
existence for 20 years, operating for over a decade before the
passage of Proposition 203 in the State of Arizona. The program
has enabled students to become proficient speakers of both Dine
and English language and, as stated earlier, have higher
graduation rates and higher education success. However, yet in
our State, school district requires students to participate in
Structure English Immersion, if they come from homes where the
primary language is other than English. And policies, such as
Proposition 203, devalues the learning of the Dine language. It
sends the wrong message to our parents. It just tells them that
the only way to succeed is through the English language.
That we are looking at and we also need your support and
assistance. The information provides us with enough evidence
that support be given to culturally appropriate school systems
that provide the opportunities for our children to become
speakers and thinkers in their Native language, a foundation
that will lead to academic achievement.
In a sense, what I'm saying is what works, language and
culture has a positive affect on student achievement.
Integration of language and culture into standard space
instruction increases student academic achievement. Second
language learning increases higher order thinking skills.
Development of Dine language or other Native language assists
in English language acquisition. And, if there's district
support, that really is also a help. And the benefits of being
bilingual, being able to speak your own Native language and
another language is one of the benefits.
You think in two languages, not just one. Your brain
functions at a higher order. When your brain functions at a
higher order, then you develop higher order thinking skills
fostering academic achievement. You have an academic advantage,
you have a social advantage. And, the results is where there is
a language proficiency in your Native language and English,
there is also results in literacy in Dine language or Native
language and English, there is a retention in high school
graduation rate, there's teacher retention, family involvement,
and responsibility for student learning. And, you have the
cultural knowledge, there is your Native American values, in
our case the Navajo values, and the language revitalization and
maintenance for Native students.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Benally follows:]
Prepared Statement of Maggie Benally (Navajo)
Y'at'eeh members of the committee. I am Maggie Benally, an enrolled
member of the Navajo Nation and the principal of Tsehootsooi Dine
Bi'Olta', Navajo Immersion School. On behalf of the Window Rock Unified
School District, the Navajo Nation, the National Alliance to Save
Native Languages, and National Indian Education Association (NIEA), I
would like to thank you for the opportunity to submit written testimony
to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions on ``No
Child Left Behind: Improving Education in Indian Country.'' My
testimony is to provide information in regards to improving No Child
Left Behind to best meet the needs of Native American students.
The Window Rock Unified School District views No Child Left Behind
(NCLB) as an opportunity and improvement of the educational services
that the district provides to the students through standards-based
learning and cultural-based education. The district accepted the
challenge outlined in NCLB and began the improvement effort in school
year 2002-2003 through the design and implementation of the district's
effort entitled ``Embracing Change for Student Learning.''
The district's framework for exemplary education used the local
community philosophy of lifelong learning and research approach to
create a six-step process for continuous reform. The district also
created a strategic plan: 6 Core Principles of Learning that includes
action plans to align all district activities:
I. Exemplary, Curriculum, Instruction & Assessment
II. Exemplary Student Performance
III. Exemplary Staff Performance
IV. Strong Parental and Community Relations
V. Safe, Efficient, and Supportive School Environment
VI. Efficient and Supportive Learning Operations
It is through the framework and core principles of learning that
the district work toward achieving its mission: ``We exist to ensure
relevant learning for all students to be successful in a multicultural
society''
Tsehootsooi Dine Bi'Olta' embrace the challenge to meet the Arizona
academic content standards with instruction in the Dine and English
languages.
Our school currently serves approximately 240 students in grades K
through 8. The goals of the school is to provide opportunities in
revitalizing the Dine (Navajo) language for families that do not speak
the Dine language in the home and maintain the Dine language for
families who do speak the Dine language in the home. The district
opened up a Dine language immersion kindergarten classroom within an
English medium school in 1986. Presently, it is a K-8 school with plans
to expand the school to include grades 9-12 and plans to develop an
Early College for students in grades 6-12.
Tsehootsooi Dine Bi'Olta' uses the immersion strategy to teach the
Arizona's academic content standards in reading, writing and
mathematics using a standards-based approach to learning and teaching.
The Dine is the primary language of instruction for a greater
percentage of the student's K-8 educational experience. The school
begins with full Dine language instruction at K-1 and a gradual
increase of English language instruction by 10 percent per grade level
from grades 2-8. At K-1, students are immersed in the Dine language to
reach a level of proficiency to develop the cognitive academic language
(CALP) in Dine. CALP is used to teach the Arizona's academic content
standards. At Grade 2, students are instructed in the English language
where the gradual transfer of CALP takes place from Dine to English. By
the end of 8th grade students receive equal instruction of Arizona's
academic content standards in reading, writing and mathematics in the
Dine and English languages.
The success of the school is evidenced by the proficiency level
established by students in grades K-2. These students have a higher
proficiency level on Dine as compared to their peers at the same age
level when the school was a program within an English medium school.
The curriculum developed and implemented at Tsehootsooi Dine
Bi'Olta' addresses the challenging State academic content standards in
the core subjects. These standards are taught through rich content in
Dine culture and language. Benchmark assessments are used to measure
student progress in Dine and English languages. The teachers developed
assessments in the heritage language showed that these assessments are
highly reliable and valid. Students do as well or better than their
peers taught only in English. This information proves that students who
are instructed in two languages have a positive effect on student
academic achievement.
Window Rock Unified School District #8 agrees with the goals of
NCLB for Native American students. We do not make excuses but as a
district and a school, we make every effort that students at
Tsehootsooi Dine Bi'Olta' and students in the other schools in the
district are provided with quality education to increase student
success and performance with integration of language and culture into
standards-based instruction.
By learning and being instructed in two different languages,
students develop higher order thinking skills (learning content) and
develop a higher level of both Dine and English language proficiency.
Students learn to speak, read, write and think in the Dine language--
ensuring the survival of the language for the future generations.
For the past 3 years, Tsehootsooi Dine Bi'Olta' met Adequate Yearly
Progress (AYP) where other schools in the district were inconsistent.
This shows that the goals of NCLB are not incompatible with those of
the local community that the school serves, nor are our communities
goals incompatible with NCLB. The fact is that the educational goals
for our children can be achieved by validating our educational needs--
to ensure the survival of the unique Dine culture and language.
Tsehootsooi Dine Bi'Olta' is one of the four immersion schools in a
nationwide longitudinal study of immersion students. Current data
states that while there is a lag in achievement of primary immersion
students, intermediate and secondary students not only reach the
``meets'' level of performance, but often ``exceed.'' Additionally,
initial studies have proven that none of the immersion students drop
out of high school, but rather go on to pursue higher education
opportunities.
There are many challenges that the No Child Left Behind poses to
our effort. Continued support is needed to provide cultural and
linguistic-related educational programs.
The lack of acknowledgement of the importance of the components of
the Native American Languages Acts (NALA) policy is evidence in the
State plans. However programs such as Structured English Immersion
under title III is the only program of instruction for English
learners.
It is very difficult for school districts serving native students
to find teachers who are fluent speakers and can teach in their native
languages and also meet the Highly Qualified requirements. For the past
year and again this school year and with plans to expand to grades 9-
12, teachers are teaching more than one subject area. Under the current
requirements, teachers would have to be endorsed in the subject areas
they are teaching along with the regular teacher certification.
The immersion school in Window Rock Unified school district is the
only one of its kind on the Navajo Nation. Other communities and public
schools on the Navajo Nation and across Indian Country through the
United States including Hawaii have the desire to revitalize and
maintain their heritage language, however contrary State policies
hinder their abilities to do so and/or limits what they can do. The
Tsehootsooi Dine Bi'Olta' has been in existence for 20 years, operating
for over a decade before the passage of Proposition 203. The program
has enabled students to become proficient speakers of both Dine and
English and as stated earlier have higher graduation rates and higher
education success. Yet in our State, school districts required students
to participate in Structured English Immersion if they come from a home
where the primary language is other than English. Policies such as
Proposition 203 devalue the learning of the Dine language. It sends a
wrong message to parents and other stakeholders that the only way to
succeed is through English. The educational performance of our students
would not have been an issue today if knowing and speaking English were
all that our students needed to succeed.
The information provides us with enough evidence that support be
given to culturally appropriate school systems that provide the
opportunity for our children to become speakers and thinkers in their
native language, a foundation that will lead to academic achievement.
Senator Bingaman. Well, thank you very much.
You might just pull that microphone a little closer, so
people in the back can hear you.
Ms. Gutierrez. Can you hear me now?
Senator Bingaman. I think so.
STATEMENT OF BERNICE GUTIERREZ, TEACHER, WILSON MIDDLE SCHOOL,
ALBUQUERQUE PUBLIC SCHOOLS, ALBUQUERQUE, NM
Ms. Gutierrez. Thank you for inviting me here, Senator
Bingaman, to hear my testimony. I'm Bernice Paquan Gutierrez
and I'm from the Pueblos of Laguna, Zuni, and Acoma. My clan is
Turkey on my mom's side and Little Parrot on my father's side.
I have raised three boys within the APS school system and
they've all graduated.
I was raised for 5 years in my Pueblo of Laguna where I'm
registered and I was educated the rest of the time in
Albuquerque, New Mexico. You could say I'm a Pueblo-urban
Indian. I did not intentionally go into education. When I first
graduated from UNM with a Bachelor of University Degree, I
didn't know where I was going. And it wasn't until I got into
the APS school system with the Indian Education Program, 21
years ago, that I found my niche in the system.
I went back and got my degree in Education from the College
of Santa Fe and I'm currently working on my Master's degree. I
have a ESL endorsement and a bilingual endorsement and reading
endorsement, and I speak English and Spanish fluently and I
understand my tailor language. I worked in APS so far, as a
tutor, a mentor, a facilitator, and for the past 10 years, a
reading teacher. I work in the largest school district in New
Mexico. I have knowledge of urban students from all different
Pueblos and Tribes within New Mexico and outside of New Mexico.
And, it is a very divergent group.
The essence of No Child Left Behind, in my eyes, is
excellent since it is finally looking to those children that
have always been left behind and which I was left behind at one
point, but what I did was, I caught myself up. And it wasn't
without the help of my family that that was done.
There are many problems in the urban centers that we need
to look to because I know they're also different from the ones
out in the Tribal areas. And, one of the most important ideas
within No Child Left Behind, is holding educators accountable
for the education of our Native students, as well as all the
other students that are being left behind.
I am going to talk to the four main principles of No Child
Left Behind. The first is, a greater accountability for
results. All of the things I'm going to talk about are
improvements or revisions that need to be done, because I
really believe No Child Left Behind is our chance to get what
needs to be done in education for our Native students. Greater
accountability for results--one form of testing does not fit
all students as, Senator Bingaman, you have said. Though No
Child Left Behind needs to implement multiple forms of
assessment to obtain adequate results, our Native students will
perform better if we implement the following.
We use multiple forms of tests: For example, portfolio
assessments, surveys, project, presentations. We need to have
assessments over a longer period of time. At our school, we
only have 2 days and it's not sufficient time for Native
learners that have a different learning style. We need to make
accommodations for our students because, as we have
accommodations for our ELL students, we do not have those same
accommodations that we need for our own students. And those
accommodations would be in language. Some of our kids are not
proficient in English because they have a first language or
they've heard their other language in their home, not
necessarily speaking it, but even hearing a language will deter
you from learning another language easily and readily.
We need to make sure we have an accommodation in the
perceived disability in which people think that, students think
that, and teachers think that if a student finishes a test
before everybody else, they're smarter. And that's not true. I
encourage my students to take as much time as possible to take
their tests so they will do better. My students, our Native
American population at Wilson Middle School where I work, are
the only ones of the minority populations that made AYP this
year.
Social-economic conditions need to be understood. As you
said, poverty is very rampant among our students. And sometimes
when a student has not had anything to eat, has had problems
the night before, they didn't get to sleep because their
parents were fighting, something was happening in their life,
they're not ready to take a test. And that's only one point in
a whole school year where you get tested and it's not going to
show the best part of you.
Cultural values.--Values of the Native American student are
different than other values. Even though they may not have been
raised in their own cultural environment, they still have ideas
that their parents have passed on to them. And those need to be
looked at and valued, not only by educators, but by everyone in
education.
Learning style.--Students have different learning styles.
Our Native students have very different learning styles. We're
very kinesthetic learners, we learn by doing things, we learn
by visual prompts, and those aren't always done in the
classroom. We need to look at assessments from a multiple
intelligence standpoint. And, I explained that as being the
kinesthetic learning styles.
In the funding area, the second principle of NCLB, there's
a need for availability of funding for the following, highly
qualified teachers with a reading endorsement, not only coming
out of college, but those teachers that are currently there. If
you do not know how to teach a student reading, have a base
reading background, you will reach only half of your students.
You need to be able to teach reading while you're teaching in
your content area.
Highly qualified teachers and administrators trained to
work with Native students.--We need to have administrators and
educators culturally aware and sensitive to our students, not
only our Native students, but to all students, all the other
minority students we have.
In professional development there should be some kind of an
endorsement on a teacher's license that says they've had
training in cultural awareness in the Hispanic culture, in the
Asian culture, in the Black culture, in the Native American
culture. They need to have that awareness because when they
don't, they don't understand those students. And you need to
know your students to be able to teach them.
We need improved, appropriate, and increased facilities. In
the urban setting schools, some teachers don't have classrooms.
They work in the library, they float around, go to different
classrooms. We need a separate place where we can teach our
kids. We need materials, specifically for our kids.
Literature.--We need to buy books that can be used in the
classroom. We need to have an environment that is not
detrimental to learning. I have been in environments where
we've suffered through the cold, through the whole winter
because there was not sufficient heating in the barracks. We've
suffered through the summer heat because our air conditioner
wasn't working. And that's not just myself, that's all the
other teachers that are in the school system, when those things
aren't taken care of right away.
We need an increased number of Native teachers and
administrators. I have tried to push as many of my students
into teaching so that they could go on and to help their fellow
students that are going to be coming up. We do not have enough
teachers, Native teachers and administrators. And if that's one
thing we can try and start, is some kind of program to get our
students who are graduating into these kind of programs. I
understand that there's going to be a backlog of not enough
teachers within the next 10 years. And, we need to have those
teachers out there to work with our kids.
And the third principle of No Child Left Behind, parents of
Native children. Parents need to be empowered by educators to
be more effective in supporting their children, in meeting AYP
through the following ways: If a school has not met AYP, our
parents need to have the possibility of having transportation
for their students to other schools--for example, the charter
schools, a private school, another school that is making AYP--
in order for those parents to have choices. We need increased
parent involvement in the schools through a communication
system that the schools should set up to invite the parents in.
Without knowing your parents, you're not going to know your
students. We need to have multicultural concepts, which can be
a resource through your parents. You can use story telling,
crafts, history, language, careers, role-modeling, foods--all
kinds of things that our parents are culturally aware of, they
know their own culture, they can teach different kinds of
things in the content area. For example, math, science, there's
those kinds of things that our parents could probably teach
pretty well.
The fourth principle of NCLB, emphasis on the use of
scientifically research-based proven effective teaching
methods. The key to academic success of Native children is the
utilization of proven, effective teaching methods where the
teachers are the architects of their instruction. Since 2001,
many curriculum programs have flooded the market, which are
scientifically research-based and it is now the responsibility
of educators of Native children to incorporate culturally
relevant methods and strategies into their instruction. There
is a need for Native American research and researchers. We need
to look at what it is, and research, what Native students need
and we need to also have Native researchers doing that. We need
to look at teaching methods and see how we can teach our other
non-Native teachers the methods that we use in our own
classroom so that they can do the best that they can for our
kids.
When we look at No Child Left Behind, there are important
factors, accountability for teaching our students and funding,
which is a major factor in all of these things. Without the
funding we can not implement these programs or have the results
that we need. Involving Native American parents in the school
system so they feel empowered, they feel it's theirs, they feel
that they have part of their children's education under their
control. And, using research-based teaching methods, which
reach our children and many of the other minority children, so
that we can improve and have a better No Child Left Behind
policy.
We don't want to go on and have anybody left behind. I was
left behind and it was very hard for me. And, I was speaking to
my sisters the other day. And we felt that, all the same way.
We didn't fit in. And that's why I'm at the middle school now,
because I want my kids to know they're going to fit in to the
school system and this educational system and they're as good
as anybody else.
I want to thank you for the opportunity to let me speak,
because my kids are my children. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Gutierrez follows:]
Prepared Statement of Bernice Paquin Gutierrez
FOUR MAIN PRINCIPLES OF NCLB
One of the most important ideas within NCLB is holding educators
accountable for the education of our native students as well as other
students.
1. Greater Accountability for Results
One form of testing does not fit all students. The NCLB needs to
implement multiple forms of assessment to obtain adequate results. Our
native students will perform better if we implement the following:
use multiple forms of tests (portfolio assessment,
surveys, projects, presentation, etc.)
assessment over a longer time period
accommodations for testing with the following factors:
a. language
b. perceived disability
c. socio-economic conditions
d. cultural values
e. learning styles
f. multiple-intelligence assessments
2. Funding
There's a need for availability of funding for the following:
highly qualified teachers with reading endorsement
highly qualified teachers/administrators trained to work
with native children
improved, appropriate, and increased facilities
(classroom, materials, environment needs, etc.)
professional development
increase number of native teachers and administrators
3. Parents of native children
Parents need to be empowered by educators to be more effective in
supporting their children in meeting AYP through the following way:
transportation
increased parental involvement
a. communication
b. multicultural concepts: storytelling, crafts, history,
language, careers, role modeling, foods, etc.
use parents as resources
choice of programs (charter, local, and/or private
schools, etc.)
4. Emphasis on the use of scientifically researched-based, proven
effective teaching methods
The key to the academic success of native children is the
utilization of proven effective teaching methods where the teachers are
the architects of their instruction. Since 2001, many curriculum
programs have flooded the market which are scientifically researched-
based, it is now the responsibility of educators of native children to
incorporate culturally relevant methods and strategies into their
instruction.
need for Native-American research and researchers
teaching methods
Senator Bingaman. Thank you very much for your excellent
testimony and your commitment to your children, your students,
and your service to education for many, many years.
Our final witness is Samantha Pasena. Is that the right
pronunciation? And Samantha is a student here, as I understand
it, with Santa Fe Indian School, and is----
Ms. Pasena. A recent graduate.
Senator Bingaman [continuing]. A recent graduate. And,
she's going to give us perspective from her experience here at
the Santa Fe Indian School, as I understand it. Please pull
that microphone over so everyone can hear your testimony, and
go right ahead.
STATEMENT OF SAMANTHA PASENA, STUDENT, SANTA FE INDIAN SCHOOL,
SANTA FE, NM
Ms. Pasena. It is a great honor to represent a student's
view on the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. And, out of a
sense of respect for this committee, I want to thank you
Senator Bingaman, for being here today and coming to our home,
the Santa Fe Indian School. I also want to thank you for
allowing me to share my thoughts with you today.
In preparation for my presentation, I spoke with our staff
members, members of my community, and students. Their opinions
about this legislation are included in my presentation. But I
will also talk about points that are very dear to my heart.
I respect the intention of this law, especially since it
coincides with the directive given to the Santa Fe Indian
School by our leadership, that all children--all Native
American children--must be given a chance to learn. As one
tribal official stated, ``They are our children. No child
should go without education, for they are our future.'' I
completely agree with this philosophy. Students do deserve more
academic support. However, in reality, there are students that
are neglected, academically.
Though there are numerous points of this law that I find
disturbing, I will only focus on three that I feel most
passionate about.
First, the implementation of the NCLB. The implementation
of the NCLB allows each State to determine its own definition
of annual yearly progress for AYP. In effect, this makes the
BIA our State. As Native people, as Natives, we are forced to
forsake our sovereignty by this action. The Santa Fe Indian
School, under the Pueblo leadership should not be coerced into
giving up its right to determine what is best for its children
and, more importantly, what's appropriate.
There is no recognition under the law of the previous
history of Indian education. Our ancestors and leaders worked
tirelessly to establish a school where Pueblo values would
inform the education of their children. Laws were passed to
ensure Native people of this right and yet, through the
implementation of NCLB, we are forced to teach the same
subjects at the same time as other schools, or risk our
students being deemed not proficient. The BIA as our State made
a decision for the school to use the New Mexico State
definition of AYP without consulting our tribal leaders. In
this way, the implementation of the law harms its Native
students who wish to have their culture studied equally with
the Western culture in our schools.
Second, the implementation of the NCLB requires schools to
make changes for the purpose of meeting law requirements,
changes that require money, a great deal of money. Expenses for
simply testing alone, is very costly. Nevertheless, there was
not enough money allocated to meet these external demands.
Consequently, schools are left with no choice but to divert
funds from existing programs to defray the cost of requirements
of the NCLB Act. For example, some schools are dropping
physical education and other elective programs from the
curriculum that have great interest and prove to be of
importance to students. In my opinion, this is hurting our
students because without health education, the health of our
children will only continue to deteriorate, further adding to
the national concern.
Not having financial support could indeed counteract the
intention of the law because limited course offerings would
encourage students to drop out. Due to the lack of interest,
students would ultimately leave. We would also lose valuable
teachers because they're asked to do more with their existing
low salary and unattractive benefits. The law can not demand
more from schools, without the money to support its agenda,
without damaging education the school was already offering.
Third, I feel that the NCLB is a direct contradiction with
the IDEA, Individual Disability Education Act. In order for a
student to be recognized as needing special education services,
there must be an identified learning disability that disallows
a child from learning the same way at the same rate of others.
NCLB demands that the special education students take the same
tests of others with the exception of only 1 percent--for those
identified as having the most serious cognitive disabilities,
to take out of grade level tests.
At our school, we have a high percentage of special
education students, consistently around 14 percent. With this
high percentage, as you can see, some special education
students who should take out of grade level tests, are taking
the regular tests, are forced to take the regular tests,
obviously inconsistent with their disabilities.
Two years ago, one special education student, after the
second day of testing began repeatedly banging his head on the
table, saying, ``I'm stupid, I'm stupid.'' What is more painful
than watching this student's reaction, is knowing that a
lifetime of inferiority has been lodged into his head and his
heart as a result of this test. I can't help but feel deeply in
my own heart that this law has, indeed, left him behind.
Being that I plan to pursue a career in the health field, I
feel that no Federal law should have the result of hurting
children, for any reason. As Dr. Lyon, Chief of the Child
Development and Behavior Branch of the National Institute of
Child Health and Human Development stated, ``In some cases,
we've got kids with disabilities that are being held to a
standard they can not reach.''
For these three reasons, I would respectfully ask you to
consider changing this Federal law so it supports education
rather than hurts its children. I hope that you, Hon. Senator
Bingaman, will be one of those many individuals who will help
us, who will help us so that our issues will be addressed and
recognized. That way we can help the success of all our
children. Thank you.
[Applause.]
Senator Bingaman. Thank you very much. Thank you very much
for your excellent testimony.
I think all of you have given very useful testimony to us
here. And, lots of different subjects have been touched upon
and discussed. Let me try to formulate a few questions that I
can ask here.
One obvious issue that several of you spoke about, I
believe Governor Mountain, you began with it, is the issue of
how we try to have some accountability to achieve standards
that are recognized and still do it in a culturally appropriate
way and in a way that strengthens the cultural education and
the linguistic education of the school as well.
Now, as I understood the testimony, I guess Ms. Benally, I
think I understood your description of what you're doing there
at your Immersion School. You are teaching students the Navajo
language first. And, then you begin the English language
instruction, so that K through second grade is concentrated on
Navajo language. All the instruction is in Navajo, as I
understand it. And, you're suggesting that the long-term
result, I mean, by the time the student is at a certain age,
the student does better in all subjects, not just in Navajo,
but in English and in math and other subjects because of that
model. Is that what your position was?
Ms. Benally. Yes.
Senator Bingaman. That's the way it's worked in your
school.
I didn't know, Governor Mountain, if you felt that more
emphasis in the early grades on language training for, in the
Native language and in cultural training would help students to
do better in all areas in the future. Is that your view, as
well?
Mr. Mountain. Senator, I do believe that is a very valid
statement by Ms. Benally and that it would serve the purpose
very well, to put that focus in that area. And, I support that
as a model and an example that we should follow and take a very
serious look at, as leaders, to help in progressing the act.
Senator Bingaman. OK.
And, I guess Dr. Wright, you make the same basic point in
your testimony, as I understand it also, as say one of the
things we ought to be doing, as I recall your testimony, is
that we should expand on title VII to address the unique
cultural and education needs of Native children. That's the
same basic point. Am I right there?
Ms. Wright. That's correct. And if I could give you some
key examples in our school. When we take a look at the math
data, we have three types of cohorts in our students. First, is
a traditional student that learns from easy, simple, to
difficult. They're linear learners. The second group is quite
interesting because they have some foundation skills, very
little processing skills, but higher level thinking skills. And
my third, which I think is more indigenous in thinking, do not
have as strong a foundation or processing skills, but they have
high analytical probability statistics data analysis skills.
And so, what this is telling us, from the brain research, not
having a written language--if I may use my arm, this is your
brainstem and this is where No Child Left Behind does the
cognitive thinking, math and reading in particular. But,
there's this auditory part in our brain, but the new research
engrain, is that this is the rest of the brain which is
special.
And, what we're showing now from the research is that
language is embedded in the stem, in the auditory, and in the
special. Previous research earmarked language learning in a
more narrow focus. When you take a look at how our teachers
teach, for example, in science. My teachers use the creation
chant, Kumulipo, which is 2,000 lines. But for grades four,
five, and six they use 200 lines. And, she takes the vocabulary
of the chant in the Hawaiian language, circles all the
vocabulary, and the kids go on the Internet and start drawing
down all the pictures of the animals that show the
specialization, then she begins teaching increased science.
Its seamless, it merges. My science teacher in middle
school, when the teacher had trouble teaching tectonic plates
to the kids on earth science, he did a hula on transformation,
you know, convergent, divergent, and the kids got it like this.
And so, I have an assignment from my English teacher at home,
it's all the grammar that children are struggling with. I said
come up with a mele, which is a chant, a song, and a dance.
It's looking at the total way of learning and these are the
cultural indicators.
Also, when our students learn, they help each other. In any
other testing situation it would be called cheating, but our
students Cacao, they pull together, they learn together, and
they teach each other. And no child, when we were doing some
testing assessments on our computers, no child left the
classroom until the last student was finished. It's those
cultural values that you're embedding in a child, so that when
they graduate they know who they are, they know they're
grounded in their traditions and language, and they're globally
competitive.
I think that's one of the most greatest advantages. I know
NCLB has met many, many hurts, but one of, to me from my
experience, the most wonderful asset of NCLB was global
competitiveness. It makes our children competitive on a
national and international level.
Senator Bingaman. Well, thank you very much.
Dr. Garcia, you have a very good list of recommendations
for improvement in this law. One of the recommendations is that
the Federal Government provide financial support to increase
the school day and the school year for our neediest schools. I
was just interested in your perspective on, really, how that
would impact us here in New Mexico. Are there schools that you
believe--would you go to a system where some schools would have
a certain length of school day and school year, other schools
would have a longer school day or school year because of
certain factors that we would identify that would require that?
What are your thoughts?
Ms. Garcia. Well, let me give you an example, Senator. The
legislature has funded a program called K-plus, Kindergarten-
plus, and we've received, we've begun to see really good data
with students who had an additional 20 days before they started
kindergarten. And, now that program has been expanded to K-3
Plus, so those students get an additional 20 days before school
starts to give them that extra push that they need to get them
on a more level playing field.
Senator Bingaman. And is that for each of those three
grades or the four grades, kindergarten through 3?
Ms. Garcia. It's the four grades, but schools apply to
participate based on certain criteria. Primarily they've been
in high-poverty areas because, again, one of the common
denominators is poverty, in terms of students having the
opportunity, many kids get the opportunity of public, I mean,
pay for private pre-K or other kinds of enriching activities in
the summer that, oftentimes, children of poverty don't have
that advantage.
Some of the students need additional support, in terms of
tutoring after school. If we're going to keep the same
framework, in terms of testing and so on, they need that
additional advantage. We've also funded, for example, after-
school enrichment programs from the State level, but they don't
go very far. That not only incorporates academics, but also
enrichment activities. And again, language is a very important
part of that enrichment, but it takes funding to be able to do
that.
One of the aspects of No Child Left Behind, I think that
isn't there as we look more globally, how can we look at all of
the resources that are coming from the Federal Government and
how can they be used in a manner that helps address the issues
of health and obesity, that impact learning. Not having
adequate access to pre-K programs, when they come to
kindergarten they're already behind other children. How can we
help ameliorate those impacts of poverty?
And the second piece, I think, is that we need--as we look
at standards we say, ``well, Arizona made AYP or Hawaii made
AYP or New Mexico made AYP, but we're all using a different
yardstick.'' It's, and I'm not recommending a Federal standard
by any means, but there has to be a better way of being able to
communicate to our public how our schools and how our children
are doing by a yardstick that's more meaningful than just, you
made AYP or you didn't make AYP.
Senator Bingaman. Let me just ask on that because, you
know, in Washington and everywhere in the country everyone's
very much in agreement that we don't want a national standard.
At the same time, we've got quite a few States that have joined
together to develop, essentially, a set of common standards. I
think 29 States or some such group. I believe New Mexico is
part of that.
You know, just to play the devil's advocate, why don't we
want to have some common standard that we can all look to and
say, ``Look, if the people in Hawaii can meet this standard,
why can't we meet it in New Mexico? And if the people in
Arizona can meet it, why can't we meet it in New Mexico? ''
What's wrong with that as a concept?
Ms. Garcia. Senator, thank you for asking that question.
And, I've asked the question myself because I was of the
opinion at some point that you needed a national standard. I
think there's a difference between national standards and
Federal standards. And I think that a national standard that is
created by the various groups that represent teachers and
parents and organizations like Dr. Wright's and others, are
important in coming together and then States choose to meet
that. A Federal standard, depending on who's in office and
who's determining those standards, I think could potentially be
harmful to States. And, I think that's the distinction between
a Federal and a national standard.
Senator Bingaman. The idea of a common standard that we'd
all agree, would be the right sort of knowledge and
understanding that we would want students to have. For example,
in mathematics, mathematics is not that culturally specific, or
at least the way I think about it. Maybe I'm ignorant about
that, but it would be good to say, here's a common standard. We
would like 4th graders to be able to do the following
mathematics or 8th graders or 12th graders. Is that what you're
saying?
Ms. Garcia. Senator, to some degree, yes. You know, we have
de facto standards by the fact that we have the National
Assessment of Educational Progress, the NAEP scores. And those,
you know, not all students take them. Schools, States like New
Mexico are over-sampled because of our high Native American and
Hispanic population. And, they primarily test, they don't test
every grade and every sample in the State. We are very aligned.
Our content standards are aligned to that, to the NAEP, and I
think you saw, probably, the report that showed the varying
degrees and that's why when we look at AYP, it becomes
meaningless as well, because of the standards being so
different.
On the other hand, how do we incorporate these cultural and
linguistic differences and, even with mathematics, yes the
computations may be the same, but if in the word problems,
we're talking about something that a child has no language, no
basis of understanding in language, there can be a cultural
component even in the area of mathematics. And I think that was
the reasoning behind NCLB to say, regardless of your language
competence, you'd have to have math and English the first year.
As I said in New Mexico, because our standards require
constructed responses and a lot of writing and a lot of
application, if you're not fluent and have academic language in
English, you are at a distinct disadvantage.
Senator Bingaman. OK.
Let me ask Ms. Gutierrez, what, in your experience in
teaching and trying to bring along the students that you have
been successful with bringing along, how do you believe this
issue of retaining and learning a child's Native language at
the same time, help in becoming proficient in English. How do
we best accomplish both of those goals? Because I think, at
least my view is, we ought to try to accomplish both of those
goals from the point of view of the student. When that student
goes out into the workforce to make a living, the ideal thing
would be to have them be fluent in English, be fluent in their
Native language, have a very good sense of themselves and their
native culture, but also have the skills they need to succeed
anywhere. How do you think we best achieve those goals?
Ms. Gutierrez. I look at it from a bilingual standpoint.
Knowledge of your first language gives you the background and
the esteem to be able to go on and learn a second language.
And, the basis of that first language helps you to learn the
second language a lot better and internalize that language. It
is an advantage to be able to speak two languages. And, it
helps you to learn in two different ways, because thinking in a
Native language is different than thinking in the English
language. As I have difficulty doing when I switch from English
to Spanish, to hearing my own language.
Bilingual classrooms need to actually be implemented in the
schools, especially for the higher number of students,
especially Navajo students in our classrooms, because they're
the ones that really fall far behind when it comes to literacy.
Because I can see that their language, which they haven't
completely mastered yet, because they've been taken out of
their school and moved to the urban setting, they haven't
mastered it yet so they don't have the real strong background
they need in that language to be able to take on the English
language and so they falter. If we can take our languages that
are written now and try and incorporate them into our schools
with the language component, bilingual component, I think it
would help our kids a lot.
Because the second language learners that speak Spanish
have that opportunity and our students don't a lot of times.
And then, we need to make sure that the teachers that we hire
to do that are trained in the teaching methods of that
language, because you can't just teach somebody a language
unless you know some teaching methods to get that done with.
Senator Bingaman. Let me ask Ms. Pasena, I appreciate your
testimony very much. Could you give me some insights on one
issue that I seem to see in the testimony, some here, but
elsewhere on some of our earlier hearings in Washington. The
challenges that students face are very different, whether
they're male or female. And, the dropout problem seems to be
much worse for young men than it is for young women, at least
the statistics indicate that, that more young women stay in
school long enough to graduate than young men, particularly
among the Native American students. Is that something that you
have had any chance to observe among the students that you were
with? Is there a reason? Is there something we could be doing
to help young men stay in school in larger numbers?
Ms. Pasena. During my years at the Santa Fe Indian School,
I did notice that there were some boys, particularly, that did
drop out of school or left for a number of reasons. Like,
there's--how could I say this--there are numerous amount of
reasons for each child to leave, particularly home, home
lifestyle. Like they were saying, if something happens at home,
poverty, all of those things. But to determine one particular
reason or one straightaway answer, I think it really, you have
to look in the background of that child. There's no real reason
to say, ``OK, boys you stay in school. We have all this for you
here.''
Senator Bingaman. So, no real----
Ms. Pasena. No real basis.
Senator Bingaman. Yes. I understand. A main thrust of your
testimony was that we need to be more realistic about what we
are requiring with regard to special education students. You
think that the act, as it's currently administered and
implemented and written is not realistic in that regard. And,
that is a major problem that we have to change?
Ms. Pasena. I see it as unfair because, as a Gates Scholar,
me testing here and then a special ed student with severe
cognitive disabilities, who's not able to take that out of
test, out of grade level test because he's not part of the 1
percent. I don't see it as fair as forcing him to take that
test for the AYP and in the end, not have it affect our school
negatively. Because, in the end, when you're looking at the
test results, they're all combined into one.
And whether or not your school is exceeding because our
school of 14 percent, that really brings our level pretty low.
I don't see, like you said, that's realistic. I think the 1
percent should be increased to meet the needs, whatever that
may be at the school. So that way, your school can--the test
results and the level of progress in your school can be
measured fairly.
Senator Bingaman. I understand your point very well. Thank
you very much.
We could go on for another couple hours, but I know you've
been very generous with your time and this has been useful
testimony. We can take the suggestions that you've given us
here and work with those in Washington. And I think this will
be helpful in our deliberations on how to rewrite this law to
make it more workable. That's obviously our goal.
Dr. Wright.
Ms. Wright. If I may say one closing comment, Senator? I
would like to invite you or a member of your staff to Hawaii in
October where the National Indian Education Association will be
holding its conference--Alaska Native, Native American Indians,
and Hawaiians. We predict over 3,000 people attending the
conference, but you will see exemplary models of what we've
been talking about today. How culture and language help our
people know who they are, but also how we embed English,
French, Spanish and all the other languages that help our
children succeed in higher ed. I think, perhaps, you might want
to send one of your staff members to come see.
Senator Bingaman. It's probably going to be hard to
persuade any of my staff to go to Hawaii.
[Laughter.]
But I'll work on it, see if we can persuade any of them.
Let me mention, since you did, Michael Uden who is here at
the front desk with me. He works with me on education issues in
Washington and he was very instrumental in helping organize
this hearing. And, he's working on this No Child Left Behind
issue very much. Chris McKeno, who works with me here in Santa
Fe, has also been very helpful on this. He's at the back of the
room and I hope you all are acquainted with Chris. Jude
McCartin who's over here, she works with me in Washington on a
whole range of issues also.
I think this has been useful. Thank you all for
participating and again, thank you Joe, for letting us have
this hearing here at the Santa Fe Indian School, which is a
wonderful school that we want to see continue to succeed in the
great tradition that it has developed.
That will end our hearing. Thank you all for coming.
[Whereupon, at 11:12 a.m. the hearing was adjourned.]