Swinging the learning curve
The education statistics on American Indian students break her heart.
Jenny Egly, a Nez Perce Indian and grade school teacher at Garfield Elementary, runs a reading program after school as part of Spokane Public Schools Indian Education program.
The numbers don’t lie.
American Indians have the lowest grade point average of any racial group in the district, and it has been that way for at least a decade and likely much longer. In the 2003-2004 school year, 49 percent of Indian students had GPAs below 2.0.
Spokane Public Schools board President Don Barlow, a member of the Ottawa Indian tribe of Oklahoma, had worked in the district Indian education program for 14 years beginning in the late ‘70s.
Barlow sees progress in Indian education because of the growing numbers of Indian students getting into colleges.
“Student achievement is a big issue,” Barlow said. “I think we’re making headway. Those that finish are coming out of the schools stronger and better prepared.”
Barlow said he’s also seeing greater organization among Indian parents.
A group of Indian parents helped organize a fund-raiser this week. They are also helping organize a powwow in mid-December.
The Spokane Public Schools Indian Education program is funded through federal grants that are called Title VII programs. The program this year is funded with a $186,525 grant for almost 1,200 Indian students. Four Spokane Valley schools work together for the Spokane Valley Native American Program. The consortium is funded by $89,000 in federal funds for about 350 students in Central Valley, East Valley, West Valley and Freeman.
Numbers show there’s more work to be done.
A district survey of 2004 graduates showed that of the 29 Indian students who graduated from the district, 17 percent had plans to attend four-year colleges – half as many as white students – while 27 percent of black students planned to attend four-year colleges.
Indians also had the lowest graduation rate among students who started their senior year. In all, 78 percent of Indians who were enrolled as of Oct. 1 during their senior year graduated. For white and black students, the number was almost 97 percent. Almost 81 percent of Hispanic students graduated. That doesn’t factor in students who dropped out before their senior year.
Pam Austin, director of the Spokane Public School Indian Education Program, also works as a counselor at Spokane Falls Community College. Indian students have the worst rates for meeting math standards, Austin said.
“Ninety percent of our students of color are placed into developmental math when they come to college,” Austin said. “We’re trying to work with them in the middle schools.”
Spokane Public Schools is surrounded by six Indian reservations, but 80 different tribes are represented among the students. A dozen tribes are represented in Spokane Valley schools.
“I’ve been trying for 16 years. It’s really, really difficult with the amount of money we have,” Austin said. “When I write a grant, it’s for only three years (or less). By the time you get something going, then the money goes away.”
Austin also runs a summer program that allows students to recover credits from failed classes. The district almost had to turn people away last summer, Austin said.
She is also working on a homework center for students along with more parent workshops.
“We’re trying to help them all come together,” Austin said. “What keeps me going is faith and determination for the kids.”
There are growing bright spots.
Indian parents like Kathy Kendrick, a Cree Indian from Canada, can’t say enough good things about the after-school reading program run by Egly. Her 9-year-old son had been saying he wanted to quit school.
“He didn’t want to read,” Kendrick said. “Now he comes home and talks about what he learned. He’s excited. It’s made a huge leap in his self-confidence.”
Colette Downs’ 12-year-old daughter struggled with her reading. Downs didn’t have the money for a tutor. Downs is from the Cowichan Indian Band in British Columbia and is a single parent. She lost a leg when she was hit by a car years ago. Her divorce was tough on her daughter. Downs can’t work, and they live on public assistance including food stamps.
“I’m not a teacher. I didn’t know how to teach her. I would get frustrated,” Downs said.
Now with the reading program in Egly’s class, her daughter has shown great improvement.
“It was just a godsend. I didn’t know what to do,” Downs said.
The program pays for a taxi to transport her daughter from Franklin Elementary to Garfield twice a week.
Part of the district Indian Education program is a magnet cultural-based school called the Medicine Wheel Academy for seventh through 12th grades.
Various family nights each week also help students and families overcome a long lingering history of challenges.
Federal policy 100 years ago took Indian children away from their families to attend schools where they were forbidden to speak their language or practice their culture. Many experts say that historic break between parents and children created a broken bond that still impacts families today.
“It still goes back to the boarding school,” Egly said.