Native Education

American Indian and Alaska Native students often have unique needs that call for alternative approaches to narrowing opportunity and achievement gaps. Education Northwest is committed to partnering with Northwest tribes and Native educators to develop culturally relevant resources to incorporate into the curriculum. We are also committed to supporting your efforts to evaluate and scale up effective, culturally responsive strategies.

Services

Program Evaluation

A fresh, independent evaluation of your programs, policies, or student outcomes is a powerful way to identify needs in your community or school district, make informed decisions, and start important conversations about equity. We regularly collaborate with tribes, districts, and nonprofits to develop and conduct evaluations of grant programs (e.g., grants through the federal Office of Indian Education, other federal grants, and state grants).

Technical Assistance

Culturally based education can enhance students’ motivation and build their self-esteem, while also promoting the engagement families, elders, and tribal members. Our staff has experience partnering with tribes to develop resources and curricula that reflect indigenous culture, traditions, and values. We can support state education agencies, school districts, and tribes as they work together to implement Indian Education curriculum mandates or modify existing curriculum to make it culturally relevant.

Tribal Consultation

The federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) stresses the importance of improving educational outcomes for American Indian and Alaska Native students. ESSA has created opportunities for tribes to work more closely with state and local education agencies in support of Native students. We can help you develop and implement a process for genuine and meaningful consultation and support you in preparing specific requests.

NW RISE

The Northwest Rural Innovation and Student Engagement Network convenes teachers and leaders from some of the Northwest’s most isolated and remote communities to learn from each other, share strategies to meet their unique challenges, and spread best practices of the region’s rural schools.

Resources

Improving the Identification of Native Students at the University of Oregon

Guest Blogger Jason Younker writes on the challenges colleges face in identifying their American Indian and Alaska Native students and the solution that U of O developed to better serve the community.
Lessons from a Public Investment in Native Language Immersion Classrooms

Guest Blogger Mandy Smoker Broaddus writes on how Montana is creating language-immersion elementary classrooms as one strategy to restore and revitalize Native languages.
Recommendations for Making Consultation With Tribes Meaningful, Respectful and Sustainable

New federal law requires state and local education agencies to engage in "timely and meaningful" consultation with area tribes while preparing and submitting plans for federal programs. But what does “meaningful” consultation look like?
Working With Indigenous Communities–Evidence Blast

Last fall, our regional educational laboratory, REL Northwest, joined with REL Central and REL Pacific to organize a convening of tribal representatives from across the country to examine how our education system can incorporate indigenous language and culture and what research can increase and improve those efforts.

Steven R. Nelson Native Educator Scholarship Program

The Steven R. Nelson Native Educator Scholarship Program seeks to increase the number of Alaska Native, American Indian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander students who pursue graduate degrees that will qualify them for careers in education policy, leadership, technical assistance, or research in the Northwest region.

Education Northwest