Federal Program Aims to Increase American Indian Teachers

http://newsnow.ljworld.com/cgi-bin/LiveIQue.acgi$rec=187689?frontpage  Less
than 1 percent of teachers are American Indians, but a $10 million federal
program hopes to add 1,000 more within five years.  By Chris Koger,
Journal-World Writer
 
As one of only 18,000 American Indian teachers across the United States,
Maria Pope is a minority within a minority group.
During the next five years, a federal initiative seeks to add 1,000 more
Maria Popes to the ranks of 2.5 million teachers, a move she and other
educators applaud as a way of boosting opportunities for American Indian
students who face dropout rates ranging from 36 percent to 50 percent,
according to the American Indian College Fund. "They have role models. They
have moms and dads, brothers and sisters, and aunts and uncles," said Pope,
a 1997 Haskell Indian Nations University graduate who teaches kindergarten
students at Kennedy School. "But when you're a child, it's nice to have a
teacher of color, specifically an Indian teacher, that understands you,
someone you can relate to. It helps your learning experience." Congress
established the initiative, the American Indian Corps of Teachers,with a $10
million appropriation in November. The plan is part of President Clinton's
push to create at least 100,000 new teachers in the United States. Haskell's
part in training the new teachers remains to be seen; plans are
too preliminary to know exactly where the money will go. The U.S. Department
of Education is coordinating the $10 million effort, and it's likely grants
will go to teacher programs at four-year tribal colleges and universities
such as Haskell, or two-year colleges that have partnerships with four-year
institutions. Only four of the 31 tribal colleges and universities don't
offer education degrees.
 
Philosophy change
 
"I'm excited," said Maggie Necefer, chair of Haskell's teacher education
program. "I'm in the career I'm in because I believe there's such a need to
create more American Indian educators. That's my passion, that's what I'm
committed to, and from my personal experience as a Native American student
who went through the educational system, I know it needs to be better."
David Cournoyer, director of public education for the American Indian
College Fund, said the federal support is a 180-degree turn from the
government's history of "teaching" American Indians. Haskell's first mission
as the U.S. Indian Industrial Training School was to strip American Indians
of their culture in order to assimilate them into the white culture.
"Education was not necessarily a positive thing to our grandparents and
great-grandparents," said Cournoyer, whose own grandmother, a Rosebud Sioux
in South Dakota, wasn't allowed to speak her own tribe's language while
attending a government-mandated school. "It's been in the past 20 to 30
years that we were learning that it's OK to get an education and be who you
are," he said. "The philosophy was that Indians didn't know what was good
for them and that Indian culture was bad. "This program really embraces
Indian self-determination and empowers Indian
people to teach Indian students, when certainly their ancestors didn't have
that," Cournoyer said. Haskell will graduate its fourth class of students
with a bachelor's degree in education, bringing the total to about 20. That
number will increase
significantly next year, Necefer said; there are 12 juniors in the program.
The four seniors scheduled to graduate in May will be student teaching at
Quail Run, New York and Kennedy schools this semester.
 
While some graduates return to their home reservations, some move to urban
settings that have American Indian populations.
"Many of our students are products of our public schools," Necefer said.
Pope grew up in Lawrence and graduated from Lawrence High School in 1987 and
said she chose to stay here because she has roots in this area. "That's one
of the reasons I teach at Kennedy; there's a diverse group of students
here," said Pope, who has had four American Indian students in her
class the past two years. "Teachers at tribal colleges go into teaching
because they know Indian students need positive role models," Cournoyer
said. "For any child in America, for an education to work, they have to feel
good
about who they are and believe in who they are," he said. "Unfortunately, by
and large, Indian students haven't had that benefit."
 
Support increasing
 
According to the American Indian College Fund, a non-profit, private
organization that solicits funds for tribal colleges and universities,
Indian teacher training programs have received modest and irregular support
from private and public sources. That is beginning to change as foundations
and corporate America funnel funds through Cournoyer's organization. That
includes money from the Ford, Knig ht and W.K. Kellogg foundations, and the
Philip Morris Co. "I think its a very strong approach, when you look at how
much teachers can affect students' accomplishments, especially on the
reservation schools,"
said Karen Brosius, director of corporate contributions and public affairs
for Philip Morris. Brosius said her company has contributed about $1 million
throughout the past 10 years to the American Indian College Fund. "I think
the kind of effort the government is putting behind the Native American
teachers is very worthwhile, because they recognize the need for teachers
and the results it will bring to that community," she said.