Throughout the United States, Native American and other indigenous students in K-12 are struggling on many fronts:
Despite this alarming scenario for Native American students, there has been a paucity of research done over the years to understand and address these problems.
In this article, we will review the available research into the causes and potential interventions to improve outcomes for Native American students.
There are many reasons why students in general do not regularly attend school, but the fact is that chronic absenteeism contributes to significant and considerable negative consequences.
Data from around the United States indicates that Native American students are chronically absent more than any other racial group.
Many studies link chronic absenteeism to students dropping out of school (Kearney & Graczyk, 2013; Ginsburg, Jordan, & Chang, 2014; McConnell & Kubina, 2014; Erbstein, 2014).
Johnson, Simon, & Munn (2014) suggest that students with attendance problems are more likely to drop out of school during, or shortly after, their freshman year of high school. The problem of chronic absenteeism can start rather early in grades, as Allensworth, Gwynne, Moore & de La Torre (2014) found that middle grades attendance is one of the best predictors of how students will perform in high school classes and whether they will potentially drop out.
Moreover, students who do not attend school regularly often demonstrate below-average academic performance, and they tend to score lower on standardized tests, ultimately increasing achievement gaps between students who demonstrate chronic absenteeism and students who do not (Ginsburg, Jordan, & Chang, 2014; Erbstein, 2014).
Balfanz and Byrnes (2012) define chronic absenteeism as absences (excused or unexcused) that equate to missing at least 10% of any given school year.
Most students who are chronically absent struggle with numerous barriers and hardships that make regular school attendance challenging (Erbstein, 2014).
In 2016, national data indicated that 26% of Native American students were chronically absent compared to the next highest groups (22% Pacific Islanders; 21% Black). The problem for Native American students gets worse as students move up through the grades, as 31% of high school students were chronically absent (U.S. Dept of Education, 2016).
Christenson, Stout & Pohl, (2012) posit that there are six central causal factors involved in chronic absenteeism:
It has been suggested that chronic absenteeism (as well as the other negative outcomes) are related to the “incongruence between American Indian cultures and school systems largely influenced by European cultures” and “using the education system to suppress American Indian culture” (Gion, McIntosh, Smolkowski, 2018; Pewewardy, 2002; Pewewardy & Hammer, 2003).
Smith (2004) suggested that the creation of boarding schools for Native American students in 1869, which were used to assimilate Native American students into the dominant culture, with little regard for their cultural background, is related to Native American families’ lack of connection with typical K-12 schools in America.
Discipline was also handled in rather draconian fashion for Native American students to accomplish this objective, which may contribute to Native American students’ lack of connection with public schools (Gion, McIntosh, Smolkowski, 2018).
The boarding school movement and the attempt to “civilize” American Indian culture may have contributed to the current scenario of negative outcomes for Native American youth prevalent in today’s K-12 schools (Gion, McIntosh, Smolkowski, 2018).
Gilliland (1999) stated that the combined historical effects of assimilation and resulting loss of culture lie at the heart of Native American students being chronically absent and struggling in the current educational environment.
Chronic absenteeism for Native American students is a side effect of issues that go beyond a lack of awareness of the importance of regular school attendance.
For example, housing insecurity, family instability and lack of access to transportation in rural communities may play critical roles. Native American traditions, such as “tribal funerals, which can last several days, and pow wows can conflict with academic schedules” (Chanda, 2017).
Another related factor is the current lack of awareness for Native American cultures in our U.S. schools (Leverson, Smith, McIntosh, Rose & Pinkelman, 2021).
The two most frequently mentioned reasons given by Native American students for being absent and dropping out of school were teachers’ attitudes and lack of self-esteem (Gilliland 1999).
In the typical classroom, this can be seen with an emphasis on individual achievement and individual competition — whereas Native American culture focuses on group achievement.
Cleary and Peacock (1998) state that Native American students often do not like to be “put on the spot,” which is common in our classrooms today.
Additionally, Native American students may resist receiving public praise, as in Native American culture it is not acceptable for an individual to be singled out.
Given the cultural norms of many Native American families, typical classroom grades may not appeal to Native American students in the same way as non-Native American students (Harold & Sorkness & Kelting-Gibson, 2006).
Creating positive, trusting relationships with students and families is essential to increasing attendance rates for Native American students.
A detailed resource that outlines specific strategies to engage Native American families is the Toolkit of Resources for Engaging Families and the Community as Partners in Education.
This toolkit is designed for administrators, teachers, teacher leaders, and trainers. Native American family and community engagement must be approached in a comprehensive manner to support family well-being and to build strong parent-child relationships, which drives students’ attendance, learning, and overall development.
Engaging Native American families involves getting to know individual parents and their stories to understand their needs in supporting their children’s learning.
This is much more than general communication and information sharing as is done with most families. Essential in the process is understanding that Native American parents (and Native American community members) are not all the same; they have complex strengths and weaknesses, face unique problems, and have specific questions (Edwards, 2009).
The key to making these connections is to shift from a “deficit-based model” and make exclusive use of family strengths and understand that families want to help their students succeed (Moore, 2011).
Collaborating with families based on strengths develops strong relationships between home, school, and community. Educators can help families build on their strengths through diverse and culturally appropriate approaches, as noted in the detail in the Toolkit (Garcia, Frunzi, Dean, Flores, Miller; 2016).
Cross-cultural communication must consider differences in communication styles as interpersonal communication is directly tied to the cultural backgrounds of the participants.
The communication practices used must be sensitive to language and cultural backgrounds, and acknowledging families’ cultural values as strengths encourages family and community engagement (Arias & Morillo-Campbell, 2008).
Additionally, families may be reluctant to participate in school functions if educators fail to consider communication differences as these will be barriers to understanding or misinterpretation of the message (Stoicovy, Murphy, & Sachuo, 2011).
It is important when communicating with Native American families to listen much more than speaking and to ask open-ended questions.
Often, Native American people communicate a great deal through nonverbal gestures, such as using downcast eyes or ignoring an individual when they are unhappy with or disagree with a person.
Native Americans may use humor to express truths or use humor to cover difficult messages with jokes or smiles. It is important to listen closely to humor and interpret the meaning without asking too many questions that may be perceived as invasive.
Native American people often view it as inappropriate to criticize others even when this critical feedback may be justified. This cultural norm is rooted in the belief that people who have acted wrongly will pay for their acts in some manner in the future (Working with American Indian Families, 2006).
Of course, translating communications into the languages used in the school community, making families feel welcome in the school with signs in their language, all while being sensitive and paying attention to how words are used is very important (Halgunseth, 2009).
One example from Minnesota found an effective strategy to reduce absenteeism was to foster good relationships through a “truancy collaborative” with school personnel and tribal leaders, which met regularly to talk about attendance across the reservation, share ideas and discuss what’s working in improving attendance.
For many Native American students, truancy matters fall to the tribe rather than the county truancy officials, and the tribe tends to focus on more restorative remedies rather than negative or punitive responses.
One collaborative leader stated:
“Sometimes if a kid knows that somebody here is really worried about them or cares for them, sometimes that’s all it takes… Other times, it’s offering programs: sports, dance troupes, gifted and talented programs, and other activities can also be instrumental in getting kids to school… We want to draw kids in, we want kids to feel good when they’re here” (Kaul, 2017).
These efforts have produced significant results, with graduation rates in the district having increased from 41% to 51%.
Developing relationships with Native American families early in the school year, well before formal parent–teacher conferences, is essential.
Teachers can promote cross-cultural communication during meetings and conferences using the following strategies (Trumbull, 2011):
Additionally, partnering with the larger Native American community to promote family engagement helps schools make those deep family and community connections.
The fact is that schools, families, and community entities have bi-directional influences on each other, and if the three entities interact and communicate with one another, students are more likely to hear consistent themes and talking points about their successes and the importance of school (Epstein, 2010).
By partnering with communities, businesses, centers and faith-based organizations, research shows that all students can benefit when all stakeholders work together.
Inviting role models from different Native American cultures into the classroom to present their stories provides a powerful incentive to increase attendance and the perceived importance of school.
Perhaps one of the best approaches to improving outcomes (e.g., reducing absenteeism, improving behavior and increasing achievement) for all students is to improve the school and classroom climate.
A specific climate model, the “Authoritative Climate Model,” has been articulated in the literature and has been shown to be an important approach to building positive school climates and the associated these positive student outcomes (Gregory, Cornell, & Fan, 2011; Konold & Cornell, 2015).
The authoritative school climate model accounted for 65% of the variance in student engagement and 77% of the variance in academic achievement.
These findings provide strong evidence for understanding that a positive school climate leads students to be more engaged in school, results in higher academic performance, and improves attendance in school.
The authoritative climate model, when applied to the focus on Native American students, must have a strong emphasis on providing high levels of support to students. Support for Native American students is essential for creating positive relationships and is characterized both by adult respect for students using culturally appropriate methods and students trusting the adults and being willing to seek help.
Student support involves:
Johnson’s (2009) review of 25 studies concluded that “schools with less violence tend to have students who are aware of school rules and believe they are fair” and “have positive relationships with their teachers” (p. 451).
The overall evidence supports the use of supportive authoritative school practices and is associated with improved academic outcomes.
Pellerin (2005) found supportive authoritative practices in schools produced less truancy and reduced dropout rates. Schools with supportive authoritative school climates had higher levels of student engagement (Gill et al., 2004) and reading achievement (Lee, 2012).
High structure (expectations) is the second component to build positive school climates and is defined as having clear and high expectations for discipline and academic work ethic.
Authoritative school climates have lower suspension rates than other schools (Catizone, Cornell, & Konold, 2018; Gregory et al., 2010; Huang & Cornell, 2018) and also supports the potential to help schools reduce disproportionate suspension rates for Native American students (Huang & Cornell, 2018).
A review of the literature shows that authoritative school climates achieve lower suspension rates independently of other student and demographic variables, so the positive impacts are experienced by students in all racial/ethnic groups (Konold, T., Cornell, D., Jia, Y., & Malone, M., 2017).
For decades, there has been an achievement gap between Native American and white students, and this gap continues to widen (National Center for Education Statistics, 2015, 2016).
The dependent variables of chronic absenteeism — poor school climates, poor home-school communications, lack of culturally-relevant curriculum, and lack of quality relationships — have led to very poor outcomes for too many of these Native American students.
From the data reviewed, reading and math scores for fourth- and eighth-grade Native American students have been the lowest in the nation compared with students of other races/ethnicities, based on 2018 data.
In the United States:
As noted earlier, Gilliland (1998) indicated that to be successful in teaching Native American students (and therefore raising achievement), educators must:
There are some specific teaching and interactional strategies that are particularly effective with Native American students that teachers must build into their repertoire of skills.
Corbett, J. (2011) reported that in a study with Montana Native American tenth-grade students, there was significant improvement in literacy, math, and science test scores when implementing instructional coaching by embedding these coaches in the field to work directly with teachers to provide feedback and guidance.
Instructional coaching helped teachers learn and the needed instructional, behavioral, and relational skills necessary to engage students more effectively to impact learning.
While many of these strategies would be effective with non-Native students as well, it is important to note their particular benefit with Native American students (Corbett, 2011).
One potential contributor to educational disparities between Native American and white students may be related to the overuse of exclusionary discipline practices, such as office discipline referrals (ODR), in-school suspensions (ISS), out-of-school suspensions (OSS), and expulsions (Gregory, Skiba, & Noguera, 2010).
There is a growing body of research that supports improvements in disciplinary behavior, anti-social behavior, student bullying behavior, and peer victimization related to implementing positive behavior support systems (Bradshaw, Koth, Thornton, & Leaf, 2009; Bradshaw, Mitchell, & Leaf, 2010; Horner, Sugai, & Anderson, 2010; Sadler & Sugai, 2009; Simonsen et al., 2012; Waasdorp, Bradshaw, & Leaf, 2012).
Suspension and exclusion have proven to be ineffective for reducing behavior issues in all students but also students with disabilities and Native American students (Hemphill, Toumbourou, Herrenkohl, McMorris, & Catalano, 2006).
Moreover, suspension has been associated with a variety of negative educational and social outcomes, including:
Multiple studies have shown that PBIS significantly reduces both antisocial behavior of students and the associated use of suspension by school personnel (Bradshaw, Mitchell, & Leaf, 2010; Bradshaw, Waasdorp, & Leaf, 2012; Nelson, Martella, & Marchand-Martella, 2002).
Due to this overall effectiveness, the framework has been viewed as a potentially effective approach for not only reducing overall suspensions of special education students but also for reducing racial disparities in suspensions (Gregory, Skiba, & Mediratta, 2017; Tobin & Vincent, 2011).
In an interesting study, Vincent, CHiXapkaid, Sprague, & Tobin (2013) found that:
In the final analysis, schools with the lowest disparities in disciplinary exclusion between Native American and white students closely collaborated with the larger Native American community, which was used to improve staff development around cultural sensitivity and culturally relevant instruction combined with healthy family relationships.
Greater disciplinary equity was achieved when these practices were successfully merged with the PBIS model.
The evidence suggests that to address the myriad special needs for Native American students, teachers would benefit from instructional coaching to improve the pedagogical, behavioral, and relational skills needed to positively impact these students.
Implementing software that is designed to support a quality coaching program can be another important factor in addressing teacher resistance.
Software platforms such as SchoolMint Grow provides several functionalities that can help with teacher acceptance, transparency, efficiency, and efficacy of the coaching program:
The evidence is converging that the use of positive behavioral support systems integrated with Native American culturally relevant instruction can positively impact Native American students.
SchoolMint Hero is a digital platform that is aligned to the best practices of positive behavior support systems, PBIS, and the authoritative climate model to provide consistency and fidelity of implementation, which can lead to an improved school climate and drastically reduce student exclusions.
Hero provides a systematic method for achieving the five-to-one positive interaction ratio needed to improve student-teacher relationships and improve school climate.
One important aspect of the Hero platform that addresses the cultural differences of Native American students is the ability to positively reinforce students in a private manner. Teachers can reward positive behavior points via the app rather than a public display.
Hero is designed to deliver the PBIS framework and best practices insofar as the institution of consistent responses to behavior, positively reinforcing good behavior, providing corrective responses, and tracking students in behavioral interventions.
Student outcomes can be positively impacted in the following areas as supported by the research:
In conclusion, Native American students are at a crisis point in our U.S. K-12 schools due to chronic absenteeism, low academic performance, excessive exclusionary discipline, poor home-school relationships, poor culturally relevant curriculum, and a general lack of awareness of the best practices for engaging Native American students.
By implementing instructional coaching to drive improved pedagogy, student-teacher-family relationships, school climates, and more positive approaches to discipline, educational institutions can begin to improve outcomes for our Native American students.
Please contact Dr. Christopher Balow at chris.balow@schoolmint.com for more information.
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