Through informal assessments and diving into the graduation rate data at the high school in the district I work in, I found the percentages of Native Americans graduating skewed. Our graduation rates are not representative of the true numbers because we are losing a large percentage of our students their sophomore year, this means they don’t show up as not graduating. The ultimate goal of my action plan is to educate students and families about this issue and clarify why it is happening.
In order to tackle the challenge of graduation rates of Native Americans in our school district I need to take steps backward to where I can have initial impact.
Teaching at the elementary level, the challenge is the disconnect between parents and the way schools are run, the SYSTEM of SCHOOLS. Parents in my school were raised by grandparents who were part of the boarding school generation. They remember being put on a school bus and being driven away from their family and all they knew. They remember being told their culture is wrong and their language can not be spoken. The grandparents suffered from trauma at being taken from their families as well as they lacked parenting skills since they were in turn raised by the schools. Many of the parents of my current students were raised in a manner that projected the trauma of the past on them and suffer from drug and alcohol addiction. This generations in often called 'the lost generation' and due to substance abuse issues, life expectancy is low. During my four years of teaching I have had at least one parent pass due to health issues related to drugs and alcohol, one parent who was killed in an accident due to driving under the influence, and another parent pass due to violence. Around 70% of the current students in my 5th grade are being raised by grandparents due to the epidemic of drug addition. Boarding schools were not set up in the same manner as schools today and the grandparents do not understand the system, they do not understand the path to college, they are hesitant to fill out paperwork and often can not read it, and anything expected to be done on a computer is almost impossible for them. Students who aspire to play sports do not understand the layers of requirements and the steps they need to take to remain eligible. My action plan is to inform teachers and parents of this lack of information and educate them on how we can reach the needs of the students before we lose them.
ARTIFACT: Interpersonal Effectiveness: Link
My learners for this project are the fifth graders at Crow Agency Public School. These students were selected because Crow Agency is a 100% Native School on the Crow Reservation and serves grades Pre-K through fifth grade. Fifth graders will transition to the Middle School, fifteen miles from their current school. However, many of our students will begin to ride the bus when they haven't in the past as well as some will begin bus transfers which will have them riding the school bus for an hour or more to return to their homes. Crow Agency is extremely rural and although buses are available on the main routes, students often have to traverse mud filled roads to get to the bus stops. My students have experienced high poverty and trauma in their short lives. I would say every one of them have a close family member who is affected by addiction as well as early death due to these addictions. The majority of our students do not have clean drinking water, limited sanitation facilities, and have limited access to technology. It isn't uncommon for them to lose their electricity numerous times through the school year. For many of my students the meals they eat at school are the only meals they receive.
The transition to the middle school can be very difficult for them because even though the school is only fifteen miles away it is a different world. The town is on the outskirts of the reservation and houses many of the individuals who took advantage of the land buy outs in the early years of the reservation. Generations of ranchers and farmers have built the town and the school as well as built the walls that often stand between the two communities. Although the population of the school is primarily Native American, there are a variety of other races, white being the next highest. This will be the first exposure for many of the kids to sitting in close proximity to non-native students in a classroom.
It is important that this challenge be addressed because the students from our school are not being successful in the transition from fifth grade to sixth grade. The communication and collaboration between the schools had broken down and the supports which needed to be in place for our learners are lacking. Behavioral classrooms have been set up for students who struggle with school. These classrooms are intended to be a re-focus time for students before returning to the regular classroom. Instead the students remain in the secluded classroom situations because it is easier than providing teachers with strategies to understand and develop relationships that could curb the behaviors in the first place. In addition, students move from a school day where their tardies and absences do not seem to affect their movement from one grade to another. Parents see nothing wrong with students missing school to drive the fifty miles to the nearest large town to buy a dress shirt for a presentation at school. Students who miss the bus are unable to get to school and are held responsible for school work when they haven't realized the importance of being responsible for their work during the elementary years. Students from our school do not have access or the ability to purchase technology and internet needed to complete assignments at home. The students at our school need supports in this transition that currently are not in place.
I began this journey by building communication avenues with the administrative staff at the middle school. I contacted the middle school vice principle and the counselor to begin the conversations about the transition. We have a visitation to the middle school every spring as well as the Vice Principle and the counselor come to visit our classrooms. After doing an informal survey of my students I was able to compile a list of questions and concerns to be addressed. (Artifact 1) We worked together to do a better job of meeting the needs of our students and provide them with a structure they felt more comfortable with. In addition I have worked with the other fifth grade teachers to give more information to the middle school about our students and strategies for reading and math that they will be bringing with them to the school. In addition we have planned for a meeting with all stakeholders to help transition our special education students easier. Finally, we will be given the students schedules before school starts to make any changes we feel are necessary.
Next Step: Our next step is to develop a plan for supporting students in their first year at the middle school as well as the families as they begin to navigate a new system.
My intention is not to implement a new program but instead take a program which is already in place and improve it to better meet the unique needs of our students. We have always had our own visitation with the middle school but it was the same format as the other elementary school in our district, moving to the middle school. Our students have different needs so this year we adjusted the content and the presentation to make it more informative to our students.
This practice is just the first of a more in-depth plan at educating the middle school of the unique issues facing our students and the impact these have on their learning. By allowing the students the ability to first understand the system of middle school, I am hoping they will be more successful at the transition. In early discussions with the middle school administration about the challenges they see with our students, they said the ability to move through seven classes is difficult. Eventually I would like to begin discussion on changing the 7 period day to a four block day. Instead of fighting to change the students ability to mentally organize their classes, change the number of classes to a more manageable number of classes for their first dip into middle school. I also hope to include the middle school in the conversation of implementing Restorative Justice into the school. We have begun some great conversations about Trauma informed verses Trauma sensitive as well as the unique learning styles of the students but I understand the need for baby steps.