Native American Community Academy

Curriculum and Instruction: NACA facilitates hands-on, experiential, and service learning experiences that make school engaging and relevant. They provide culturally-based education, holistic wellness philosophy, and community-based education to guide the development of their academic program and more. The curriculum is inquiry-based and is designed (often in-house) using Native literature, language, culture, teaching practices, and protocol, as well as the Common Core, as the framework. Here is an example of how it plays out, from CZI: "Teachers recently had students read about the cultural and agricultural histories of various New Mexico communities, learn about the biology of gardening and the risks of genetically modified foods, and learn about the Native cultural significance of water and corn. Uniting these threads, students applied their learnings across curricula to create, plant, and care for a garden on school grounds. The learning increased in personal significance as students cultivated the garden as a contribution to the NACA school community, ultimately passing along a corn seed to the next class as a sign of that class’s responsibility to steward the community garden."

Here is a detailed look at academic programming:

• Native Literature classes foster literacy skills and knowledge and, at the middle school level, students connect to indigenous cultures through additional Native Literature and tiered reading classes.

• In Indigenous History students explore local, continental, and global history and geography that is grounded in relevant perspectives.

• Numeracy is fostered through the Connected Math Program in middle school and Interactive Math Program in high school.

• Indigenous Science is grounded in physical, life, earth, environmental sciences and biology.

• Health and wellness are central to NACA’s Personal Wellness classes which are offered at all grades.

• Indigenous Language classes include: Lakota, Navajo, Tiwa, Keres, and Zuni language classes (Spanish is also offered). Language is connected to identity. NACA seeks to promote a sustainable learning environment that supports language development through innovative classroom settings and cultural specific experiences in connection with the land and surrounding Indigenous communities.

• NACA Rock and Indigenous Art are elective classes that are grounded in student choice and interest.

Curriculum and instruction is also rigorous in preparation for college. All students take 6 at least 6 college credits before graduating as part of the Dual College Degree Program. If you'd like to take an in-depth look at NACA's curriculum, click here.

Assessment: At the end of every school year, NACA celebrates student learning and growth through Student Demonstrations. Each student chooses a project that reflects their best work and demonstrates it publicly for family, peers, and community members. Through this process students also practice the skills of giving a proper introduction, sharing content knowledge, making a personal connection, bettering their visual and oral presentation skills and interacting with their community. Additionally, NACA's rigorous college prep curriculum is paired with vigorous testing, including ACT, AP, Pre-AP.

Students’ knowledge and skills are measured beyond academics, such as within language and culture, which are measured against NACA’s leveled indicators of language proficiency. For example, in learning a Native language, students are also evaluated on how they learn to carry themselves with respect as well as how they learn respect for others when using those languages. Students also demonstrate their learning through student-led conferences. The objective is to process what they have learned and to indicate precisely how they have achieved this in school and among their families. In one interview, a student explained, "[It’s like] a parent-teacher conference, but it’s way better ’cause we get to do it our way to where it’s not really just with your mom or dad, or your parents. You can have different family members or friends come in. You talk about your grades. You talk about what you like here at school and what you don’t like, and how you can fix it. You have goals of yourself or for yourself, and you talk about how you want to reach it."

NACA’s student body includes approximately 480 students representing over 60 different tribes. While 94% of our students are Native American, some have heritage that draws from other cultures such as African American, Caucasian, and Hispanic. NACA emphasizes and celebrates the indigenous background of each person, regardless of their ethnic group, and acknowledges distinct linguistic, cultural and socio-organizational uniqueness through education. Check out this video which explains more about their approach.

Given their history of assimilation and erasure, many Native American communities experience disproportionate negative health outcomes. In addition to wellness courses, NACA provides a variety of culturally responsive prevention programs and supports, including consultations, support groups, and interventions. Guiding their approach is a Wellness Wheel, which like the curricular approach, is aligned with many Indigenous world views and used for ongoing goal setting and growth. It focuses on physical, social-emotional, community and relationship, and intellectual wellness. Using the wheel, students identify a personal mission, set goals to meet it, and reflect quarterly. This helps support students as they develop a Native identity, as well as a personal identity that includes cross-sections of gender, religions, SES, values, interests, etc. Watch this video to learn more about NACA's approach to identity.

NACA leverages a variety of community partners in their wellness work both on- and off-campus and even has a First Nations School-Based Health Center on campus. Some highlights from their wellness program include:

• Eagle Room is a peaceful, culturally-based meditation space provided for all NACA students, families, and staff for self-reflection, meditation and prayer honoring our Native traditions. Students who are dealing with worry, stress, trauma, or any emotional hurt may utilize this peaceful room anytime during or after school. The Eagle Room is widely utilized program and students may refer themselves or be referred by a parent/guardian, administrator, faculty, or other staff.

• Student Support Services provides free, school-based, culturally-sensitive, high quality mental health services open to all students and families.

There are also opportunities for student leadership. Student Council is group of peer-elected representatives who serve as leaders of their grade level and promote NACA Core Values. They model positive relationships among each other and staff. Student Council also facilitates school wide events to foster school spirit and bring the community together.

Finally, although culture and identity is deeply woven into daily experiences at NACA, they also celebrate traditions on special days. This includes Feast Day, an annual visit to a sweat lodge, the Gathering of the Nations Pow Wow, and many more.

65% Native American of staff members at NACA are Native American and the remaining 35% are from various backgrounds. This means that the largely Native student body has Native role models to look up to. Oftentimes, students call teachers 'aunt or 'uncle' in their Native languages, which is a term of endearment.

All adults are expected to engage in respectful interaction between with students to be sensitive to the impact of boarding schools in Native communities due to colonization. Since not all staff members are of Native American descent, NACA collaborates with tribal leaders to ensure the class content and instruction is authentic and respectful of cultural norms; it even develops homegrown curricula to support effective language learning.

NACA is developing and equipping educators with the tools necessary to effectively teach Native American students. Initiatives include:

• Hosting student teachers involved in Growing Educators for Native American Communities, a post-baccalaureate alternative teacher licensure program in collaboration with Central New Mexico Community College (CNM)

• Hosting NACA Leadership Fellows through the NACA-Inspired Schools Network, the first charter school incubation program dedicated to Native American student success

NACA was designed in collaboration with 150+ community members and advisors to ensure its cultural relevance. NACA continues to partner with the community regularly through community presentations, open houses, guest speakers, cultural events (such as NACA Feast day, Pow-wow and 1491s), mentoring, and service learning. Some of their key community partnerships include local and nationwide community-serving organizations, colleges and universities, as well as all 23 tribes and pueblos in New Mexico. One major way these partnerships are leveraged is through the Out-of-School Time program. Explore the detailed list of partners here. While the community supports NACA through it's partnerships, these relationships are two-way, as NACA is dedicated to community transformation. Watch this video to learn more about their approach, or watch an example of it in action here.

Here is an example from CZI of how NACA students engage the broader community: "A recent class project required students to study historical policies impacting Native communities and to make connections to present-day conflicts over water rights at Standing Rock, South Dakota. As students studied the policy context and environmental issues at play, they proactively brought personal connections to Standing Rock (via family and friends) as data to the conversation. Teachers channeled student engagement in the topic into a powerful experience in which students prepared traditional medicine for the water protectors at Standing Rock, who sent messages back thanking the students and describing their personal experiences of participating in the fight to protect sacred and sovereign lands. "

NACA provides both students’ and families’ with healthcare, nutrition, and social services needs via culturally sensitive, school-based supports (e.g., case management, crisis intervention, individual and family counseling, group therapy, and community outreach) at the on-site school based health center. All of these services are available free of charge. The NACA Parent Community (parents, staff, administration, community) supports NACA’s Mission to inspire and enrich the lives of NACA students through support of varied academic, social, and cultural activities. We seek to promote wellness of mind, body, spirit, and community for each individual child and family.

NACA is a safe space not just for students and staff, but also for their families. All NACA community members, and those by extension, have access to the Eagle Room sweat lodge as needed, and are provided free healthcare from the on-campus facilities.

NACA is founded and led by Native American leaders, alongside community members and continues to operate with their input. In fact, community leaders shape programmatic decisions. This makes learning more authentic and relevant. For example, tribes give permission before a language is taught at NACA.

NACA was recognized by the Chan Zuckerberg Institute as being an exemplar of whole-child development. You can read the full case study here.

NACA has been so successful that their leaders have launched a NACA-Inspired Schools Network (NISN) to bring culturally relevant schools and Indigenous education to more communities throughout the country. In this video, NACA and NISN leaders reflect on how they see their programs continuing to evolve. They also discuss the how members of the NACA community give advice, based on their experiences, to other charter schools that are working to develop culturally-responsive programs and improve Native American and Indigenous student outcomes.