2014-16: Support to Promote the Education of Migratory Children Accountable to Native Students

WHEREAS, the National Indian Education Association (NIEA) was established in 1970 for the purpose of advocating, planning, and promoting the unique and special educational needs of American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians; and

WHEREAS, NIEA, as the largest national Indian organization of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian educators, administrators, parents, and students in the United States, provides a forum to discuss and act upon issues affecting the education of Indian and Native people; and

WHEREAS, through its unique relationship with Indian nations and tribes, the federal government has established programs and resources to meet the educational needs of American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians, residing on and off their reserved or non-reserved homelands; and

WHEREAS, the fundamental trust, treaty, and statutory obligations of the United States remain unfulfilled and Native students continue to suffer from great inadequacies and inequities in aspects of their education; and

WHEREAS, in order to improve the academic achievement of disadvantaged students, including Native, Title I of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act authorizes programmatic funds to ensure that all children have a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education and reach, at a minimum, proficiency on challenging state academic achievement standards and assessments; and

WHEREAS, NCLB Title I, Part C – Education of Migratory Children – supports high-quality and comprehensive educational programs for migratory children to help reduce the educational disruptions and other problems that result from repeated moves; and

WHEREAS, compounded with additional issues, Native students suffer from diminished academic achievement due to disproportionately high rates of mobility between the schools systems that serve their communities (public, Bureau of Indian Education (BIE), tribal contract and grant, parochial, and charter); and

WHEREAS, statistics are limited on Native students, but a National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) analysis recently found that 15.7% of American Indian or Alaska Native sophomores had changed schools in their last two years of high school as compared with only 7% of white sophomores; and

WHEREAS, experts who study student mobility confirm that children who frequently change schools tend to fall behind academically, suffering from inconsistent teaching methods, curriculum, and daily activities, which often produce long-term behavioral risks and increased high school dropout rates;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that NIEA does hereby call for the Department of Education (ED) to specifically include Native students within NCLB Title I, Part C – Education of Migratory Children – to ensure Native students have the same access to resources as those other migratory populations and are not penalized by disparities in curriculum, graduation requirements, or state academic content and achievement standards when changing schools; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that NIEA calls upon NCES to study Native student mobility in order to increase available data on Native populations and requests that ED work jointly with the BIE and the National Indian Education Association, as well as tribal communities and pertinent stakeholders, to guarantee that funds, definitions/eligibility and supportive services not only address their unique cultural and academic needs but also that such children receive full and appropriate opportunities to meet the same challenging academic content and achievement standards that all children are expected to meet; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the identified partners address this issue at the K-12 and High Education levels to ensure Native students receive the comprehensive education and full scope of services for Native migratory children.