PULLMAN, Wash. – In a collaborative effort to address and take action in order to improve the academic performance of Native students in Washington, a group of 13 Washington State University professors spent six months researching and measuring data on 296 school districts.

The research resulted in the final report, “From Where the Sun Rises: Addressing the Educational Achievement Gap of Native American Students in Washington State,” commissioned by the Washington State Legislature. The findings were presented to lawmakers in late December, and meet the criteria set in House Bill 1495.

The bill was created by legislators with the primary intent to improve Native students’ academic performance and evaluate the correlation between performance and culturally relevant curriculum.

Native students trail far behind in math, reading and writing when compared to their European American counterparts, and most other documented races, according to the report.

Researchers pulled data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the National Center of Educational Statistics, the Superintendent of Public Health and individual school districts.

They also held more than 10 listening sessions to provide tribal community members an outlet to voice opinions on their children’s education.

Lali McCubbin, assistant professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Counseling Psychology and leading researcher, said she was surprised to learn that 74 percent of the state’s school districts had missing or incomplete data on Native students based on results from the Washington Assessment of Student Learning – a standardized test that has faced public scrutiny on its own accord.

She added that the lack of data made the research challenging, but was a valuable discovery. “The data gap that we found really seemed to show the invisibility that occurs of Native students in the classroom.”

Other findings revealed a trend of missing data of either Native males or females in a single academic subject, yet all other races had data available for both genders. For example, eighth grade math scores for Native females were missing from data compiled in 2007.

Despite the findings on poor academic performance, researchers found highly functioning, exemplary programs forged between tribes and school districts that meet the criteria set by the bill.

Ella Inglebret, assistant professor in the Department of Speech and Hearing Pathology, spearheaded research of the exemplary programs. She said the relationship between the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe and Port Angeles School District serves as an excellent model for other school districts looking to initiate or improve existing curriculum.

The tribe has developed and implemented a tribal history, culture and government curriculum, and a First
Peoples’ Language program that closely aligns with standards set by the bill.

“They have done some wonderful work in developing books on tribal culture, history and language,” Inglebret said. “They have regular exchanges between tribal and school leaders.”

About 36 of the 296 school districts have some kind of relationship with nearby tribes. This includes tribes in early stage discussions with school districts on existing curriculum.

A large portion of the report details researchers’ ambitious goal of establishing a comprehensive educational achievement plan to help all school districts meet the bills’ requirements.

For starters, the “Call to Action” plan calls for teachers, administrators, school boards and tribes to enact cultural protocols and policies that incorporate Native language, history and culture into school curriculum.

Additional goals aim to improve the health and well-being of Native students via cultural based prevention and intervention programs.

They also list seven goals to increase Native students’ proficiency in reading, writing and math at various grade levels, and call for assessments that will provide more intervention and direction to students and families to help improve learning.

McCubbin said they are trying to avoid a cookie cutter approach by meeting the unique needs of each school. “It’s simply helping our teachers acquire the tools to be culturally confident.”

Meanwhile, the curriculum, “Since Time Immemorial: Tribal Sovereignty in Washington State” was released for pilot testing in October. About 10 schools were selected to implement tribal sovereignty treaties and history into their social studies curriculum. Each school has an implementation team consisting of a school administrator, teacher and a tribal representative. The curriculum is scheduled for distribution to all school districts in fall 2009.

A dollar amount to implement the goals set forth in the report has yet to be defined. McCubbin said 10 percent of the funds will come from tribes and the rest from the legislature, and possibly other resources.

Regardless of the financial hurdles, she and her fellow researchers plan on taking necessary actions to keep the report from collecting dust. “We really want to make sure that this is starting the movement, and continuing on the momentum that already exists for some of these tribes.”

In order to curtail any inaction from occurring, the legislature has required that the Washington State School Directors Association report the progress on the implementation of Native based curriculum to education committees every two years until 2012.