Native American Dropouts From High

Native American Dropouts From High School

In autumn, 1980, high dropout rates among Native American students in a Montana high school district were so out of proportion with other school districts' dropout rates that a study was needed in order to come to grips with the problem. According to an article in the Journal of American Indian Education, about 60% of Native Americans were dropping out before finishing their high school careers. And 90% of the students were of Native American ethnicity.

In order to conduct what the district believed would be an "empirical" study of the problem, the district partnered with the University of Montana, which set up the research. The method used was to carefully examine the problem, develop instruments for the analysis, develop good techniques for interviewing, reach out to the dropouts and carefully assess the data resulting from the project.

And so a questionnaire was created with 27 questions and the various degrees of responses the participants could use included "not important at all," "somewhat important," "important" and "very important." Worried that not all the students taking the questionnaire would be proficient in reading, the questions would be read aloud. The problem that faced the project leaders at the start is a very predictable one - contacting the dropouts themselves, and asking them to participate.

Of the 224 people on the dropout list, 46 were successfully contacted and interviewed," according to the author of the article, Theodore Coladarci (Coladarci, 1983). The problems that arose in the process of locating these young Native Americans helped the researchers come to terms with the kind of poverty and depressing environments that these people lived in; for example, the streets had no street signs, houses had no street numbers and no phones. Trying to find a person who dropped out of school two years ago in an Indian Reservation was not an easy task; and indeed, the youth who could not be located might well have been the people who most needed to be reached out to, in terms of assessing then solving the dropout problem.

One of the results of the study was the fact that "over a third of the cases" reported that they perceived an "uneven application of school rules"; that means that whether it was real, or whether it was "perceived" by the students, a sense of racism or at least cultural bias was believed to be part of the policy of the school district. The authors of the study did not have the answer as far as whether bias was institutional on the part of the schools involved, but that is the kind of issue that needs close examination within the structure of the school.

Another serious problem that emerged was that over a third of the participants believed "that teachers did not care about them." This showed up more on the female dropouts than on the male dropout questionnaires. Also, in a third of the cases the dropouts being interviewed indicated that the teachers "did not provide enough assistance with the student's work" (Coladarci 1983) and that also carries with it a theme of cultural insensitivity, or at least the dropouts perceived that they were not getting the help that perhaps other students were getting.

It's interesting to note that this article was written about 24 years ago. But the problem is still there in terms of Native American high school students dropping out. According to an article in Indian Education Today (Reyhner, 2006), "Indian students have the highest absenteeism rate of any group" of dropouts. That dropout rate for Native American youth is "twice that of middle class white students," Reyhner writes. The author of the article "Dropout Nation" also points out that in 2006 a study was published by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (and publicized in Time magazine) which pointed out that 30% of all high school students in America were not finishing their high school work.

But as to the Native American dropouts, Reyhner asserts that poverty is a "major factor" in the Native American dropout rate, but other factors include: "school climates that emphasize sports over academics"; the "test-prep" approach to learning brought on by No Child Left Behind (teachers emphasize the learning needed to do well on tests rather than teaching kids to solve problems and think for themselves); also, "the perception that teachers don't care about them" is an important factor, said Reyhner, who is a teacher himself.

Reyhner alludes to one part of the problem in his article when he mentions that he taught at Chinle Junior High in Arizona in the 1970s, and he had "160 different students every school day," which he thought was a lot. Then he attended a workshop in Canada and met a high school teacher who taught 210 students each day. "It's very difficult to give students individual attention with such large class loads," Reyhner writes. The author may have hit on the biggest problem in all schools, and especially in schools that have heavy populations of Native Americans; when there are 30 or 40 students in the room, it is very hard for a teacher to relate individually, and so a student might begin thinking that the teacher doesn't care about him or her, but the real problem is basically a crowded classroom problem, not indifferent teachers.

Meanwhile, the article in the Journal of American Indian Education points out that the "content of schooling" emerged as an important factor in the dropout problem in Montana. About half the participants in the questionnaire survey said that school "was not important for what they wanted to do in life." About a third of the students who took the questionnaire also said "getting in trouble" at school and "having disagreements with teachers" factored into their decision to drop out.

About 40% of the dropouts also cited "lack of parental support" entered into their issues with school, along with "problems at home" (48% of females said that and only 35% of males). About 90% of all participants suggested that students who were considering dropping out should be encouraged to "stay in school or, at least, reconsider their decision." And about 78% of the dropouts who were part of the study said they have had "a considerable change in attitude after having dropped out." Why have they had a change of heart now that they're not in school?

Over half reported that...only menial jobs were available and their attitude toward life had suffered," Coladarci reported. The last part of the article by Coladarci offered "Implications For Practice" to the Montana school district, which was part of the study. Number one on the list of implication was "content of schooling"; the results of the survey suggested that "discontent" had two manifestations. One was the lack of interesting curricula, or the lack of curricula that provided skills and knowledge that students perceived as vital to their futures. The second foci: the curricula did not appear to relate very well with the culture of Native American youth.

That is very interesting because in Jon Reyhner's article in Indian Education Today (which has subsequently become the Native American Review Magazine, published monthly by the Native American Journalists Foundation in Rapid City, South Dakota) the writer claims that textbooks used in schools do not relate to Indian culture. Reyhner quotes from Walter Echo-Hawk of the Native American Rights Fund (who wrote a high school book called Indian Economic Issues and Development): "Regrettably, schools do not teach us about Native Americans; textbooks largely ignore the subject."

In fact, Echo-Hawk insists that since many Native American learners are reading two grade levels (or more) below the average for their grade level, asking them to listen to lectures "and read grade-level textbooks that generally ignore their existence is setting them up for failure." So Echo-Hawk is at least partially blaming the school system, and not the dropouts.

That having been said, Echo-Hawk's research also shows (according to Reyhner's article) that Navajo dropout studies report the most successful students were fluent in both Navajo and English. And Echo-Hawk reports that a 1999 student of 451 Navajo high school students from 11 different Navajo schools "confirmed that students' orientation towards traditional [Navajo] culture, as measured by participation in ritual activities and cultural conventions as well as Navajo language use, did not negatively effect students' academic performance." In other words, being involved in traditional Indian cultural activities either helped or at least didn't hurt chances for success in school.

In Coladarci's article, the second major implication for practice involved "the nature of teacher-student relationships"; the dropouts who offered opinions on the questionnaires suggested that "school administrators should demonstrate more care, more understanding, and encouragement" to students. But again, the question arises as to how much care and personal attention can a teacher offer a student who is one of 35 or so in a classroom? The time that a teacher has to instruct the class as a whole, and keep them on task, and keep order in the classroom (which as any teacher knows so quickly can turn from casual social conversations to chaotic noise and disruption), often does not permit individualized instruction.

It was suggested in Coladarci's piece that teachers try hard to "demonstrate more caring" and that more research needs to be done into whether the perceived lack of caring involves "insensitivity to Native American culture..." The second implication for practice also asks as to whether or not there are "adequate support systems" for students who are at risk, and who don't have an easy time with their homework.

The third implication for practice that the Coladarci article addresses is that "over a third of the dropouts" interviewed "reported that the desire to be with other dropouts was a salient factor in their decision to drop out." So, since that dynamic involves peer pressure, Coladarci reports that perhaps students who did indeed drop out could help those considering dropping out to stay in school. Some of the recommendations from the dropouts included the possibility that the school administration "arrange" discussion groups between dropouts (who presumably are not doing very well without their high school diploma) and current students who are thinking about dropping out.