Innovations to Increase Native American Graduation Rates: A Case Study

• In Event: Roundtable Session 10
  In Roundtable Session: Indigenous Research Best Practices

Abstract

Federal policies (e.g., Goals 2000, No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top) have been placing increasing pressure on states to improve student performance, including graduation rates. Yet across the nation, the high school graduation rate still hovers below 75%, and more strikingly, American Indian/Alaska Native students range from 30.4% to 63.8%. This case study relied upon a socioecological framework to investigate practices and processes that related to Native American graduation rates. Utilizing quantitative measures for sample selection (graduation rates over a three-year period) and qualitative data collection and analysis methods, findings from this case study hold implications for innovative ways to approach curriculum and instruction in schools attempting to raise Native American graduation rates.

Author

• Kristen C. Wilcox, University at Albany - SUNY