Differential Effects of Culturally-Based Education Policy on Indigenous Students

• In Event: The Impacts of Standards and Curriculum on Education Policy Outcomes

Abstract

This papers utilizes data from a comprehensive, statewide implementation of "cultural standards" across K-12 schools in Alaska and finds that, while these standards affect a reduction in the overall achievement gap between Native and non-Native students, the effect is greatest for Natives in districts with a relatively higher density of white students. Over the past two decades, culturally-based education policies and programs have been adopted across many different educational contexts in the United States, often in response to federal demands for state accountability regarding education outcomes. The data used in this paper was collected as part of a large NSF-funded study that focused on 20 majority Native rural school districts (~20,000 students) across Alaska, where comprehensive cultural standards were implemented statewide, across all rural schools, affecting course offerings, curricula, school-community interaction, teacher certification and preparation, and many other aspects of K-12 schooling. The study found a reduction in the achievement gap (as measured by standardized test scores, high school graduation rate, and college attendance) between these districts and the 28 districts in which Native students constitute a minority of the student population. I replicate this finding then scrutinize outcomes for regional and cultural subgroups, incorporating state-derived cost differentials by district. Corresponding to the treatment period, benchmark standardized test scores (for 8th graders) indeed show an overall narrowing in the gap between majority and minority Native districts. I additionally find higher costs are associated with greater gains overall during the period in question. However, smaller relative Native population (greater heterogeneity) is strongly correlated with higher test scores and greater improvement. I trace the unexplained difference between scores for heterogeneous and homogeneous districts and find evidence that this is likely driven by failure to consider cultural differences between students in the state’s calculation of cost differentials. I conclude with a discussion of cultural incongruence (non-physical distance from the cultural of schooling) and why this might have a greater effect on responsiveness to culturally-based education policy and programming than geographic remoteness. This paper interacts with, and contributes to, the literature surrounding state and federal accountability structures, decentralized decision-making, vertical inequality, and indigenous sovereignty and self-determination. The findings here beg further exploration, especially given that culturally-based policies and programs are most often aimed at permeating homogeneous environments in which marginalized individuals and groups struggle most.

Author

• Sonja Castaneda Dower, University of Chicago