UNM’s Department of Native American Studies is partnering with Walatowa High Charter School in Jemez Pueblo and the Seattle-based Center for Native Education to develop dual enrollment opportunities for Native students.
Funded in part by a $12 million, eight-year Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant, with support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and Lumina Foundation for Education, early college high schools aim to increase the number of Native students who graduate and go on to college. Partnerships between tribal, high school and college stakeholders allow early college students the opportunity to earn up to two years of college credit while still in high school.
“On behalf of the Native American Studies program at the University of New Mexico I want to extend our congratulations to the Jemez Pueblo Walatowa High Charter School for the award of an early college grant,” said Greg Cajete, NAS chair. “We are proud to be one of the institutional partners with Walatowa High Charter School on this project. We look forward to our collaboration and the future success of the Early College Initiative at Walatowa.”
Walatowa High Charter School fills a need in a district that struggles with only 29 percent of its 11th grade American Indian students meeting or exceeding proficiency on state reading assessments – a figure that compares to an overall 58 percent in New Mexico. On state math assessments, 18 percent of the district’s Native students were proficient, compared with 31 percent of all New Mexico 11th graders.
On average, students in early colleges for Native youth experience a 32 percent increase in state reading scores and a 15 percent increase on math scores.
“Our hope is that through this early college exposure, our youth can make a seamless adjustment after high school, be successful in the college and field of their choice, and develop the tools and skills to preserve and protect our culture and language while advancing the interests of our tribe into the future,” said Jemez Pueblo Governor Raymond Gauchupin.
Posted by scarr at December 20, 2007 04:00 PM