MOSCOW, Idaho (AP) – The state Department of Education is creating a new position to oversee the education of nearly 4,200 American Indian students in Idaho. The state’s first Indian education coordinator will be a point of contact for tribal education officials, primary school and secondary school teachers, and local, state and federal administrators.
The pool of candidates is being developed with the assistance of Idaho’s five recognized tribes: the Coeur d’Alene, Kootenai, Nez Perce, Shoshone-Bannock and Shoshone-Paiute.
”If we find the right person to fill this position, it will be a great advantage for Native American students and the communities they live in,” said Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna.
Last year, then-Superintendent Marilyn Howard and then-Gov. Dirk Kempthorne supported a similar effort to create the job, but the position was struck down by lawmakers who said there was no money for it.
Luna said the Education Department will not need permission from the Legislature to open the position this year, because the agency has not requested money for it.
”We will create the position using the resources and the positions we have currently in the department,” he said. ”It’s a green light. We are moving forward.”
The state Indian Education Committee has talked about adding an Indian education coordinator since the 1990s, said Bryan Samuels, committee chairman.
”What we were saying is that there needs to be a look at why those students aren’t achieving,” he told the Moscow-Pullman Daily News Jan. 23. ”If we continued on the same road, they’d be dropping out or not graduating.”
Indian students in Idaho have always scored the lowest on state standardized tests. Now, the federally mandated Idaho Standard Achievement Tests means the state can no longer overlook students who are not performing, he said.
”We have so many pieces out there in education, and so many questions and unanswered questions, and so many things that aren’t being pulled together,” he said. ”We have people making decisions that they think are in the best interest of Indian students when in fact they might not be relevant at all.”
University of Idaho graduate student Julian Matthews, a Nez Perce tribal member and leader of the university’s Native American Graduate Student Association, doesn’t want to see the position become overly bureaucratic.
”It has to be practical,” he said. ”You don’t want to have someone just meeting with the tribes.”
Rather, Matthews said, the new coordinator should work with teachers to make sure they understand how to create a culturally relevant curriculum, and work to reduce the high school dropout rates and improve resources, instructional methods and adult education.