Resource Hub
Explore guides, research papers, policy briefs, and tools to aid decisions on standards and assessments.
Common Core From a Tribal Perspective
In this Education Week commentary, education director Kevin Shendo (Pueblo of Jemez, N.M.) writes that the Common Core has opened the “door to opportunities that exist in challenging our teachers to make the diverse communities . . . an extension of their classrooms.” He suggests that the Common Core will only make a difference for American Indian students if it has “relevance to their life experiences and communities.”
The writer of this Education Week article makes reasonable points about the incorporation and adaptation of the Common Core State Standards into schools that serve mostly American Indian students. In particular, he cites the success of their local Head Start program as a part of their community effort to improve teaching and learning for American Indian students. Communications quality of this brief article is quite strong and utility should be reasonably high, although the evidence is anecdotal and based on a single New Mexico Pueblo rather than a broader American Indian population.