Education in Indian Country: Obstacles and Opportunity
On most measures of education success, Native American students trail behind every other racial and ethnic student subgroup. This series comprises Education Week’s exploration of the reasons for this situation. A writer, a photographer, and a videographer from Education Week documented their visits to American Indian reservations in South Dakota and California in fall 2013. Their work is featured in the series of articles, photographs, and multimedia. Commentary essays offer additional perspectives.
This special series of articles, video clips, interviews, and statistics provides an informative, although distressing, picture of American Indian education achievement, made more difficult by high unemployment on most tribal reservations. The high-quality content can be used by middle or high school students as a primary source for knowledge, learning, and assessment. The series provides several examples of success, but no definitive long-term, evidence-based solution to the many challenges facing American Indian students and their families. The easy-to-read articles and video clips, distressful, yet inspiring, make the series’ communications quality excellent. Although evidence of effectiveness is not provided, the substantive content suggests a positive effect on learning.