In order to assure a standards-based, inquiry-centered, K-12 mathematics and science education system that supports all learners in attaining success in vigorous high-quality mathematics and science for all CENAC schools, partnerships and relationships with all 12 schools are of utmost importance. Partnership and capitalizing on resources to improve mathematics and science achievement for Pueblo Indian students who attend BIA funded schools in New Mexico are hallmarks of New Mexico Tribal Coalition (NMTC). Santa Fe Indian School (SFIS), the awardee for the National Science Foundation (NSF) grant, is a leader of successful programs for increasing Indian students’ academic achievement. In 1997, SFIS became part of the Coalition of Educators for Native American Children (CENAC). CENAC is made up of all 12 schools that receive BIA funding and serve Indian students, the majority of whom are Pueblo. Through this coalition, 12 small schools maximize their resources and address common problems. Teachers concerned about mathematics and science achievement in the CENAC schools came together and created the proposal for NMTC. This approach assured that partnerships and buy-in were strongly in place before the grant began.

Based on teacher input and principal verification, leadership training for a core group of teachers was a priority. Grounded in leadership and an interest in mathematics and science, this core group (called the MST School Leaders) goes back to their schools to train other staff by using a modified Train the Trainers approach. Since many CENAC teachers are uncomfortable with mathematics concepts and since teaching can be isolating, the MST School Leaders decided that staff training should take a dual approach of teaching staff mathematics and incorporating peer observations to support teachers. The focus for Year One, then, has been developing strong leaders in the CENAC schools, coupled with learning action research strategies both to improve their own teaching and to develop strategies for peer observations and support for other teachers.

Collecting accurate student achievement, staff demographics, training data for baseline, and developing a database for NMTC proved to be challenging. Although all the schools collect data, they are not collected and stored consistently throughout the CENAC schools. Also, because of a high turn over in principals at some schools, data have been collected in various ways, making accuracy questionable. Clearly there is a need for consistent data collection and storage that yield useful information for the schools and NMTC. Developing a useful database is a goal for NMTC because it would benefit schools, and it is an important tool for NMTC accountability. Baseline data show that CENAC students are not achieving in mathematics and science. Over 75% of NMTC students are in the first and second quartiles for mathematic achievement, well below the state levels, and the national norms. Similar results are found in science achievement.

In addition to quantitative data, because Pueblo culture respects and understands qualitative data, NMTC also gathers and uses information generated at community meetings, principal meetings, staff trainings, and through observing traditional and non-traditional education as important data. These data show that Pueblo communities, schools, and teachers have Native knowledge about mathematics and science and a desire for children to do well in mainstream mathematics and science courses. Community-centered approaches to bridging Pueblo ways of knowing with mainstream approaches to mathematics and science are motivating Pueblo students to learn these subjects. Motivation is a first step toward increased achievement.

Philosophical Overview

Santa Fe Indian School (SFIS) has a history of creating innovative programs and approaches to educating Native students that result in increased academic achievement. The most dramatic, recent example of this increased achievement is the results of the New Mexico High School Competency Exam. In 2002, 85% of SFIS students who took the test for the first time passed it compared to 46% of Native students statewide who passed the test the first time they took it. Both SFIS and the state include special education students in these numbers. It is believed at the school that the novel programs and approaches are responsible for this achievement. Some of these programs have partnered with NMTC and are briefly described in this report.

The New Mexico Tribal Coalition – Rural Systemic Initiative (NMTC-RSI) was awarded to Santa Fe Indian School on behalf of the Coalition of Educators for Native American Children (CENAC). Founded in the Spring 1997, CENAC is a unique alliance of twelve Bureau of Indian Affairs school and various partners that focus on professional development and student achievement. These schools are independent entities with local control. They are under the direction of local community school boards that have full authority over their own budgets, the hiring and firing of school personnel and the development of policies within the parameters of Public Law 100-297 and its amendments. Under the BIA structure, the six schools located in south central New Mexico report to the Southern Pueblo Agency. Six schools located in northern New Mexico report to the Northern Pueblo Agency. Each agency has responsibility to ensure compliance by schools to BIA regulations. These schools represent 2509 students in grades K-12. The students are from Native American Pueblo communities where the Pueblo languages of Keres, Tewa, Tiwa, Towa, or Zuni are spoken in the home.

Native students, like many other minorities, have a history of doing poorly in school. While there is not agreement on the reason for this, NMTC believes that CENAC schools, for the most part, have caring and competent teachers and leaders, students who are intelligent, and parents and communities who want a good education for their children. The critical theorist explanation of why many minorities do poorly in school seems to have the most merit at this point. Native communities historically have been stripped of power to make and enforce decisions about their children's education and their destinies in the face of mainstream oppression (McLaren, 1994; Ogbu, 1992; Smith, 2001). The programs and approaches that are successful at SFIS are those that recognize and build on the strength of Native communities and Native ways of knowing. It is these that appear to hold the most promise for addressing academic achievement over the long term. As such, it is important that New Mexico Tribal Coalition listen first to Native communities.

In the past, Pueblo people have been skeptical of the value of statistical, numerical information. The idea that the experience of a human being could be reduced to a number, or set of numbers, does not fit with how Pueblo people know the world. The idea that a discrete number could explain anything ignores the complexity of the Pueblo world. To think that a child's achievement could be reduced to standardized test scores is a foreign concept. Even the idea that there is one clear answer to any question is strange (Enos, 1998).

Although the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) requires schools to complete annual report cards, how information is gathered and presented is open to some individual interpretation. For example, determining proficiency was left broad so it could take into account alternative testing results as well as standardized test scores. Seeing that that could cause problems, most CENAC schools stuck strictly to CTB standardized test NCEs to identify proficiency. This allows for some consistency, but the concern of summarizing a student's academic achievement in a number that represents how the child responded to one test on one day is contradictory to both mainstream and Pueblo definitions of a true representation of ability. Even the apparently objective school report card does not provide consistent data for BIA-funded schools. In many ways, the Pueblo critique of numerical data has validity; this is one example.

However, in the past five years or so, even though Pueblo people have theoretical problems with statistical information, Pueblo communities also see a clear use for such information if it has been gathered and analyzed well. Demographic information helps support proposals for grants Pueblos need to improve education, health, and safety. It can provide information to tribal leadership for decision-making: What percentage of the population is in school and needs services to better their learning? How many elderly people need safe housing? And so on. "Data-driven decision making" has become jargon used by tribal leaders and educators alike. New Mexico Tribal Coalition has seen a need of Pueblo communities, CENAC schools, and NSF, and NMTC is attempting to address it.

The challenge is to track academic interventions and impact on achievement in ways that capture and capitalize on Native ways of knowing, while also addressing this newly identified need in Pueblo communities for quantitative data. Clearly a database with basic information – students' standardized test scores in a form that can be disaggregated by sex, grade level, school, special education; staff demographic information that includes languages spoken, years at specific schools, certifications held; advanced science and mathematics courses with enrollment and completion data – is a necessity. Since such information has never before been gathered in a consistent manner for all CENAC schools, there are inconsistencies in how schools are providing the data. The development of the database is coupled with educating Native research interns in collecting consistent information and educating school staffs in providing consistent information. Data collection is combined with continually revisiting and "cleaning" that data. At the same time, one must remember Pueblo traditional knowledge and not become seduced by numerical data alone.

In order to respond to critical theory, we must assure that Pueblo communities guide and participate in the education of their children. These dual challenges -- clean, useable quantitative data and traditional Pueblo direction and assessment -- are at the crux of NMTC's approach to building on the successful innovation of SFIS programs in order to increase mathematics and science achievement. Although NSF has clearly defined how that achievement should be articulated, Pueblo communities have not. In order to address the deficiencies identified by critical theorists, NMTC must allow Pueblo communities to identify what achievement looks like and how it should be assessed. Year one of NMTC has resulted in a clear approach to developing a quantitative database; year two must involve the Pueblo communities in defining for themselves what is meant by student success in mathematics and science. The two approaches are not incompatible, and can help bridge the gap between their worldviews. However, a focus on short-term quantitative classifications without the accompanying holistic view of the Pueblo perspective will result in NMTC being viewed as an outsider without the respect it needs to help achieve reform from within.