The New Mexico Tribal Coalition – Rural Systemic Initiative (NMTC), a program of the Santa Fe Indian School (SFIS), has partnerships and relationships with all 12 schools that it serves 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. In 1997, the Coalition of Educators for Native American Children (CENAC) was created to include all 12 schools that receive BIA funding and serve Pueblo Indian students. Through this coalition, CENAC maximizes its resources and addresses common problems. Teachers concerned about mathematics and science achievement in the CENAC schools created the proposal for NMTC. This approach assured that partnerships and buy-in were strongly in place before the grant began.

Nationwide, Native American students score lowest of any ethnic group on all academic achievement indicators. Research shows that standardized test scores are culturally biased and do not accurately reflect minority students’ achievement. Research done by WestEd with CENAC schools showed that standardized test questions can include information unfamiliar to students, language use that is unclear to the Pueblo population, and concepts that confuse Pueblo children. Research also strongly suggests that minority students resist institutions of the dominant culture (McLaren, 1994; Ogbu, 1992; Smith, 2001). After 400 years of active resistance, encouraging children to learn dominant culture academics will take time and concentrated effort. Community-based education (CBE) is an approach that answers these challenges and NMTC strives to move toward this method. The strands for successful CBE are three-fold: 1) tribal leadership sets the focus for education each school year; 2) students have concrete experiences in Pueblo communities addressing this focus; and 3) students return useful information about the focus to the communities. In this way, it is the tribe, not an institution of the dominant culture, that sets the priorities, and students’ cultural knowledge and learning styles are enhanced and validated.

Year One focused primarily on partnerships with schools and the recruitment and initial training of MST School Leaders (MSTz); Year Two expanded to include more intensive and comprehensive training of the MSTz, as well as reaching a larger group of instructional staff through other professional development opportunities. Year Three streamlined the professional development, which was facilitated and/or supported by the MSTz. Last year, Year Four, expanded the Native Science concepts using two MST-identified approaches (CENAC Science Fair and Native Applied Brain for Science, part II [NABS II]) and set the foundation for problem solving approaches in two content-rich mathematics courses. Although data demonstrates the success of community-based education approaches, CENAC schools are not capitalizing on this approach to the extent expected. The Science Fair as year-long professional development, with its emphasis on Native projects, is the most successful strategy NMTC has found to date.