Re: Tribes Say Law Leaves No Room for Culture

[aburke5054@aol.com]

Princiipal Benally said that her school does incorporate native 
language and culture and that it has made AYP for 3 years.  Other 
people have apprarently not figured out how to work native and language 
and culture into their programs.  Instead of blaming NCLB, they should 
be learning from what principal Benally's school did.  You can not 
expect federal education law to take people in schoosl by the hand and 
tell them exactly how to incorporate "native language and cultures" 
into teaching.

Art

-----Original Message-----
From: PRISCILLA GUTIERREZ <pgutpgut@msn.com>
To: arn-l@interversity.org; LiteracyForAll 
<literacyforall@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 10:57 am
Subject: [arn-l] Tribes Say Law Leaves No Room for Culture

Native American officials and educators told U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaham 
that the
federal No Child Left Behind Act does not recognize native cultures and
languages, and limits the ways schools can use them in their curriculum.

Bingaham was in Santa Fe on Friday to conduct a hearing as was part of 
an effort
to seek public input on the reauthorization of NCLB and specifically 
how it
affects Native American students.
"I've come across nothing that would enable me to be a proponent of the 
act,"
said James Mountain, governor of San Ildefonso Pueblo.

Mountain said he's heard from teachers in the Pojoaque School District, 
where
many San Ildefonso students attend classes that the act has forced 
schools to
focus strictly on English, leaving no room for native languages.

Maggie Benally, principal of the Navajo Immersion School in Fort 
Defiance, said
her school is an example of what can happen when schools use native 
language as
a tool.  Pupils in grades K-12 learn only in the Dine language and 
gradually
switch to and English curriculum.  The school has made AYP under the No 
Child
Left Behind Act for the past 3 years.  Benally said, "Language and 
culture have
a positive affect on student achievement."  If lawmakers reauthorize 
NCLB,
Benally said they need to incorporate language and culture.  The law 
also
disregards tribal sovereignity.

After the hearing, Bingaman said, "A lot of specifics were brought up 
that I had
never heard before."  He stated he would take the concerns about 
maintaining
culture and language in the face of the federal law back to Washington.
Priscilla Gutierrez Outreach Specialist New Mexico School for the Deaf 
...change
is inevitable, growth is optional...=






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