NEED: Engaging with the Native American Community

Advancing Native Dialogues on Racial Equity (LCT)

Alaska Native Policy Center at First Alaskans Institute

For: Administrators

• This toolkit helped reset and reshape the dialogue on race in Alaska by bringing people together to challenge perceptions through community conversations.
• Contains resources to help guide meaningful dialogue around the topics of racial equity and racial healing including the following:
  • Dialogue Agreements: Outlines parameters to maintain respect among participants and creating a supportive atmosphere in dialogues.
  • Host Guide: Details the components necessary to host a successful community dialogue.
  • General Project Scope Presentation: Outlines the project aims.
  • Project Description: Explains the background and usefulness of the project.
  • Mini-Documentaries Press Release: Highlights some of the important conversations taking place in the space.
  • Powerful Questions to Stimulate Dialogue on Racism: Prompts to encourage group dialogue during community conversations.
  • Sample Dialogue Flow: Tips to carry out an orderly dialogue and ensure that each voice is heard.
  • Sample Model for Hosting Dialogues on Racism and Racial Equity: An outline for hosting difficult dialogues.

A Community Action Guide: Seven Actions to Fulfill the Promise of Brown and Mendez (ARG)

R. G. Rodríguez, B. Scott, & A. Villarreal

For: Teachers, administrators, community

• Details seven actions community members can take to help their schools address the needs of all students.
• Includes a step-by-step tool for developing a blueprint for action in a local community.
• Developed with African American and Latino students in mind, but the tool can be used by other diverse communities as well.

Community Engagement: Review and Planning Guide (ARG)

R. Rodríguez, P. McCollum, & A. Villarreal

For: Teachers, administrators

• Helps schools and universities in planning and strengthening community engagement.
• Includes a school-community engagement rubric covering eight categories along with analysis and planning worksheets in each of the categories for monitoring progress.

Improving Educational Impact Through Family Engagement: A Review and Planning Guide (ARG)

R. Rodríguez, A. Villarreal, A. M. Montemayor, & J. D. Cortez

For: Teachers, administrators

• Helps to foster meaningful and lasting educational impact through mechanisms for engagement with parents and families.
• Provides helpful ideas to address the most significant barriers to parent involvement that have been reported in the literature in K–12 programs and offers planning guides to see how your school is addressing each barrier and what can be done for the future.

Family and Community Engagement Survey (LCT)

R. Rodríguez, A. Villarreal, & J. Cortez

For: Teachers, administrators

• This survey can be used by teachers, administrators, and parents to assess a school’s effectiveness in partnering with families and communities.
• It is a useful tool for planning strategies that are clustered around four domains: student achievement; access and equity; organizational support; and quality of interaction.

Building Relationships with Tribes (3 Parts) (ARG)

1. A Native Process for ESSA Consultation
2. A Native Process for Local Consultation Under ESSA
3. A Native Process for Evaluation of State and Local Plans for Native Education Under ESSA

National Indian Education Association

For: Teachers, administrators, community, policymakers

• Provides states and districts with strategies for building relationships that are trusting and reciprocal, the kind of relationships that are necessary for meaningful consultation with tribes.
• Contains three parts to the series:
  • Introduces the history of Native American education, explains how consultation differs from engagement, and describes a process for consultation.
  • Explains the essential elements of consultation with local tribes and the need for local consultation and provides information about the types of meetings during which tribal consultation might occur.
  • Provides practical steps for reviewing state and local ESSA plans and for ongoing oversight and accountability of the plans.

Decision Making Guide: Options for Tribal Education Departments to Enhance the Tribal Role in Select Federal K–12 Education Programs (ARG)

Tribal Education Departments National Assembly & Native American Rights Fund

For: Teachers, administrators, policymakers

• Helps tribal governments strengthen their role in Native American education.
• Provides information about select K–12 federal programs in which tribal education agencies (TEAs) can potentially participate.
• Promotes collaboration among TEAs, LEAs, SEAs, and the U.S. Department of Education to improve Native American education.

Guidance For North Dakota ESSA Tribal Consultation (ARG)

North Dakota Department of Public Instruction

For: Teachers, administrators, community, policymakers

• Overview of ESSA tribal consultation requirements and guidance for North Dakota LEAs.
• Includes information about what it means for consultations to be timely and meaningful.
• Explains which districts must engage in tribal consultation, which tribes are affected, and which federal programs are covered.
• Provides a list of what tribes should be provided with or be able to receive upon request (e.g., dates for consultation and planning meetings, information on proposed programs, formats and submission information for tribal input, final copy of plans and applications, previous reports and evaluations on education plan or program outcomes, presentations on existing programs).

Tribal Education Departments National Assembly (TEDNA) (WOLR)

For: Teachers, administrators, community, policymakers

• Includes a library of resources, information about TEDNA projects and meetings, laws related to Native education, and testimony and comments TEDNA provided on legislation.
• Includes a report on several tribes and an interdisciplinary manual for Native American inclusion.

North Dakota ESSA Tribal Stakeholder and Tribal Consultation (WOLR)

For: Teachers, administrators, community, policymakers

• Includes links to NDDPI’s Tribal Consultation Guide and its Confirmation of Tribal Consultation Form.
• Provides the schedule of consultation meetings with each of the tribes (Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation, Spirit Lake Tribe, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, and Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa), meeting agendas, and pictures from the meetings.

Every Student Succeeds Act Tribal Consultation Pre-Planning Tool for Tribes (LCT)

Northwest Comprehensive Center

For: Administrators, tribal leaders, community, policymakers

• Features a tool that tribes can use to plan for tribal consultations, including the following:
  • K–12 federal programs (e.g., Title I, Title VI) and other topics (e.g., special education, child nutrition, English learners, Gear Up) most relevant to tribes during tribal consultation and prompts tribes to complete information for each of the programs or topics.
  • Prior knowledge, experience, or input related to each program/topic, as well as their support to school on the program/topic, and relevant tribal needs and future tribal support on the program/topic.
  • Space for tribes to record questions they might have for the SEA and LEA, language and culture supports, and agreements and next steps.
  • A summary of the relevant federal programs and topics, questions for tribes to consider during the consultation process, a sample consultation protocol, and a sample agenda for a consultation meeting.

Attendance Works: Self Assessments (WOLR)

For: Teachers, administrators, district, state

• Free tools to identify barriers to attendance.
• Can be used at the state, district, and school levels.
• Includes tools for various programs: Early Education, School-based Health, and Expanded Learning.

Chronic Absence and Native American Students: Unique Challenges (WOLR)

For: Teachers, administrators, district, state

• Interview with the Director of Indian Education for Minneapolis Public Schools about the Dream Big Minneapolis initiative targeting improved attendance for Native American students.
• Focus: unique challenges faced by Native American students that may be applicable to Native American students in North Dakota schools.

North Dakota Native American Needs Assessment (LCT)

For: Administrators, district, state

• A survey used across North Dakota to identify strengths and challenges.
• Student survey is available for free and contains survey items that can be used by districts and schools to identify barriers to attendance.
• Previous year results are available and can be used to support educators in identifying challenges to attendance common across the state.

How to Text Message Parents to Reduce Chronic Absence Using an Evidence-Based Approach (LCT)

For: Teachers, district

• Guidance for those looking to use text messaging to improve attendance.

Best Practices of Principals to Increase Attendance in Low-Socioeconomic Status Rural High Schools (ARG)

For: Administrators, researchers

• Includes six best practices leveraged by several rural high schools to reduce absenteeism.

Exploring Implementation of Attendance Supports to Reduce Chronic Absenteeism in the Providence Public School District (ARG)

For: District, researchers

• Shares the results from schools that experienced a decrease in absenteeism using several strategies such as text messaging, phone calls, and mentorship programs.
• Shares the impact of these strategies in schools that are implemented with fidelity.

Check & Connect (WOLR)

University of Minnesota

For: Teachers, administrators

• A What Works Clearinghouse Tier III K-12 intervention to engage students who have shown warning signs of dropping out, poor attendance, behavioral issues, and/or poor academic performance.

Oregon’s Tribal Attendance Promising Practices (TAPP) (WOLR)

For: Administrators, district

• Oregon’s TAPP initiative resources.
• Several district plans that share a variety of efforts employed to reduce chronic absenteeism of Native American/Alaska Native students.

Attendance Works (WOLR)

For: Teachers, administrators, district, state, researchers

• Strategies and free resources to address chronic absenteeism.

Affirming Native Student Attendance in Minneapolis (ARG)

For: Administrators, district, state

• Explores the partnership between the Minneapolis Public Schools, the Indian Education Department, the Division of Indian work, Little Earth of United Tribes, Migizi Communications, and Hennepin County, which has focused on improving attendance for Native American students.
• Provides insight into how this partnership has been seeking to address the low attendance rate of Native American students over the past several years.