Montana Schools Try to Keep Indian Students Engaged by Teaching Indian Culture to All

According to Montana’s Office of Public Instruction (OPI), 10.9 percent of that state’s students in grades 7 to 12 over the past five years were Indians, but Indians made up 48.6 percent of dropouts for grades 7 to 8, and 23.8 percent of all high school dropouts. The on-time graduation rate for Indian students was just 59.3 percent.

More bad news: The bigger the school, the less likely an Indian student was to graduate. In high schools with enrollments more than 1,250 students, the dropout rate was the highest for American Indian students, at 13.5 percent, compared to 3.2 percent for K-12 schools with fewer than 75 students.

By Adrian Jawort

Full Story: http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/04/12/montana-schools-try-to-keep-indian-students-engaged-by-teaching-indian-culture-to-all-107543