Office of Indian Education - OESE -- Printable

Ensuring No American Indian and Alaska Native Child Is Left Behind

The mission of the Office of Indian Education is to support the efforts of local educational agencies, Indian tribes and organizations, postsecondary institutions, and other entities to meet the unique educational and culturally related academic needs of American Indians and Alaska Natives so that these students can achieve to the same challenging state standards as all students.

The No Child Left Behind Act amends the Indian education programs as Title VII, Part A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. This landmark in education reform embodies four key principles: stronger accountability for results; greater flexibility in the use of federal funds; more choices for parents of children from disadvantaged backgrounds; and an emphasis on research-based instruction that works.

Announcements and Highlights

2009 Indian Formula Grant Application Set to Open
Part I of the 2009 Indian Formula Grant EASIE application is scheduled to open Monday, December 15 through midnight (EST) Friday, January 30, 2009. The Federal Register Notice announcing the opening of the application process will be published on Monday, December 15, 2008. You may access the Federal Register Notice on and after December 15 on the Indian Formula Applicant page located here: http://www.ed.gov/programs/indianformula/applicant.html

Individuals that successfully registered will have access to the EASIE online application system for Parts I and II. Part I allows the applicant to submit Indian student count information while Part II permits the submission of the core portion of their application including assessment data, project objectives and budget information. Part II of the online EASIE Formula grant application is scheduled to open March 16 and close at midnight on April 22, 2009.
(December 10,2008)

Online Webex Training Available for 2009 Indian Formula Grant Application
In conjunction with the opening of the Formula Grant Easie Part I, there will be several online Webex training opportunities for applicants to become familiar with the online system. The training is recommended for anyone planning on submitting a 2009 Indian Formula Grant application. Please click on the following Indian Formula Resources link to get the schedule and additional information on these sessions: http://www.ed.gov/programs/indianformula/resources.html
(December 10,2008)

Partnerships for Indian Education: 2009 Conference
The Department of Education Office of Indian Education is again sponsoring a conference titled Partnerships For Indian Education Conference to be held in Norman, Oklahoma, April 17-19, 2009. The conference will provide an opportunity for Indian education partners to participate and engage in an effective dialogue on furthering the academic success of Native American students. In an effort to foster communication, collaboration, and cooperative strategies, the 3 day conference will allow federal, state and tribal agencies and national organizations to share promising practices and effective programs in the areas of students, schools, family, and community. For more information, including registration, hotel and presenter information, please check the OIE companion site at: http://www.indianeducation.org.
(December 10, 2008)

Digital Teacher Workshops
In collaboration with the Teacher to Teacher initiative, we've recently added two more digital teacher workshops providing free online resources for incorporating culture into your classroom instruction on math. These workshops can be used by all teachers working with Native students and can be easily accessed through the Internet. In addition to the five sessions we now have, we're almost ready to release another workshop that focuses on science. You can check out all of our Digital Teacher Workshops from the link on our homepage or at: https://www.t2tweb.us/default.asp
(October 31,2008)

Student Art Competition
Don't forget this year's Student Artist Competition is open. The instructions and guidelines for the 2009 competition can be found on O'ai'ee's Activity Center. The entries must be postmarked by January 16, 2009, so don't delay in working with your students on preparing an entry in the art or essay competition, or both!
(October 31,2008)

Office of Indian Education Announces 2008 Discretionary Awards
The Office of Indian Education recently announced the 2008 Discretionary Awards for Demonstration Grants for Indian Children and Professional Development. Below is a listing of the awards. Links to the project abstracts may be accessed by clicking on the category before each listing.

2008 Demonstration Grants

Turtle Mountain Community College (North Dakota)
Skokomish Indian Tribe (Washington)
Cumberland County Schools (North Carolina)
Rocky Boy School District (Montana)
Lower Kuskokwim School District (Alaska)
Tahlequah Public Schools (Oklahoma)
Hannahville Indian Community (Michigan)
Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis (Washington)
Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma (Oklahoma)
Cook Inlet Tribal Council, Inc. (Alaska)
Lapwai School District (Idaho)
San Juan School District (Utah)

2008 Professional Development Grants

Salish Kootenai College (Montana)
Stone Child College (Montana)
Oglala Lakota College (South Dakota)
University of Alaska-Fairbanks (Alaska)
Pennsylvania State University (Pennsylvania)

(July 7, 2008)

National Indian Education Study 2007 Part II Released
National Indian Education Study 2007 Part II: Performance of American Indian and Alaska Native Students at Grades 4 and 8 on NAEP 2007 Reading and Mathematics Assessments is now available at http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard. Part II of the NIEA is a survey that provides information on the educational experiences of the fourth- and eighth-grade American Indian and Alaska Native students who participated in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) assessments. The survey is reported separately from Part I and includes information on the integration of native language and culture into school and classroom activities. The report may be downloaded at this link: http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/nies

For each of the Findings, you can access related results in PDF format by clicking in the colored box. Read the executive summary, and print the report at http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pubs/studies/
2008458.asp The study is sponsored by the Office of Indian Education (OIE) and conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics for the U.S. Department of Education. NAEP, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, is administered by the National Center for Education Statistics within the Institute of Education Sciences.
(June 30, 2008)

National Indian Education Study 2007 Part I Released
National Indian Education Study 2007 Part I: Performance of American Indian and Alaska Native Students at Grades 4 and 8 on NAEP 2007 Reading and Mathematics Assessments is now available at http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard The report presents the results of Part I of the National Indian Education Study (NIES) focusing on the performance of American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) fourth- and eighth-graders on the 2007 National Assessment of Educational Progress in reading and mathematics. A national sample of approximately 10,100 AI/AN students at grades 4 and 8 participated in the reading assessment and 10,300 in the mathematics assessment. Results from this study are compared to those from the first NIES conducted in 2005. The results for 11 states with relatively large populations of AI/AN students are presented in addition to the national results.

Overall, the average reading scores for AI/AN fourth- and eighth-graders showed no significant change since 2005 and were lower than the scores for non-AI/AN students in 2007.

There was, however, an increase in the percentage of AI/AN fourth-graders performing at or above the Proficient level from 21 percent in 2005 to 25 percent in 2007.

In 2007 at both grades, AI/AN students attending schools in which less than 25 percent of the students were AI/AN scored higher than their peers attending schools with higher concentrations of AI/AN students, and those attending public schools scored higher than their peers in Bureau of Indian Education schools.

See complete results at: http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/nies
Read the executive summary of the report at: http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pubs/studies/
2008457.asp
NIES was conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics on behalf of the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Indian Education. NAEP, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, is administered by the National Center for Education Statistics within the Institute of Education Sciences.
(May 14, 2008)

State Points of Contact
For Formula grant applicants applying for 2008 funding, we are posting the State Points of Contact listing for your information. For states that comply with Executive Order 12372 and receive copies of Formula grant applications we are providing a list of the locations by state. Please check our Indian Formula Resources page for more information. http://www.ed.gov/programs/indianformula/resources.html
(April 18, 2008)

Update on OIE Contacts
OIE's work in processing all applications and awards is performed by teams instead of specific state assignments of grantees to program specialists. For more information and a listing of teams, see Contacts for OIE.
(April 6, 2007)

New ED506 Form Available
A new Title VII Student eligibility form is now available from the Office of Indian Education. The 506 Form is used by Indian education formula programs to document Indian heritage of participating students. To download this file follow this link to our Indian formula resource page: http://www.ed.gov/programs/indianformula/resources.html
(October 23, 2006)