Multicultural

Supporting Native American Students In Higher Education

September 21, 2022 Kaylee Carter, Last Real Indians. Create! Education, Higher Education, Indigenous Peoples, Multicultural

In 2019, 25% of Native Americans over the age of 25 had an associate degree or higher. When compared to 42% of all those over the age of 25, the gap is evident. Coupled with challenges that many Native higher education students face — including financial instability, the need for support in more ways than one is apparent. From the research done on the matter to the strides made in tuition assistance and how institutions of higher education can go the extra mile in creating a more inclusive academic environment, here’s what you should know. With regard to Native Americans and higher education data, one Forbes article notes that “Only 36.2% of Indigenous students entering four-year institutions of higher education in 2014 completed their degrees in six years, as compared to 60% of all other undergraduate students in the U.S.” While this highlights the fact that the matter isn’t a new issue, understanding the challenges behind low enrolment or graduation can largely be found in financial matters, according to newer research.

How Parent Organizing Has Shifted Classrooms Toward Racial Justice

July 15, 2021 Schott Foundation. Organize! Curriculum, Education, Multicultural, Racial Justice

Over the past year, much of the nation’s education discussion has been where learning was taking place: on Zoom? In the classroom? Both? While COVID-19 exacerbated existing inequities around access, focus is now being drawn to what students are learning. Debate over curriculum isn’t new, but has been contested in varying degrees for decades. Before the right-wing-stoked controversy over so-called “Critical Race Theory” there was anger over Common Core standards, and before that No Child Left Behind. What is new is the incredible strides parent and community organizing has made in shifting the curriculum of the nation’s largest school district. Founded in 2006, the New York City Coalition for Educational Justice (CEJ) is a citywide collaborative of community-based organizations organizing the power of parents and community to create a more equitable education system.

Minnesota Is Changing The Way It Teaches Social Studies

January 5, 2021 Josh Verges, TwinCities.com. Create! climate crisis, Education, Minnesota, Multicultural

Minnesota’s K-12 social studies standards are undergoing extensive revisions in search of a more inclusive approach that teaches about people previously left out of the discussion. A diverse committee’s first draft, now open for public comment, gives greater consideration to the Dakota and Anishinaabe tribes and covers for the first time the civil rights struggles of LGBTQ people. The draft standards, according to Doug Paulson, the state education department’s academic standards director, are “more inclusive” and “culturally affirming.” Still, some committee members think the first draft doesn’t go far enough in that direction.

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