Education
Studies show that Native students achieve academic success when their culture, knowledge, history and language are incorporated into their curricula and education. Schools in Alaska are not uniformly promoting academic success among the Alaska Native population as reflected by the fact that while Native students represent 24% of the total Alaska student population, they represent over 40% of the total number who drop out between grades 7 and 12. Solutions must be identified and implemented in order to improve the academic success of all Native students and to ensure healthy Native families and communities. Indigenous people throughout the world are assuming a more active role in education. AFN encourages Congress to expand funding for the development of culturally inclusive educational curricula at the elementary and secondary levels. AFN also calls upon Congress to create a federally-funded Alaska Native Education Commission to assess and make recommendations on how the No Child Left Behind Initiative can best be implemented in rural Alaska communities; to develop mechanisms to ensure Alaska Natives have a voice in the potential restructuring of their educational system; and to recommend how the educational standards of excellence for Native youth can be achieved.
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