Graduation Rates and American Indian Culture 1 Running Head: Graduation Rates and American Indian Culture

Dropout Nation: A Product of Poverty or Choice? Russell York Patrick Henry College

Graduation Rates and American Indian Culture 2 High School Attrition Rates and Native American Culture When men and women of the United States military went to war in Europe and Japan during the Second World War, between three and four out of every ten left home for the last time. Fierce combat in France and the Pacific islands left hundreds of thousands of soldiers, marines, sailors and airmen in foreign graves. The casualty rate of US forces during the war was staggering with most estimates being over thirty percent. Today, despite being deployed in multiple countries, Americas armed forces have vastly lowered mortality rates. But pause for a moment and consider that despite technological, cultural, and economic advances, America still struggles with a serious form of attrition. Sixty years later, America still has outdated systems that are stranding Americans at rates higher than ever before. Did you know that thirty percent of Americas high school students never graduate? Despite investing billions of dollars annually and maintaining a vast infrastructure across the nation, public education is leaving hundreds of thousands of young Americans behind. Droves of dropout students enter public welfare systems and populate ghettos every year. While the dropout epidemic is neither new nor particular to one single ethnicity, Native Americans have topped dropout charts for decades, even at percentages higher than African Americans and Hispanics. The following research considers the underlying causation for this high attrition rate. The hypothesis is that Native American culture engenders an anti establishment mentality that results in higher dropout rates. Further, this hypothesis is that socioeconomic status is merely a lesser contributing factor. By analyzing dropout rates, the dependent variable, and contrasting Native American socioeconomics with that of other minorities, the independent variable, the data should

Graduation Rates and American Indian Culture 3 either demonstrate a disparity or a commonality. If a disparity is shown, qualitative data will be considered to further test the hypothesis. Prevailing Theories and Analysis The phrase Dropout Nation is meant to refer to Americas high school dropout problem, but is casually and quietly used as a reference to the Native American dropout pandemic. This subtle play on words, that the Indian Nation is now the Dropout Nation, is statistically appropriate. Native Americans dropout of high schools nearly twice as much as middle class white students. (Reyhner, 2006) The inability of public education systems to retain students through senior year has largely been the cause of minority groups. But while their attrition is the highest, Native Americans are rarely in the spotlight of the high school crisis. A report by the Indian Nations at Risk Task Force (1991) commissioned by the United States Department of Education indicated that the academic success of Native American students when compared to other minority groups and to the nations students as a whole fell alarmingly below that of all other groups. Native American students had the highest dropout rate in the nation (Leveque, 1994, p. 2). Why so much concern over high school attrition? In an economy that has exported huge portions of its blue-collar labor overseas and saturated the rest with immigrant workers, high school dropouts immediately enter a cycle of dependency and destitution. A Times article in 2006 titled Dropout Nation suggested that leaving high school without a diploma is as disastrous to ones societal health as smoking is to ones physical health. These premature departures often force students into a life of low wages, crime, and public dependency (Thornburgh, 2006). While it is hard to place perspective

Graduation Rates and American Indian Culture 4 on a problem that is both devastating on a personal level and on a societal level, its scope is somewhat simpler to calculate. If the number of dropouts nationwide were to be cut in half, the United States would save forty-five billion dollars annually (Princiotta, 2009, p. 9). Volumes of research have been compiled to determine the most prominent causes for dropping out. Shockingly, under-achievement is not a primary factor. Nationally, eighty-eight percent of dropouts have passing grades (Bridgeland, 2006, p. 3). This dispels the myth that minorities have lesser learning potential. While Native Americans may well have lower grades on the whole, this does not seem to be a motivating factor for students that leave school prematurely. Factors more tangible than academic underachievement are at fault. In fact, seventy-four percent of those surveyed regretted that they had quit high school and would have stayed in school if they could do it over again (Bridgeland, 2006, p. 3). One prominent theory is the theory of low expectations. Research suggests that many Native Americans are concerned that no one cares about their educational achievements. The fact that they are not even listed as a people group and instead are categorized as Other indicates to them that they are not a priority to educators. (White, 1993, p. 9). The concept that education is something for white, wealthy people arguably affects Native American students decisions not to remain in school. Native American apathy towards public education is described in a study published in 2009, which found that eighty percent of American Indian and Alaskan Native students were taught by teachers who identified themselves as White (Oakes, 2009, p. 2). The Bureau of Indian Education manages schools specifically for Native

Graduation Rates and American Indian Culture 5 Americans. These schools are typically on Indian land that is owned by various sovereign tribes. The 2007 National Indian Education Study conducted by the U.S. Department of Education found a significantly larger number of Native American students in regular public high schools than those in BIE high schools responded that they planned on graduating and attending college. This seems to indicate that Native American culture, which is more prevalent on tribal lands, negatively influences academic drive in students. But others have presented research that discounts societal pressures and instead finds socioeconomics to have the greatest influence on American Indian high school attrition rates. In a study analyzing national dropout trends, twenty-six percent of dropouts indicated that they left school because they became parents. Similarly, twentytwo percent became primary providers for their families (Bridgeland, 2006, p. 6). Substantial adjustments in socioeconomic status undoubtedly have a bearing on students choice to leave school. The National Governors Association released a study in 2009 indicating that changing socioeconomic status is a primary cause behind high school attrition (Princiotta, 2009, p. 12). To gauge the socioeconomic status of a particular ethnicity at public high schools, researchers can look at which minorities qualify for free lunches a qualification given only to students of struggling families. The National Indian Education Study of 2007 found that more than ninety percent of all students at Bureau of Indian Education run schools qualified for free lunches. American Indian students from tribal lands are a majority of the time coming from poor socioeconomic conditions (U.S. Dept of Education, 2007, p. 8).

Graduation Rates and American Indian Culture 6 BIE high schools also struggle with language barriers. Forty-seven percent of students at these schools indicated that they speak a language other than English more than half the time when at home (U.S. Dept of Education, 2007, p. 12). In light of the overwhelming presence of white teachers and the absence of nearly any American Indian teachers, the socioeconomic barrier and the cultural barrier are often present together. But language barriers and socioeconomic struggles are not unique to American Indian students. Many other minorities in public schools Hispanics in particular can be easily compared to American Indians. The question that research has not yet statistically answered yet is whether the Dropout Nation is so maligned because of the same problems facing other challenged students or because of unique cultural habits that discourage education. What can be determined from the vast body of evidence on the issue of dropout rates is that American Indian students around America are some of the most challenged. Research Design Variables: To assess whether Native American culture actually suppresses education, two variables are necessary. Hispanic dropout rates will be the independent variable within the hypothesis. Hispanic students are the closest possible comparison available and are also dispersed across the states enough to make quantitative statistics possible. Large populations of Mexican immigrants congregate in the same states where Native American populations are highest and where the greatest amount of tribal land and highest concentration of BIE schools are present. The dependent variable will be American Indian dropout rates. Because statistics

Graduation Rates and American Indian Culture 7 are available on a state-by-state basis and in light of the fact that American Indians are concentrated in just a few states, we will narrow the focus of our comparison to Arizona, Montana, Washington and South Dakota. These states have the highest total amount of tribal land and the populations of Hispanics and American Indians fall within similar ratios making the comparison possible (Stillwell, 2009, p. 7). Data Sources: The data used in this research is taken entirely from secondary sources and is primarily quantitative. Statistics are taken from the last decade only as the recent influx of Hispanic immigrants would make data older than that irrelevant. The graduation rate statistics that will be cited here come from the United States Department of Education and its subsidiaries. To keep the data uniform, other agencies data will not be incorporated. Qualitative notes made throughout to explain statistical findings come from a broad base of reports, including those produced by non-governmental organizations and state agencies. Variable Operationalization and Data Analysis: To test the hypothesis that Native American culture is uniquely suppressive of formal education, graduation rates from the four selected states with the highest concentration of American Indians were gathered. Microsoft Excel was then used to chart the data. Based on the hypothesis, this research tracks the performance of Hispanics and Native Americans together to identify a disparity not explained by socioeconomic conditions. To provide a point of reference for both minorities being analyzed, statewide statistics from Arizona, Montana, Washington and South Dakota will be used. In the context of statewide performance, it will become clear whether Native

Graduation Rates and American Indian Culture 8 Americans perform disproportionately to a comparable minority group. Findings Numbers from the four selected states (see Figure 1) show several things. First, in all states, Native Americans graduated in percentages well below Hispanic students. Second, Hispanic students, with the exception of those in Montana, graduated ten percentage points or worse below White students. Furthermore, in all four states, Hispanic and American Indian dropout rates appear to increase or decrease in similar ratios. In other words, states in which one ethnicity tests poorly, the other similarly struggles.
Graduation Rates
90 85 80 75 70 65 60 55 Percent Graduated 50 45 40 Arizona Montana South Dakota Washington

White Hispanic Native American

Figure 1: Graduation rates of high school students in the 2006 / 2007 school year

This correlation seems to support the assumption that Native Americans fail to graduate at disproportionate rates, even when compared to like ethnicities. The next logical question is whether Native Americans in these four states fall below national graduation rate averages of Native Americans in other states. Data for this comparison comes from forty-seven of the fifty states where statistics were recorded. Removing the four states being used here, the national average is comprised of forty-three states. To get

Graduation Rates and American Indian Culture 9 the most accurate picture possible, the three highest and lowest states will be removed from the average. Likewise, because our research has already shown Montana to have irregular data, we will find the average of the other three target states and compare it with the national average. For perspective, the national averages of Hispanics and Whites with the same high and low states removed are recorded. The result is shown in Figure 2.
Average Graduation Rate
90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 Precent Graduated 10 0

National AI

3 State AI Nat's Hispanic Nat'l White

What we see here is a direct correlation between national American Indian and National Hispanic graduation rates both approximately fifteen percent behind White students. The three target states, meanwhile, are lagging another twenty percent further back. However, this information is not necessarily conclusive. The figures for the national White, Hispanic and American Indian averages all excluded six states (three high and three low) to improve accuracy. To compare three target states, then, does not give us great confidence in the numbers as they lie well within the margin of error themselves. But the hypothesis queries whether the culture of Native Americans, and by extension the culture found on tribal lands, actually depresses education. In light of the

Graduation Rates and American Indian Culture 10 fact that graduation rates are just one factor in exploring that question, the following data (see Figure 3) considers achievement gaps.
Reading Achievement Gaps
South Dakota
0

-27.7

-33.2

Montana

-28.9 -40 -30 -20 -10

Arizona
0

10

20

0 represents state average Native Americans

Figure 3: Reading achievement gaps between Native Americans and overall state scores in 2003 / 2004. Data was not collected in Washington.

What is immediately apparent is that these students are vastly below the performance level of the rest of their state. Prevailing theory on poor reading test scores is to attribute it to any number of problems most commonly of which is the language barrier. But similar results were found in Math performance (see Figure 4).
Math Achievement Gaps
South Dakota
0

-40.3

-38.9

Montana

-18.2 -50 -40 -30 -20

Arizona
-10 0

10

20

0 represents state average Native Americans

Performance gaps this wide, and not just in subjects like history or literature -

Graduation Rates and American Indian Culture 11 subjects that require a firm grasp of the English language, indicates low or suppressed potential, not just low results. Conclusion of the Analysis Before delving into the validity of the numbers, one fact can be established. American Indians nationally have graduation rates and test scores similar to that of other socioeconomic groups. It appears reasonable from this research to conclude that there is a correlation between the socioeconomic status of a minority group and a certain percentage attrition rate. This analysis of the numbers confirms the research of others discussed earlier in this paper regarding the causation for dropping out. What is yet to be determined is whether these numbers verify the hypothesis that Native American culture actively represses education and is manifested in inordinately low test scores and graduation rates. A brief overview of the facts shows that in the states selected with the highest concentration of tribal lands, Native Americans scored drastically lower than any other group tested in this study. Furthermore, performance tests showed that in those states American Indians were far below the average. Figure 1 shows a consistent spike and drop between Native Americans and Hispanics in the target states. It could be fair to conclude that this correlates to the shared socioeconomic status of these ethnicities from state to state. Should that be found to be the case, the door would be open to establishing what other intervening variable caused the extra drop in performance. But an accurate assessment of the numbers raises several serious doubts as to the validity of these theories. Here are a few of the most significant challenges with the

Graduation Rates and American Indian Culture 12 numbers. First, comparing Native Americans to Hispanic populations is a valid comparison in most states. In the four targets states, overall population ratios of these two minorities appeared valid. But actual ratios of minority students were lopsided. Figure 5 shows that in Arizona and Washington, the ratio of students was on par with national levels. But Montana and South Dakota both recorded inexplicably low numbers of Hispanic students thus removing any confidence in the comparison between the minorities there.
Ethnic Population by State

4,000 3,500 3,000 2,500 2,000 1,500 1,000 500 0

White Hispanic Native American Arizona Montana

Native American Hispanic White Washington South Dakota

Second, graduation rates vary all over the country and are subject to many discrepancies. Individual states collect their own data and report it to the U.S. Department of Education, meaning that reporting is not uniform. Students themselves are usually responsible for declaring their ethnicity leaving the possibility for counting errors and omissions. And while all graduation rate data came from the same source, what qualifies as a dropout is a subject of controversy. All of these factors undermine any certifiable confidence in the figures and patterns found between the numbers,

Graduation Rates and American Indian Culture 13 Lastly, the hypothesis itself is unverifiable because the role of socioeconomics on dropouts is an intervening independent variable that is not possible to accurately account for. Statistics on this variable are not available for many ethnicities and there is no accurate way of calculating the data when it is gathered. While the goal of the research was to rule out socioeconomics by drawing a correlation between American Indians and Hispanics, this research exposed the incongruous nature of their settlement habits. Because the highest concentration of American Indians did not correspond to average Hispanic population rates, extrapolating similarities would be presumptuous. The only data that is without justification is the excessively low dropout rate of American Indians around the country and particularly in states with large amounts of tribal land. Twenty-one of forty-seven states reported graduation rates of less than sixty percent for Native Americans while only ten states reported similar levels for Hispanics. While this could very well be the socioeconomic variable the severity of the dropout levels begs the question how much can socioeconomics account for? While the research here does not conclusively verify the hypothesis, the presence of some unknown intervening variable seems to be influencing dropout rates of American Indian students.

References The Center for Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement. (2009). Engaging

Graduation Rates and American Indian Culture 14 Native American Learners With Rigor and Cultural Relevance. Abner Oakes. Civic Enterprises. (2006). The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives of High School Dropouts. Washington DC: John Bridgeland. Leveque, D. (1991). Cultural and Parental Influences on Achievement. National Meeting of the Comparative and International Educational Society. San Diego, CA. National Center for Education Statistics. (2009). Public School Graduates and Dropouts From the Common Core of Data: School Year 2006-07. Robert Stillwell. The National Governors Association. (2009). Achieving Graduation For All. Washington DC: Daniel Princiotta Reyhner, J. (2006). Dropout Nation. Indian Education Today, June, 28-30. Thornburgh, N. (2006). Dropout Nation. Time, accessed online. United States Department of Education. (2007). National Indian Education Study. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office. White, M. (1993). American Indian Education Research in New York State: A Team Approach. Annual Meeting of the National Indian Education Assocation. Mobile, AL.