TEDNA

From the Dep’t of Education, here. An excerpt:

The U.S. Department of Education today announced the award of more than $5.3 million in grants to help Native American youth become college- and career-ready.

Under the new Native Youth Community Projects (NYCP) program, the Department is making grants to a dozen recipients in nine states that will impact more than thirty tribes and involve more than 48 schools. These awards are a demonstration of President Obama’s strong commitment to improving the lives of American Indian and Alaska Native children and a key element of his Generation Indigenous “Gen I” Initiative to help Native American youth.

“These grants are an unprecedented investment in Native youth, and a recognition that tribal communities are best positioned to drive solutions and lead change,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. “These grants are a down payment on President Obama’s commitment last summer at his historic trip to the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota to create new opportunities for American Indian youth to cultivate the next generation of Native leaders.”

TEDNA was one of the grantees, and its abstract is below.

The purpose of the Tribal Education Department National Assembly (TEDNA) Native Youth Community Partners (NYCP) Project (hereafter referred to as the TEDNA NYCP Project) is to develop, test, and demonstrate effectiveness of College and Career Readiness services and supports to improve the educational opportunities and achievement of Indian students in middle and junior high school among four tribes: the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, the Absentee Shawnee Tribe, The Muscogee (Creek) Nation, and the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes. The TEDNA NYCP Project is expected to achieve the goal that all participating Grade 6-9 Indian students will improve College and Career Readiness as defined by a successful transition into high school with a GPA greater than 2.0. The project will develop a plan that addresses and supports College and Career Readiness that is locally informed. The TEDNA NYCP Project will use community-based strategies that improve high school success among Indian students by measuring behaviors and psychosocial attributes early in their academic experience that are often overlooked in standardized tests, but critical components of their academic success. Measureable objectives of the project are: (a) to increase the academic Achievement of participating Indian students in Grades 6-9 to be College and Career Ready; (b) to increase informed College and Career Planning with Indian students in Grades 6-9; and (c) to build a College and Career Readiness Culture so that everyone, especially educators, community, students, and families ALL believe that Indian students are capable of success in College and Career.