1 2 3

View the Rocky Boy's Slideshow

            “Culture’s important, yes, but they still need basic skills,” he says.
            He agrees that some standardized tests, like social studies exams, can be biased against Indians on reservations when 90 percent won’t know what a subway is, for example.
            “Till five years ago, there were no sidewalks even on the reservations,” St. Pierre says. “Maybe it would help to have different people writing the tests.”
            Elementary Principal Josephine Corcoran says No Child Left Behind has benefited the school.  She doesn’t buy that there is a culturally determined Indian learning style.
            “Culture has very little to do with it,” Corcoran says. “Culture is a process.  Our community supports culture.” Social issues and poverty come into play, she notes, but “schools need to be more focused.”
            Corcoran, like St. Pierre, is a realist: There’s no room or time to debate whether the tests are culturally relevant.  The students must pass the tests so the schools get funding. 
            “This is the technological age,” she says.  They need to learn about society as a whole, where they fit in as Indians and as individuals.”
            Shirley Ingram is a character. On the March day visitors come to her 7th grade class, it’s her birthday and, to help her students unwind from a day of tests, she has them make her construction-paper birthday cards. The messages inside need not be true, she tells them jokingly; the more kissing up the better.
            Speaking after class about No Child Left Behind, Ingram doesn’t hesistate to tell what she says is the truth.
            “I think it’s really, really stupid we’re basing our education system on this,” says Ingram, a teacher for 24 years. “I bet the test companies are as happy as pigs in … about it though.”
            Ingram says she’s hard-pressed to think of a single thing No Child Left Behind has done to help education.
            Because of the low scores in vocabulary, she says, every third Thursday of the month is dedicated to test prep —giving students tips on eliminating the wrong answers, learning vocabulary, and taking practice tests.
            Ingram says this culture, while inevitable because of how reservation schools are funded, is bad for students and teachers.
            “I think it makes teachers into cheaters,” she says.  “I saw on the news where teachers’ wages are based on their classroom’s test results. You are alone with these tests; the temptation is there.  I’m not even saying that’s wrong.  But if everyone starts getting the right answers, they’ll just make the tests harder.”
            Testing is sometimes hard to monitor.
            A student in another classroom that day had his test booklet open while the class was still reviewing before the test time had begun.  Another student noticed and told the teacher, who instructed him to close the book. He didn’t, and she said nothing more.
            Nearly all teachers at Rocky Boy do support the Indian Education for All initiative, which isn’t enforced through testing.
            Ingram says she incorporates it into daily lessons.
            “We’re doing graphs and charts, and I relate that to their own life, whether it’s the buffalo population or the population of different tribes over time,” she says.  “It’s true if they feel they have ownership for it, they’ll do better.”
            She believes the policy, because it applies to all Montana students, will help dispel continuing “myths and prejudices” about Indians.
            Her class gets a big kick out of it when she talks about how whites were less hygienic then the Indians they called “dirty savages,” since it was the whites who believed if they kept dirt on their skin it would protect them from germs, she says. 
“I tell my class that the Indians could smell the whites coming for miles and they laugh and laugh,” she says wryly.
            Ingram tries to instill tribal values in her students so they value the land of their ancestors and feel proud to be Indian.
            “A lot of Native Americans have lost their pride and self-respect,” Ingram says.  “Some have been living on welfare so long, and it’s hard to maintain that.  There’s no reason to get up in the morning. I think teaching about the pride their ancestors had will help.”
            For Ingram, the point of school is not to teach student how to test, but rather to be able to support themselves and their families, to make good choices by having good reasoning skills and to be prepared to live in the world.
            “How many adults have jobs where they work in complete isolation?” Ingram asks.  “Our jobs require us to have social skills so you can work side by side with others.  Now kids spend 13 years on an island by themselves doing tests and then we expect them to work with others outside on the playground and in the real world.  I think it is rather ironic.”

1 2 3

View the Rocky Boy's Slideshow