Rural Alaska Mentoring Project (RAMP).

Abstract

Terry Cash, Ph.D. Assistant Director, National Dropout Prevention Center, Clemson University For over two years the National Dropout Prevention Center (NDPC) at Clemson University has been supporting the Lower Kuskokwim School District (LKSD) in NW Alaska with their efforts to reduce high school dropout in 23 remote Yup’ik Eskimo villages. One of Alaska’s largest rural districts, LKSD services a 22,000 square mile area roughly the size of the state of West Virginia. Approximately 3,900 students (K-12) of mostly Yup’ik (Eskimo) heritage are served by the district’s 345 teachers and numerous paraprofessionals. One-fifth of the certified teachers are Yup’ik, the greatest percentage of indigenous educators of any district in Alaska.