Collaboration and Indian Education: Exploring Intergovernmental Partnerships between Tribes and Public Schools

Abstract:The education of American Indian students in public schools requires the coordinated effort of officials at multiple levels of government including tribal, local, state, and federal. With more than 90 percent of American Indian students served in public schools in the United States, the strength of these relationships are argued to be critical in ensuring that local school officials adequately meet the unique cultural and academic needs of Native students. However, little is known about the nature of these relationships, and what effect government-to-government collaboration has on Native student outcomes. This research attempts to address this dearth of knowledge and explores the relationship between tribes and public schools in New Mexico and Oklahoma, two of the largest states in the nation with regards to Native student enrollment in the public school system. I use a combination of qualitative interviews with tribal leaders and quantitative data from a unique mail survey of 150 Indian education directors in public schools receiving Title VII Indian education grants, as well as secondary data on various school district characteristics. This research contributes to our understanding of tribal-local partnerships in primary and secondary education.