(NAME-MCE) Fwd: Tribes Say Law Leaves No Room for Culture or Language

[Cindy Lutenbacher]

>Date:         Sat, 11 Aug 2007 12:02:01 -0600
>Reply-To: "Gutierrez, Priscilla S" <priscilla.gutierrez at NMSD.K12.NM.US>
>Sender: Discussion Group for Organizational Alternatives for ELL 
>Research and Advocacy <ELLADVOC at asu.edu>
>From: "Gutierrez, Priscilla S" <priscilla.gutierrez at NMSD.K12.NM.US>
>Subject: Tribes Say Law Leaves No Room for Culture or Language
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>Native American officials and educators told U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaham 
>that the federal No Child Left Behind Act does not recognize native 
>cultures and languages, and limits the ways schools can use them in 
>their curriculum. Bingaham was in Santa Fe on Friday to conduct a 
>hearing as a part of an effort to seek public input on the 
>reauthorization of NCLB and specifically how it affects Native 
>American students. "I've come across nothing that would enable me to 
>be a proponent of the act," said James Mountain, governor of San 
>Ildefonso Pueblo.  Mountain said he's heard from teachers in the 
>Pojoaque School District, where many San Ildefonso students attend 
>classes, that the act has forced schools to focus strictly on 
>English, leaving no room for native languages.
>
>Maggie Benally, principal of the Navajo Immersion School in Fort 
>Defiance, said her school is an example of what can happen when 
>schools use native language as a tool.  Pupils in grades K-12 learn 
>only in the Dine language and gradually switch to an English 
>curriculum.  The school has made AYP under the No Child Left Behind 
>Act for the past 3 years.  Benally said, "Language and culture have 
>a positive effect on student achievement."  If lawmakers reauthorize 
>NCLB, Benally said they need to incorporate language and 
>culture.  The law also disregards tribal sovereignity.
>
>After the hearing, Bingaman said, "A lot of specifics were brought 
>up that I had never heard before."  He stated he would take the 
>concerns about maintaining culture and language in the face of the 
>federal law back to Washington.
>
>
>Priscilla Shannon Gutierrez
>Outreach Specialist
>Center for Information, Training and Professional Development
>New Mexico School for the Deaf
>
>...change is inevitable, growth is optional...
>
>
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