1: The "Achievement Gap"

The Creating Conditions podcast is brought to you by the Indian Education team at the Office of Public Instruction. 

In this episode we discuss what is legislatively called "the achievement gap", which refers to the difference in the academic achievement levels of Montana Native students as compared to non-Native students.

Often, state-level academic data is presented in two unique categories: Native and non-Native students. However, when this data is presented in four categories- Native students attending school on reservations, non-Native students attending school on reservations, Native students attending school off reservations, and non-Native students attending school off reservation) we see the trends in academic achievement are consistent, regardless of whether or not students are attending school on or off reservations. In fact, non-Native students attending school on reservations tend to have the the highest graduation rate, compared to the other student populations. Observing that academic achievement does not appear to be driven by the location of school, we posit that something is missing from the school experiences of many of Montana's Native students and dedicate this podcast series to exploring how schools can create the conditions necessary to support Montana's Native students. 

 

For more information about the work taking place with the Tribal Student Student Achievement and Relations unit, please visit our website: opi.mt.gov/weareone