Sen. Murkowski Presents Education Grants To Sealaska In Juneau, Lower Kuskokwim District In Bethel To Help Native Children
Palmer, AK - Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski announced that the U.S. Department of Education is awarding four grants to state school organizations to help prepare Native children to do well in school - grants being awarded as a result of the No Child Left Behind educational reform act.
Murkowski, while in Palmer announcing a grant to a Mat-Su School District preschool, also announced that the Sealaska Heritage Institute in Juneau is receiving an $850,197 grant (over three years) for a program to prepare Southeast Native high school students to do well in college. She also announced that the Lower Kuskokwim School District in Bethel is receiving two grants, one for $1,006,985 (over three years) to develop a research-based preschool model for 3 and 4 year olds at preschools at Eek, Goodnews Bay and Tuntutuliak, and a second for $1.45 million (over two years) for rural teacher training.
"The federal No Child Left Behind Act requires that local districts do all they can to improve educational opportunities and improve the achievement of elementary and secondary school students. These grants provide money that districts can use to help Native children adjust to schools of all levels and improve their performance throughout their academic career," said Murkowski.
The Sealaska grant is intended to help the institute prepare 700 Southeast Native students to do better in college. It will fund the establishment of a college preparatory program to increase high school student competency in math, science and history, and significantly expand the culturally relevant curriculum, place-based educational resources and training of teachers to use those materials.
The goal of the program, according to the U.S. Department of Education, is to motivate Alaska Native high school students to stay in school while increasing their competency in difficult subjects by "helping them see meaningful connections between what they are learning, who they are, and where they are coming from." The program to improve curriculum and teacher training will provide high-school level studies in history, science, and math that combine Native ways of knowing within a system tied to state academic standards.
In Bethel, the Senator announced the Department is awarding a grant to the Lower Kuskokwim School District to train preschool staff, develop supervision and structure a curriculum to serve up to 175 preschoolers in the towns of Eek, Goodnews Bay and Tuntutuliak.
The schools will be set up on the "Tumkanka Program," which "provides developmentally and culturally appropriate home visit services to children birth through age 5." The project includes community involvement in a comprehensive planning process for children ages three and four and their families.
The second grant to the Lower Kuskokwim School District, for $1,445,910, will be for the Building Blocks Project, a joint effort by three Kuskokwim River schools, the Kuskokwim Campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the Association of Village Council Presidents Head Start program and Yuut Elitnaurviat Consortium (The People's Learning Center) to offer professional development hours (training) to non-degreed paraprofessionals, teachers and volunteers working in early childhood settings.
The program is designed to help paraprofessionals obtain the education needed to motivate them toward obtaining teaching degrees and thus to help the young children they work with. The program is designed to help 100 educators at 50 centers in the state - helping the faculty meet the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act and attain additional training to meet the needs of their more than 3,500 students. Training will be delivered in local villages through intensive training and the use of audio and video classes.
Murkowski during her visit to the Palmer school spoke of the progress of the No Child Left Behind Act and about ways to make the act work even better for Alaska students statewide.