National Indian Education Association Joins in Call for Waiver of Elementary & Secondary Education Act

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Native Brief: WASHINGTON - The National Indian Education Association has joined in a call for a waiver of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The American Indian education organization focuses on improvement of educational attainment of American Indian students.

The National Indian Education Association is part of the Campaign for High School Equity, which is a coalition of leading civil rights organizations representing communities of color that is focused on high school education reform.

The Campaign for High School Equity released the following statement yesterday:

Only with strong accountability, high quality academic standards and meaningful engagement of communities of color can we protect our nation's children by providing access to a high quality education. Students of color will make up more than 50 percent of our adult workforce by 2050, but without strong accountability and supports in education, they will be unprepared for the jobs of the future.

As leading civil rights and education advocacy organizations, we at the Campaign for High School Equity are united in the belief that communities of color and Native communities are uniquely positioned to assist in crafting the accountability systems necessary to support high-quality education in their states and utilize waivers as outlined by President Obama. Once the waivers have been granted, these communities are critical to their effective implementation.

Communities of color must play a key role in supporting strong accountability for all schools by insisting, among other things, that schools:

We support the Obama administration's focus not only on the bottom 5 percent of all low-performing schools, but also on those with achievement gaps. We look forward to learning more about the administration's plans for addressing the needs of students who attend schools with graduation rates of less than 60 percent.

posted September 27, 2011 7:30 am edt