South Dakota Effort Seeks To Boost Academic Progress Among Native American Students

The AP (10/3, Brokaw) reported that South Dakota's state Education Department "is collaborating with teachers, school administrators and others to take a new approach to improving academic achievement and graduation rates among American Indian students." Indian Education Advisory Council has been tasked with developing "five-year goals and plans to improve American Indian students' performance." For instance, one "draft goal calls for closing the achievement and graduation gaps between Indian and non-Indian students in the next five years." The Council "will set realistic details such as how much that gap can be narrowed each year and what methods are used to do that." According to LuAnn Werdel, director of Indian education for the state Education Department, council members "have years of experience working in rural and urban areas and in schools administrated by the state, tribes and the federal government."