The Huffington Post – Rebecca Klein
“Native American students in Alaska’s Anchorage School District are struggling. Compared to their non-native peers who graduate from high school at rates in the high 70s, they graduate at a rate of 56 percent. That number may soon be on its way up, though, thanks to a grant handed down by the U.S. Department of Education Thursday. That day the Department announced the recipients of a dozen Native Youth Community Projects (NYCP) grants. The NYCP program, unveiled in April, is part of the White House’s overarching push to improve educational opportunities for Native youth around the country, called Generation Indigenous. The grants, which total $5.3 million, were offered to tribal communities that proposed specific plans to make local youth more college- and career-ready. In Anchorage, Native students who participate in education programs offered by the Alaska Cook Inlet Tribal Council graduate at rates close to 90 percent. The Alaska Cook Inlet Tribal Council received a grant of $600,000, which will soon allow more students to benefit from their services. The Council plans to expand a specific middle school intervention program that seeks to keep kids in school and stresses the importance of academic achievement and attendance.”(more)