Legislature(2021 - 2022)DAVIS 106
02/28/2022 08:00 AM House EDUCATION
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| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| Presentation(s) Understanding Culturally Responsive Education in Alaska | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
HOUSE EDUCATION STANDING COMMITTEE
February 28, 2022
8:04 a.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Representative Harriet Drummond, Co-Chair
Representative Andi Story, Co-Chair
Representative Tiffany Zulkosky
Representative Grier Hopkins
Representative Mike Prax
Representative Mike Cronk
MEMBERS ABSENT
Representative Ronald Gillham
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
PRESENTATION(S) UNDERSTANDING CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE EDUCATION IN
ALASKA
- HEARD
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
No previous action to record
WITNESS REGISTER
LIZ LA QUEN NAAY MEDICINE CROW, PhD, President
First Alaskans Institute
Kake, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Presented on culturally responsive
education in Alaska.
LANCE X'UNEI TWITCHELL, PhD, representing self
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Presented on culturally responsive
education in Alaska.
TERRI WALKER, Superintendent
Northwest Arctic Borough School District
Kotzebue, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Presented on culturally responsive
education in Alaska.
ACTION NARRATIVE
8:04:11 AM
CO-CHAIR ANDI STORY called the House Education Standing
Committee meeting to order at 8:04 a.m. Representatives
Zulkosky, Hopkins, Drummond, and Story were present at the call
to order. Representatives Prax and Cronk arrived as the meeting
was in progress.
^PRESENTATION(S) Understanding culturally responsive education
in Alaska
PRESENTATION(S) Understanding Culturally Responsive Education in
Alaska
8:05:04 AM
CO-CHAIR STORY announced that the only order of business would
be a presentation on understanding culturally responsive
education in Alaska.
8:07:20 AM
LIZ LA QUEN NAAY MEDICINE CROW, PhD, President, First Alaskans
Institute, shared her perspectives regarding culturally
responsive education in Alaska. She described her experience in
the state's education system as very painful, resulting in
justified emotions of frustration, hurt, and anger. She
referenced a tribunal event where fellow Native Alaskans shared
stories about negative experiences in the public school system.
She pointed out that the education policy of assimilating Alaska
Natives has remained the same since before statehood. She
continued that this policy has excluded the Native ways of
teaching and caused suffering in Native peoples.
DR. MEDICINE CROW recalled a story her grandmother had retold
throughout her life. She stated that with each retelling, she
had learned something new, as stories help build connections to
ancestors. She said that Native teachings relate that opposites
are not adversaries, rather they represent balance, and "Alaska
is built on diversity, and diversity is a strength." She stated
that connections to Native ways of being are available but have
not been tapped.
8:19:25 AM
DR. MEDICINE CROW listed several distinguished local and
international Native leaders and described Alaska Native leaders
as "our local knowledge holders." She said that in the 1980s
Alaska Native educators had used innovations to help create an
indigenous learning framework for Maori students in New Zealand.
She advised that it is time for Alaska to do the same, as the
many Native experts in Alaska have not been utilized.
8:24:22 AM
DR. MEDICINE CROW pointed out that during the last governor's
administration an education outreach challenge had created
innovative ideas to revamp Alaska's education system. The goal
had been to achieve better results for students, especially
Native students. She stated that the innovation consisted of
compacting with tribes, which allows for tribal knowledge to be
centered in education and utilized as a framework, not just as a
subject or class. She said that there are education experts in
Alaska who could help shape better outcomes for students,
because being a Native has been "weaponized against us within
the education system in Alaska."
8:32:37 AM
DR. MEDICINE CROW shared that she had moved to Juneau as a child
so that her sister would have access to more educational
opportunities. Her sister eventually became the first Tlingit
woman to graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. She stated that she and her sister's successes are
attributed to their mother, who ensured they were not denied the
opportunity to be in programs for gifted students. In reference
to boarding schools, she spoke of intergenerational issues
resulting from Native culture, values, and language not being
taught in schools. With the passage of the American Indian
Religious Freedom Act of 1978, she said that she was among the
first group of children who were able to sing and dance in their
language. She stated that having a foundation of village life
taught her to care for the community on the land and waters of
Kake. This had helped her learn her identity and allowed her to
survive the public school system of Juneau, which she described
as having a "soft bigotry of low expectations."
8:39:48 AM
DR. MEDICINE CROW, for the record, expressed her intention to
follow up to the committee with a quote from William Manning in
an exchange with Senator Lisa Murkowski. She said that Mr.
Manning had expressed the hope that Native children would learn
to be stewards of their communities again. She insisted that
mutual and reciprocal respect, along with identity, should be
pillars of the education system in Alaska. She said, "In order
to go forward, we have to go back to what is meaningful to our
people and create a system that reflects it."
8:50:41 AM
DR. MEDICINE CROW shared a quote by the New Mexico State
Senator, Benny Shendo, who said, "Don't teach me about my
culture, use my culture to teach me." She also shared a
rhetorical question from Atirau Ohia, who said, "What counts as
knowledge, what knowledge counts, and who decides?" She
questioned which standards should be used for the success of
Native students - a cultural framework which supports the
ability of Native students to thrive, or a framework designed to
continue an assimilationist educational philosophy. She argued
that current standards are not constructed for Native students
to thrive. She emphasized the importance of reformulating these
standards in Alaska because it could help change "the way the
educational system has been weaponized against us."
8:56:41 AM
LANCE X'UNEI TWITCHELL, PhD, representing self, presented on
culturally responsive education in Alaska [copy enclosed in the
committee packet]. He stated that he is a professor of Alaska
Native Languages at the University of Alaska Southeast and a
Council Member of the Alaska Native Language Preservation and
Advisory Council. He shared that he has his PhD in Hawaiian and
Indigenous Language and Culture Revitalization. He reminded the
committee that, based on the accelerating rates in the decline
of Native languages, a linguistic emergency was declared in
2018. He argued that, since that time, action has been
inadequate because all Alaska Native languages are now
endangered. He stated that more than half of the 23 known
languages have ten or fewer known speakers.
DR. TWITCHELL advised that, with the help of the legislature,
Alaska schools could have more effective programs. He listed
the Native language and literacy programs in Southeast Alaska
which have produced competent bilingual readers and speakers.
He reiterated that a language crisis was announced; however,
substantive legislation has failed to develop to combat the
crisis. Concerning language, he argued that Alaska Natives
deserve a seat at the table of public education. He said that
the Alaska Reads Act is positive, but more could be done,
because the state's education system has "bloody hands" when it
comes to Alaska Native languages. He spoke about chemical-
soaked rags being stuffed into the mouths of children for
speaking their own languages and other stories of torture shared
by elders. He asked for more than inclusion and culturally
responsive education. He expressed the desire for a shift which
would give Alaska Natives a home on their ancestral lands. He
expressed his support for early literacy and urged increased
support for teachers and students through future legislation.
He expressed the necessity for a statewide consortium on Alaska
Native languages and a graduation requirement of at least one
semester in an Alaska Native language for Alaska Native language
teachers. He suggested that multinational Native-language
leaders should collaborate on a plan to further incorporate
Alaska Native languages into the public school system.
9:06:56 AM
DR. TWITCHELL, responding to a committee question, stated that
the standards of education need to be analyzed. He stated that,
in his observations, students who succeed are typically non-
Native. He recalled that he had asked a group of high-achieving
students about William Paul, the first Alaska Native to become
an attorney and a territorial legislator. He related that
William Paul desegregated Alaska's schools and earned Alaska
Natives the right to vote. He emphasized the unlikelihood that
students knew of the important Tlingit historical figure. He
expressed the belief that schools teach Alaska Native peoples as
a "monolith," with no specific names or histories. He gave the
example of Hawaiian language schools which had resisted
standardized testing. This had risked a loss of funding;
however, they now have a 100 percent graduation rate and an 80
percent college placement rate.
9:16:45 AM
DR. TWITCHELL recommended working with the Alaska Native Studies
Council and the Alaska Native Language Preservation and Advisory
Council to develop Native-specific benchmarks for every student
in Alaska who graduates high school, and this should include
knowledge of regional and state specific historical figures. He
added that funding should be put towards early childhood reading
in heritage languages, in addition to English.
9:24:52 AM
DR. TWITCHELL expressed the opinion that the Tlingit Culture,
Language, and Literacy program at Harborview Elementary School
is great, as students in the program are at a near
conversational level with the Tlingit language by fourth grade;
unfortunately, the program ends after the fifth grade. He
expressed the hope that the program is expanded to middle
schools. He added that language nests are also a part of the
solution to bring heritage languages back from the brink of
extinction. Not only were heritage languages prohibited, but
parents had elected for their children to speak English to keep
them from experiencing violence and discrimination. He stated
that language nests are promising programs for the future of the
Tlingit language.
9:30:05 AM
TERRI WALKER, Superintendent, Northwest Arctic Borough School
District, presented on culturally responsive education in
Alaska. She discussed the Inuit Circumpolar Council which
established an education steering group. This group led
workshops to develop an Alaskan Inuit education improvement
strategy, with the goals of defining education success from an
Inuit perspective. The workshops reviewed the current state of
Inuit education in Alaska and identified recommendations for
improvement. She stated that recommendations were then
transformed into an educational plan. She listed the six
measurable objectives: indigenization of education frameworks,
education policy influence, culture-based curriculum, Inuit
language education, educational leadership capacity, and
traditional parenting skills. She expressed the opinion that
through family and community engagement, students can develop
pride in self-identity and respect for elders. She continued
that culture-based curriculum involves creating a traditional-
knowledge clearing house specifically for Inuit research and
resources. She added that the sharing of culture-based
resources and instructional strategies should be encouraged
across regions, and appropriate resources should be created
using local knowledge. She suggested that education should
focus on the whole child, with parents and elders helping build
curriculum.
9:39:33 AM
MS. WALKER described building a science curriculum for ninth
graders, including subjects involving northern lights, snow, and
belugas. She stated that curriculum specialists have been hired
to develop Native language programs, but funding is limited, and
the reading curriculum is a package from the Lower 48 to help
teach English. She advised that dual-language programs would
better help students learn. She recommended screening tools
over standardized assessments and testing. She stated that the
goal should be to create place-based, socially relevant schools
which reflect the culture.
9:51:33 AM
DR. TWITCHELL, in a final statement, emphasized the benefits of
a more place-based context for learning. He explained that
under the current system, many indigenous peoples reject
education because it does not reflect them; rather, it is
something to which they must conform.
10:04:14 AM
ADJOURNMENT
There being no further business before the committee, the House
Education Standing Committee meeting was adjourned at 10:04 a.m.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| X'unei Twitchell Education Testimony 2022.pdf |
HEDC 2/28/2022 8:00:00 AM |
Culturally Relevent Education in Alaska |
| USDE-Violations-of-NALA.pdf |
HEDC 2/28/2022 8:00:00 AM |
Culturally Relevent Education in Alaska |