Study of the Native American and Alaska Native Children in School Program: FY 2011 and FY 2013 Cohorts

The Native American and Alaska Native Children in School (NAM) discretionary grants program aims to reduce the persistent achievement gaps between Native American and Alaska Native (NA/AN) youth and their peers on measures of reading and English language arts (ELA) (NCES 2015) and on measures of college-readiness in reading (ACT 2017). One reason for these achievement gaps is the linguistic needs of many NA/AN students. NA/AN students present a diversity of language profiles that can generally be described as falling under two groups: (1) students whose first language is an NA/AN language and who are learning English as a second language (ESL); and (2) students whose parents or guardians and/or grandparents learned English as a second language but did not fully acquire standard English (Holbrook 2011). NAM funds activities designed to address the needs of NA/AN English learner (EL) students falling under either of these groups to help close reading and ELA achievement gaps and promote their overall academic achievement. These activities include instructional supports and resources for English language development (ELD) and instructional experiences intended to help preserve and revitalize NA/AN languages and cultures. This implementation study sought to examine the primary focus areas of NAM grantees' projects with respect to accomplishing key goals and objectives; the full range of activities, including material resources and services, that grants funded to support NAM program priority areas; the types and roles of partners in supporting NAM-funded activities; how grantees measured progress and outcomes; and grantees' perceptions of the benefits, challenges, and lessons learned associated with planning and implementing grant-funded activities. The study consisted of in-depth case studies of 19 grantee program sites, including eight FY 2011 grant program sites and 11 FY 2013 grant program sites (this 11 included two sites that each received a grant in both FY 2011 and FY 2013, and one that received two different grants in FY 2013). The purpose of this study was to enable policymakers and educators to better understand how NAM grantees used their funds to support activities, including material resources and services to address the unique needs of NA/AN EL students. The data collected for this study provide insight into how the FY 2011 and FY 2013 grantees designed and implemented their projects to meet local needs, including what goals and objectives they i