8
S moke S ignals
JANUARY 15, 2018
Oregon's on-time graduation rates among the worst
EDUCATION continued
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the rate was 71.9 percent for AI/AN
students and 84.1 percent overall.
Approximately 25 percent of
students in the Willamina School
District are Grand Ronde Tribal
members.
Oregon’s on-time graduation
rates are among the worst in the
country at 10 percent below the
national average and among the
five worst states for five years in a
row, according to the Secretary of
State’s research.
Willamina School District Super-
intendent Carrie Zimbrick said that
the 2015-16 rates are an anomaly
locally. In 2013-14, 66.7 percent of
AI/AN earned a diploma within four
years, compared with 51.6 state-
wide, and that number bumped up
to 70 percent versus 53.5 percent
statewide in 2014-15.
“However, these numbers are still
low and we are not satisfied with
average. We are tracking several
key performance indicators in an
effort to support our students at the
greatest risk for not graduating,”
Zimbrick said. “We track atten-
dance, with a goal to have students
attend 90 percent of the time. We
track behavior, with a goal of no
more than three office referrals or
suspensions, and finally we track
course performance.”
The state Department of Edu-
cation’s statistics also are more
positive, with an 83 percent over-
all completion rate at Willamina
High for that same year and a 100
percent AI/AN completion rate.
“Completion” includes students
who earned a regular, modified,
extended or adult high school di-
ploma, or completed a GED within
five years of entering high school.
During a Wednesday, Jan. 10,
presentation by the Tribal Youth
Education Department, it was
noted that Willamina High is “con-
sistently overachieving” compared
to AI/AN populations in similar
districts statewide.
Barriers to
on-time graduation
A major barrier to on-time gradu-
ation faced by the Willamina School
District is that 95 percent of its stu-
dents are considered economically
disadvantaged, which can result
in multiple challenges that affect
learning and graduating on time,
with the biggest one being regular
school attendance. The district has
one of the highest chronic absentee-
ism rates in the state.
Chronic absenteeism is defined
as a student missing 10 percent or
more of scheduled school days.
As a result, the district was a
recipient of the statewide Tribal
Attendance Pilot Project, which
was designed to strengthen the
links between Tribes and schools
that serve enrolled Tribal members.
The Oregon Legislature allotted
$1.5 million and the state Depart-
ment of Education distributed the
funding to nine school districts that
serve students who are enrolled in
a Tribe with each district receiving
$150,000 for the 2016-17 school
year. Those school districts also
are receiving the same amount of
money to be used during this school
year and in 2018-19.
“Addressing that issue comes
first,” Zimbrick said. “This (grant)
allowed us to
hire a family
support advo-
cate, tasked
with building
relationships
with families
to improve
school atten-
dance. We
targeted the
Leslie Riggs
elementary
school, and we saw a 10-percent
improvement in attendance at the
K to sixth-grade level. We have
designated a person to replicate
this program at the (middle and
high school) grade levels.”
Zimbrick said the district has seen
vast improvement in attendance
during the first four months of
school in the program’s second year.
“The priority of the family advocate
is to work with families to overcome
barriers that impact attendance,”
Zimbrick said. “We offer a lot of
student incentives and some family
ones as well. TAPP has also provided
us with some specialized training to
combat chronic absenteeism.”
In an Oct. 1, 2017, Smoke Sig-
nals story about the program, it
noted that the percentage of Na-
tive American students who were
chronically absent in Willamina
decreased in all three schools – el-
ementary, middle and high.
At the elementary school, the
percentage dropped from 43.22
percent in 2015-16 to 36.51 per-
cent in 2016-17. The middle school
saw a smaller decrease from 45.45
percent to 42.42 percent while the
high school dropped more than 7
percentage points from 55.36 per-
cent to 48.28 percent.
The effort within the Willamina
School District to get Native Amer-
ican students to school appears
to be having a spillover effect.
Chronic absenteeism rates for other
students also dropped in all three
schools, most notably at the middle
school where the rate plummeted
from 50.51 percent to 33.33 percent.
“By middle school, chronic ab-
sence is one of the leading indi-
cators of dropping out,” Zimbrick
said. “(It) is a better predictor of
ninth-grade dropout than the actu-
al grades a student receives in the
eighth grade.”
During the Jan. 10 Youth Edu-
cation presentation, poverty, child
abuse/neglect, substance abuse,
general violence/crime, mental
health, family history and lack of
knowledge regarding resources
were all listed as potential barriers
to academic success.
Tribal Education Department
Manager Leslie Riggs said that
while an emphasis on graduating
high school is important, students
often need to find their “why” to
do so. That is where education
programs such as college and busi-
ness tours, as well as tutoring and
mentoring, come into play.
“Some of these students we have
been working with since sixth grade
and now they are getting ready to
graduate,” Riggs said.
Youth Education staff members
partner with the school district
through monthly leadership meet-
ings, parent/teacher conference
attendance, registration assistance,
academic advising and attending In-
dividual Education Plan meetings.
One Grand Ronde Tribal mem-
ber who has utilized the tutoring
program is 19-year-old Lily Baker.
She first sought help two years ago
when math and history became
overwhelming.
“Here, they can explain it differ-
ent ways,” she said. “In school, it is
only explained one way.”
That help has gone a long way:
When Baker first approached
Youth Education for tutoring, she
was barely passing, despite regular
class attendance. Now, her grades
are mostly As and Bs.
“I feel good about going to school
now because I understand things,”
Baker said.
She is on track to graduate this
May. Although Baker isn’t sure
what she wants to do after high
school, some ideas include becom-
ing a licensed massage therapist
or activity director for an assisted
living facility.
She encourages struggling Native
American students to try more
than one option before giving up
on school.
“If asking your teacher doesn’t
help, ask someone else,” she said.
Riggs said that the Tribe has had
a lot of success with its members
graduating high school, but that
doesn’t necessarily equal being
prepared for life.
“We spend lots of time taking
them to see colleges, universities or
trades they can do after high school,”
he said. “They learn the tools they
will need to have in high school to do
that. We also have very real conver-
sations with them. If there is a youth
who wants to be a veterinarian, but
is failing math, we ask if that is
something they can change.”
He said that due to Grand Ronde
being in a rural area, it can have
a negative effect on what youth
believe they can accomplish.
“A college campus to a student
from Willamina can seem pretty
daunting,” Riggs said. “But a lot of
us who work here are products of
these post-high school programs
that are offered for Tribal members.
We advise students that if they feel
overwhelmed, to start out with a few
classes and dip their toes in, just see
what it is like. The last thing we want
to do is set someone up for failure.”
He also said that rural areas
often lack the employment oppor-
tunities that urban and suburban
areas possess.
“We have three main employers
here: The Tribe, the casino and the
federal prison (in Sheridan),” Riggs
said. “I just think there is a lot of
lack of awareness. Also, people
want to stay here. They don’t want
to leave. Statistically, most Tribal
members utilizing the post-high
school education programs are
those who do not live locally.”
He said the Education Depart-
ment is invested in helping to
change that.
“We have home visitors who go
into the homes and assist with edu-
cation or parenting issues,” he said.
“It is never too early to start. In our
kindergarten through fifth-grade
program, we are always talking
about what you can do with your
future and remind them that any
Tribal member who wants to fur-
ther their education can do so.”
Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde
2018 Transit Plan Community
Workshop and Dinner
Please join the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde at a community workshop to help create a new
Transit Plan for our community.
Discuss the transportation needs, gaps in transit service, and mobility challenges of Tribal
and Grand Ronde community members, especially seniors and people with disabilities.
Identify the public transportation resources (both fixed route and special services) currently
available in this community.
Identify the geographic, coordination and structural barriers to addressing these needs and
strategies and solutions that can overcome those barriers.
Workshop invitees include Tribal members, other Grand Ronde community members,
transportation providers, community organizations, and human and health service agencies to
provide a diverse representation of services and geographies. The outcome of this workshop will
guide the development of this new plan. This document will serve as the basis and rationale for
potential future applications for federal and state transit funding. The time, date, and location of
the workshop are below – dinner will be served at 5:30 p.m.
Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2018 from 5:30 to 7 p.m.
Community Center
9615 Grand Ronde Road, Grand Ronde, OR 97347
Please plan to arrive 15 minutes before the workshop begins and stay until the end.
For more information or to
provide input on the Transit
Plan, please contact Kim Rogers
at kim.rogers@grandronde.org
or at 503-879-2250.