on
$1.5M grant to train teachers for
Native-serving schools
TOPEKA — University of Kansas indigenous studies director Alex Red Corn said a $1.5 million grant would allow a five-year collaboration with tribal nations and school districts in three states to broaden the pipeline of K-12 teachers working in schools serving Native American students.
The difficulty of attracting and retaining teachers to serve Native American students has been fueled from insufficient funding, isolation of rural communities and lack of job-market recruiting.
KU was awarded the grant from the Office of Indian Education in the U.S. Department of Education. The program involves the Southern Plains American Indian Teaching Pathways Project, which is a partnership that included Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence.
The goal is to work with Native Nations and school districts in Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma to prepare and mentor 15 teachers in elementary or secondary education.
“We look forward to getting started recruiting folks from Native communities and offer them a funded pathway to full teacher licensure through KU and Haskell and continuing to grow our longstanding partnership with Haskell in new and exciting ways,” said Red Corn.
Under the program, researchers plan to recruit individuals who earned or were approaching completion of an associate’s degree and want to pursue teaching certification by earning a bachelor’s degree at HINU or KU.
Upon graduation, these certified teachers would be required to work in Native- serving schools, where they would receive career mentorship from experienced teachers and cultural leaders.
KU officials said students involved in the program would be eligible for financial support in the form of tuition and fees, monthly living stipends, books, laptops and academic conference travel.
“We’re very appreciative of this opportunity from the Office of Indian Education, which is such a critical resource for tribal nations looking to advance sovereignty in education,” Red Corn said.
He said tribe and school partners in the region were eager to participate in work on a sustained program to bolster the teacher-development pipeline.
Project partners on the grant application included HINU, Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, Osage Nation, Quapaw Nation, and the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes.
