Oct 10, 2022

The National Center Honors Indigenous Peoples' Day

Amy Bitterman
Native Education Collaborative Logo

Our mission at the National Comprehensive Center is to bolster equity by helping educational systems provide the resources, create the policies, and enact the instructional practices required for all groups of students to learn, grow, and achieve regardless of their identity and experiences.

In recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, we wanted to highlight one of the National Center’s Signature Projects—the Native Education Collaborative (NEC). The NEC focuses on developing and disseminating resources to help build SEAs’ capacity to better support Native education through collaboration with districts and tribes. By working together, we can create school environments where Native students can thrive.

Below are some of the NEC’s recent activities and contributions:

We developed a new resourceResources to Help Advance Education for Native Students: Circles of Reflection is a framework for facilitating meaningful conversations about equity, the opportunities that exist for Native education, and how an SEA can advance teaching and learning for Native students in ways that put culturally responsive ideas into practice to improve student outcomes.

We presented the new resource – We had the opportunity to present a session at the National Indian Education Association’s annual convention in Oklahoma City about NEC’s resources, including Circles of Reflection.

We applied the new resource – We recently completed all three circles from the Circles of Reflection guide along with Regional Comprehensive Center 10 in Wisconsin. Focusing on early childhood Native education, The Circles process included participation from across the Wisconsin Department of Instruction, Tribal Nations, and districts.