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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Begaye

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2/7/06

HJM 5

SHORT TITLE Native American Academic Initiatives

SB

ANALYST Aguilar

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY06

FY07

NFI

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Indian Affairs Department (IAD)

Public Education Department (PED)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of HJM

House Joint Memorial 5 requests the Indian Education Division of the Public Education Depart-

ment study successful academic initiatives implemented by other states for reducing the

achievement gap between Native American and non Native American students; and for consid-

eration of implementation of the most successful of these initiatives in New Mexico schools with

high enrollments of Native American students.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

•

There are 23 public school districts with substantial Native American student enrollment

in New Mexico.

•

During the current school year 2005-2006, the PED/IED has provided resources to 15

schools in seven school districts to develop and implement Exemplary Educational Pro-

grams that positively affect Native American students. These projects will add considera-

bly to the knowledge and research about successful academic initiatives for Native

American students.

House Joint Memorial 5 – Page 2

•

By the end of the current fiscal/school year, districts/schools will be reporting on the first

phase of implementing their exemplary educational programs.

•

The PED/IED has collaborated with the 23 school districts with substantial Native

American student enrollment in developing a statewide Indian Education status report

which will include details on the projects funded to increase academic achievement for

Native American students.

•

The PED/IED is working with the NM Indian Education Advisory Council to determine

tribal indicators of success for students and for schools.

Differences in Native American student populations within New Mexico and in other states will

have to be a factored in for comparison.

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

HJM 5 states that approximately 11 percent of New Mexico public school students are Native

American, making them the second largest minority group, after Caucasian students, in the pub-

lic schools of the state. It also provides data of reading and math achievement between Native

American and white non-Hispanic students in New Mexico. It declares an achievement gap for

Native American students. Many other states have lower achievement gaps than New Mexico.

HJM 5 requests a study of what educators in other states have done to reduce the achievement

gap between Native American and non-Native American students in order to address this issue in

New Mexico, opening up an opportunity for educators in New Mexico to implement these other

successful methods.

Further, Native American students experience high levels of educational failure and a growing

ambivalence toward learning traditional tribal knowledge and skills and often exhibit indiffer-

ence to formal Western academic learning. Further, improving the quality of education for Na-

tive American students, especially with the intent of improving academic performance, presents

a complex challenge for schools serving Native communities.

PA/yr