Gillian Murr (left) and Ezra Whitman (right) will be two of the first FNAKK project candidates.
Portland State University's College of Education (COE) has received a grant from the US Department of Education's Office of Indian Education to support principal licensure preparation of American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) teachers. Part of the COE's ongoing efforts to prepare educators from traditionally underrepresented groups, the First Nation Administrators and Knowledge Keepers (FNAKK) project was created to address the lack of AI/AN administrators in Oregon. The project will receive $317,625 this year, with anticipated total grant funding of $1.4M over five years.
According to Oregon Chief Education Office data from 2016, Oregon's K-12 public school enrollment includes 1.87% AI/AN students, but only 0.6% of the state's teachers are AI/AN. The number of AI/AN administrators is even smaller: only nine in all of Oregon. To meet the needs of AI/AN students, the state needs more AI/AN teachers and administrators.
Dr. Maria Tenorio is the project director and Dr. Micki Caskey is the co-principal investigator on the FNAKK administrator preparation project. FNAKK builds on the success of the COE's American Indian Teacher Preparation (AITP) program led by Tenorio and Caskey, who received three awards from the Office of Indian Education. Through the AITP program, the COE prepared more than 35 AI/AN students for the teaching profession in the past 10 years.
Tenorio and Caskey continue to support AITP graduates, collaborate with Tribal partners, and promote a Native community of practice. For FNAKK, Tenorio and Caskey will be collaborating with Susan Carlile, professor of practice, Education Leadership and Policy, and principal licensure program coordinator, to support AI/AN teachers to meet the requirements of the professional development program and earn licensure as school administrators in Oregon.
"For too long Native beliefs and culture have been devalued in the US and absent from the schools Native children attend," said Tenorio. "This project is one more step in re-integrating the knowledge base of our Native people. We are honored to partner with Tribal nations on this important effort."
The FNAKK project will prepare 10 AI/AN administrators to respond to the critical shortage of AI/AN educational leaders in Oregon schools serving AI/AN students. The grant funding will cover project participants' tuition and fees, with the understanding that after they earn licensure, they will serve in a school district or Tribal school with a high percentage of AI/AN students. FNAKK project participants will receive ongoing mentoring and support during the program and for two years following as they begin their careers as administrators. Through established arrangements with the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, BIE's Chemawa Indian School, and the Lincoln County School District, the project participants will complete their administrator practicum in the schools where they currently teach.
The first two FNAKK candidates are alumni of the AITP program. Ezra Whitman, who is Nez Perce, is currently finishing summer work at his Tribal high school and teachers at Roosevelt High School in the Portland Public School (PPS) district. Gillian Murr, an Umatilla Indian, is licensed in middle school language arts and social studies and will be working at the new Kellogg Middle School in PPS this year.
For more information on the FNAKK project and how to qualify, contact Stefanie Randol, admissions advisor and recruiter at askcoe@pdx.edu.