Native American (NA) students
have the highest dropout rate of any high school or college student
population. I can attest to this as a researcher, as a former high
school dropout, and as a Native American. Education saved my life. Now I
am working to provide meaningful support to other NAs. I first tried to address
the high dropout rate once I completed a doctoral program and began working for
the University at Buffalo. I developed a NA research center that was involved
in many activities that supported NAs and other students. I set up a
scholarship and mentorship mechanism, developed the beginning processes of a
study abroad course, and established a NA specific living and learning
program. Currently, I am working on a
social belonging intervention at Washington University in St Louis’s Brown
School of Social Work. When I am asked to describe programs that provide the
best support for NA students and might help them remain in college, I describe
living and learning programs, social belonging activities, and providing some
level of self-regulated learning curriculums.
NA
students dropping out of college throughout the United States are well-documented.
Although retention rates differ for all student populations, related to
demographics, the gap is greatest specifically among NA students. There are
data showing that 75 percent to 93 percent of NA students drop out of college
before completing. The number of NA high school drop outs is about the same. It
is a sad fact that if NA students do get a high school diploma and enroll in
college, they have the highest rate of dropping out from college compared to
any other student demographic. Although NA students are academically capable, a
number of reasons contribute to this population having the highest educational
dropout rate in the U.S.
Instead
of more speculation and research, colleges and universities should begin to
implement specific strategies that have shown promise in retaining the NA
student. There are three I would like to recommend that have some support in
research studies and could significantly disrupt the continued problem of
college dropout for NAs.
1.
Living
& Learning Communities
The
idea of connecting and integrating student learning with student living began
to take shape under philosopher, university administrator and free speech
advocate Alexander Meiklejohn. The theory behind living and learning
communities is that students will persist and excel in college if they are
given the opportunity to integrate their social and academic lives. According
to those who have studied these programs, when students join together around
commonly shared academic and/or social interests, their college experience is
much more likely to be positive and they are more likely to remain in college. After
researching different models of the living and learning programs over many years,
it has been determined that regardless of the model’s design, intensity or any other
characteristic, living and learning communities significantly impacts student’s
college experiences, increases their grade point average (GPA), and increases
their retention.
Several studies have addressed the issue of family,
community, and cultural connectedness and the effect on academic achievement
for NA students. Living & learning communities lend themselves to
interconnected, supportive environments. NA students should find ways to hold
onto their own cultural identities in academic life. Maintaining cultural
identity increases students’ self-awareness and the chances that they will remain
in and complete college.
2. Social Belonging Intervention
Social
belonging is defined as a perception of having positive relationships with
other people within one's community and this sense of social belonging is
essential during young adulthood and times when transitioning into a new and
unfamiliar community, such as a college campus. Socially stigmatized groups
like NA students might be more uncertain about their social belonging in
mainstream institutions like college campus than non-minority groups.
In
a randomized controlled trial, 49 African American and 43 non-minority first
year students in the treatment group received a social belonging message framed
in a way that conveyed that college adversity was shared by all students and
was short-lived. The researchers were surprised by the magnitude of improvement
over the three year period of the study. The social belonging intervention
improved GPA, health status, retention, and also reduced doctor visits during students’
time in college.
Native
American students, who are the minority within the minority, are most uncertain
about their sense of belonging on college campuses. An intervention that specifically
targets social belonging will impact them more significantly than
non-minorities. When NA students understand that all students feel out of place
and question their academic abilities, their own feelings become normalized.
This simple, brief, social belonging message, when provided to minority college
students, resulted in higher GPA and retention rates, which could greatly
impact NAs on college campuses.
3. Incorporating NA Learning Styles –
Self-regulated Learning
In
the late 1980s a larger university implemented a unique critical thinking
course for undergraduate students. The course primarily focused on cognitive
psychology and philosophy issues connected with the theory of Self-regulated
Learning (SRL). A review of the data revealed a significant difference in
retention and graduation rates, on average, between all students and NA
students who took the SRL course and those who did not.
|
Success Metric
|
All Students
|
NA Students
|
|
|
SRL
|
No SRL
|
||
|
Retention to Second Year
|
86.6
|
90.9
|
75.0
|
|
Retention to Third Year
|
76.6
|
81.8
|
62.5
|
|
Retention to Fourth Year
|
69.6
|
88.9
|
42.9
|
|
Graduation in 4 Years
|
42.1
|
33.3
|
0.0
|
|
Graduation in 5 Years
|
59.4
|
71.4
|
16.7
|
|
Graduation in 6 Years
|
65.2
|
83.3
|
20.0
|
|
Undergraduate QPA
|
2.82
|
2.93
|
2.06
|
Native
American students who participated in the SRL course, compared to the
university’s general population, had higher retention rates as they progressed,
higher graduation rates, and a higher overall GPA. The difference between NA
students who participated and those not are just as impressive. Native American
students who completed the SRL course had higher retention rates, graduation
rates, and overall higher GPA scores, compared to NA students who did not
participate in the SRL course.
There
are three major constructs of SRL theory that are connected across theoretical
opinions: (1) the student’s learning style; (2) the student’s ability to
influence and predict their daily academic life; and (3) peer assessment and
feedback. Considering the high overall success of NA students participating in
the SRL course, certain components within the SRL course seem to connect with
this population’s thinking and learning styles.
While there has been a debate whether NA students have their own cultural
learning styles, thinking and learning is grounded in one’s culture. Because
the goals of SRL are to understand one’s own learning style, coordination
between teaching and learning strategies could benefit NA students. One of the
main reasons for dropouts among NA students is unsuitable matching of learning
styles. SRL courses may reduce the conflicting expectations between NA students
and instructors.
Concluding Thought
There
is still ambiguity about how to address the low retention rates of NA students
in U.S. universities. While it is important to continue studying the issues, it
is past time to disrupt this on-going tragedy with some scientifically-supported
interventions. Living and learning communities, social belonging interventions,
and more self-regulated learning opportunities can begin to deflect the process
of dropping out of colleges and university programs. To allow the injustices
that result from NA student college dropout to continue within our own
institutions of learning is unacceptable.
