The National Indian Education Study (NIES) is a special study funded by the Office of Indian Education (OIE). The study includes oversampling of American Indian / Alaska Native (AI/AN) students in public schools and Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) Schools. The study design includes students taking the 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) operational assessment followed by a short survey questionnaire specific to AI/AN students about the role of AI/AN culture in students' lives and school experiences. Additionally, for teachers of the sampled AI/AN students there are surveys that collect information about teachers' backgrounds and instructional practices as they relate to the education of AI/AN students. (Note there also is a school administrator survey, however those data are unrelated to this data product.)

For both the student and teacher surveys, all of the questions were multiple choice, but a space was provided at the end of the survey for respondents to write in comments. There are two such write-in questions for each of the student and teacher surveys. The responses for these write-in questions are the purpose of this data product.

The National Indian Education Study (NIES) utilizes the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and contextual questions to describe the condition of education for fourth- and eighth-grade American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) students in the United States. NIES is conducted under the direction of the National Center for Education Statistics on behalf of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Indian Education.

• an in-depth look at the findings from the student, teacher, and school administrator survey questions that were focused on AI/AN culture and language;
• information about the achievement of AI/AN students at grades 4 and 8 on the NAEP reading and mathematics assessments—for the nation as well as for 15 states with relatively large proportions of AI/AN students;
• an examination of contextual factors that are associated with higher- and lower-performing AI/AN students; and
• an exploration of composite variables (i.e., variables built upon multiple discrete student survey questions) related to AI/AN cultural knowledge, interest in reading about cultures (both their own and others), engagement at school, and perceptions about effort in school.

Results are reported for three mutually exclusive categories of schools as well as for an overall category:

• low density public schools (where less than 25 percent of all the students in the school were AI/AN);
• high density public schools (where 25 percent or more of all the students in the school were AI/AN);
• Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) schools; and
• all AI/AN students (includes all AI/AN students sampled throughout the nation in public, private, BIE, and Department of Defense schools).

The survey results presented in this report are focused primarily on the responses of fourth- and eighth-grade AI/AN students to selected survey questions. Approximately 7,000 fourth-graders and 6,300 eighth-graders participated in the NIES 2019 student survey. Teachers and school administrators also completed surveys.

Average scores in NAEP reading and mathematics for AI/AN fourth- and eighth- graders from earlier NAEP assessments in 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, and 2015 are compared to their average reading and mathematics scores in 2019.

The NIES survey questions, as well as the report itself, were created in close collaboration with the NIES Technical Review Panel (TRP). The NIES TRP is composed of AI/AN educational stakeholders from across the country.

The National Indian Education Study (NIES) is designed to describe the condition of education for fourth- and eighth-grade American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) students in the United States. NIES is conducted under the direction of the National Center for Education Statistics on behalf of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Indian Education.

This follow-up report focuses on two major concerns that have been raised throughout the first decade of NIES:

• What contextual factors are associated with higher- and lower-performing AI/AN students on NAEP mathematics and reading assessments?
• How do AI/AN students see themselves in terms of their Native languages, culture, and aspirations for the future?

The results presented in this report are focused on the responses of fourth- and eighth-grade AI/AN students to selected survey questions. Approximately 8,500 fourth-graders and 8,200 eighth-graders participated in the NIES 2015 student survey. The survey results displayed are reported as percentages of AI/AN students attending schools that varied in the proportion of AI/AN students within their student population—low AI/AN density public schools (less than 25 percent of students were AI/AN), high AI/AN density public schools (25 percent or more of students were AI/AN), or Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) schools.