The National Indian Education Study (NIES) is designed to describe the condition of education for 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. The results presented in this report focus on the performance of AI/AN fourth- and eighth-graders on the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress in reading and mathematics and on the educational experiences of AI/AN students based on NIES survey data.
Nationally representative samples of approximately 9,600 AI/AN students at grades 4 and 8 participated in the 2011 reading assessment and in the mathematics assessment. Students' performance in 2011 is compared to earlier assessments in 2005, 2007, and 2009. Average reading and mathematics scores for AI/AN fourth- and eighth-graders in 2011 were not significantly different from the scores in either 2009 or 2005. At both grades 4 and 8, AI/AN students attending BIE schools scored lower on average in reading and mathematics than students attending public schools. Among the 12 states with samples large enough to report results for AI/AN students in both 2009 and 2011, average mathematics scores were lower in 2011 for fourth-graders in Montana and for eighth-graders in Minnesota and Utah. None of the participating states had a significant change in average reading scores from 2009 to 2011 at grade 4 or grade 8.
About 10,200 AI/AN students at grade 4 and 10,300 students at grade 8 participated in the 2011 NIES survey. Surveys were also completed by students' teachers and school administrations. Results showed how the educational experiences of AI/AN students differed based on the type of school they attended and the proportion of AI/AN students in the school. For example, AI/AN students in BIE schools were more likely to report having some or a lot of knowledge about their AI/AN history, have teachers who reported learning about AI/AN students from living and working in the AI/AN community, and attend schools where members of the AI/AN community visit the school to discuss education issues.
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