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?
First, the report examines various factors associated with AI/AN students who performed at or above the 75th percentile and below the 25th percentile (i.e., “higher-performing” and “lower-performing” AI/AN students). Second, the report explores results derived from the combination of multiple related survey questions (i.e., composite variables) centered around Native language exposure, knowledge and interest in Native cultures, and academic engagement and expectations.
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.
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