Teaching American Indian languages in schools is a tool that educators say has been tested as a way of raising the achievement bar.To that end, the State Board of Education is seeking $275,000 to preserve and revitalize Utah’s indigenous languages to help narrow achievement gaps.
Utah’s CRT state test results show a 45 percentage point difference between the performance of Navajo and Caucasian students on language arts, 48 percentage points on math and 57 percentage points on science, according to data state associate superintendent Brenda Hales presented to the Education Appropriations Committee Thursday.
The Education Board wants to include San Juan and Uintah School District’s Ute Indian population in the proposed program. The Northern Band of Shoshone, Goshute and the Skull Valley tribe would be included in the future, under the proposal, which came out of the governor’s fall Native American summit, Hales said. read more
