EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE AND FAMILY ATTITUDES

Respondents were asked to provide information on their educational experience: what degrees they attained, the kinds of schools they attended, and the attitude of their families when they were growing up.

Highest Level of Education Completed

Relatively few of the Alaska Natives surveyed have completed a post-secondary education.

Thirteen percent of adult Alaska Natives have completed a bachelor's degree, Master's degree or a doctorate. ² Alaska Natives in households with annual incomes of over $100,000 are far more likely to have completed bachelor's degrees or graduate degrees. One-third of adult Alaska Natives have had some college or technical training without having completed a degree. For 27 percent of adult Alaska Natives, high school is the highest level of education completed. Fifteen percent of adult Alaska Natives have less than a high school education.

Location of Schooling

Most of the Alaska Natives surveyed who attend college do so within Alaska.

One half of Alaska Natives have attended college at some point and 71 percent of those attended college in Alaska. One-third have attended a vocational or technical program, largely in Alaska (69 percent). A significant portion of Alaska Natives - more than one-third - have attended an in-state boarding high school.

Family Attitudes

Most adult Alaska Natives identify their family's attitude toward classroom education and traditional Native cultural education while they were growing up as positive.

The survey attempted to identify generational attitudes toward education. For this reason, Alaska Natives were asked for their family experience regarding education. Respondents rated their family's attitudes towards classroom education (when they were growing up) as fairly positive, with four out of five giving a "positive" or "very positive" rating. Attitudes towards learning about Alaska Native culture were also rated as mostly positive by respondents. Only 4 percent disagreed. Rural respondents were more likely to report a positive family attitude towards learning about Alaska Native culture when they were growing up (78 percent, compared to 62 percent of urban respondents).

² According to 1990 Census data, 20 percent of all Alaskans over 18 had attained a bachelor's degree, a master's degree, or a doctorate.

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