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Lessons Taught, Lessons Learned Vol. II
Teachers and Administrators for
Rural Alaska
by Claudia Caffee
As common as the main elements are for
successful education everywhere (appropriate teacher and
administrator training, adequate resources, relevant curriculum
taught by competent and caring educators, continued opportunity for
professional development, and strong school-community relationships),
Alaska's rural schools have some unique circumstances that affect how
I would set about to improve them. It is with these circumstances in
mind, along with ideas stimulated by the 1988 Rural Alaska
Instructional Improvement Academy readings and class sessions that 1
will put forth my suggestions for improving education in the
bush.
Training Administrators and
Teachers for Rural Schools
According to Steve Grubis in the workshop on
preparing rural administrators, in the lower forty-eight states over
ninety percent of school principals work within five miles of the
towns in which they were raised. Consequently, each has first-hand
familiar with the culture of the students in his or her charge. In
the whole of Alaska, however, there are only four Native principals
who grew up near the schools they administer. Most of the others come
from "Outside," where even rural communities have little in common
with Alaskan villages. A program is underway to ameliorate the
problem. It is the University of Alaska Fairbanks program to train
Native administrators. Over a dozen Native graduate students are
enrolled. In time this will do much to insure that the administrators
in rural Alaskan schools understand the culture of the students for
whom they are responsible, just as the XCED Program is gradually
increasing the number of Native teachers in Alaska. Today, one
hundred sixty-six of the state's six thousand three hundred
seventy-five teachers are Alaska Native. Only ten years ago, when I
first came to teach here, the number of Native teachers was a mere
seventy-one.
But even if Alaska could provide 100% Native
staffs, that would probably not be advisable in a system that is as
concerned with educating students to be able to participate in the
Western society as it is in helping to preserve Native culture. Just
as a White teacher from outside is at a disadvantage in communicating
the Native culture, so is a Native teacher at somewhat (though less)
of a disadvantage in communicating Western culture. For example, a
friend of mine, a Native teacher who went to high school in the lower
forty-eight was watching "Saturday Night Live" with me and another
Caucasian friend. We were laughing throughout the show when we
noticed our friend crying. He said it made him feel bad that even
though he understood English well, he couldn't understand the show.
He didn't know what was funny. This is but one of many such examples
I could give of what today might be called a problem with
"cross-cultural literacy." Similarly, many eases of obstacles to the
White teacher being able to participate fully in the Native culture
could be cited. The ideal school would have a more equal mixture of
Native and non-Native teachers. Let me address the training of the
two groups separately.
Teachers from outside Alaska will most likely
have come out of universities that did not prepare them specifically
for teaching in Alaskan bush schools. Transition time for such
teachers could be minimized in several ways. Each new teacher or
teaching couple could be paired up with a community volunteer or
couple. The community member would take the new teacher under his or
her wing. Through association with this "foster grandparent" from the
village, the teacher could more easily bridge the gap between school
and community by gaining a first hand knowledge and appreciation of
the culture. In addition, districts could provide incentives for
teachers to learn the language.
At the district level the bilingual program
coordinator and perhaps a University of Alaska Fairbanks Native
Language Center representative could determine what amount of
knowledge of the Native language in question would be worth a credit
applicable towards advancement on the salary scale. For example,
being able to give the Yup'ik name for x number of English words
might be worth a credit. Being able to follow x number of commands
might be worth an additional credit. Being able to engage in
conversation in Yup'ik about predetermined topics might be worth a
third credit. The districts would provide the means for teachers who
so choose to learn the language formally. Perhaps the class now
taught at the University of Alaska Fairbanks could be video taped.
This would enable teachers, no matter what amount of knowledge they
begin with to learn at their own pace. Perhaps audio conference
classes could be offered. A village might require a teacher to make a
certain amount of progress in the language each year in order to be
rehired or tenured. Non-Natives with no background in cross-cultural
education could receive a reading list of materials. Rather than be
required to attend an orientation session at the University, they
would have the option of exploring the culture and reading on their
own, then demonstrating their knowledge in some way acceptable to the
district.
Native teachers would be trained either on
campus or through the X-CED Program. Only students with children
would be allowed to receive their education while remaining in the
village and, even then, should be required to live on campus for at
least a semester. If they work for a district as an aide they should
be granted an unpaid leave of absence to go to a campus to fill the
one semester requirement. Native teachers who are seeking positions
in villages they are from would automatically be interviewed for the
job. The local school boards, most of which have advisory power only,
would make their recommendation to the regional school board after
interviewing as many applicants as possible and reading the resumes
of others. The regional school board would take input from
superintendent, staff, and school board, but would have final say as
to who is placed in what position.
Perhaps a form of competency testing could be
used to help in the selection of teachers as well. This would not be
used to compare teachers, but to reinforce for the public their
competence to teach. Questions could cover the areas of Alaska
history, contemporary Native issues, and cross-cultural
communication, as well as content areas associated with all schools.
There could be a writing sample as well. Such a test would reassure
those who doubt that the X-CED education is the same as other teacher
training programs, as well as those who feel non-Native teachers lack
the knowledge of the local culture.
Administrators would be expected to meet
certain criteria before being offered a job in the bush.
Principal/teachers would need, as a prerequisite, a minimum of one
year of teaching experience under a principal or principal/teacher in
a rural Alaskan site, preferably within the hiring district. Any
requirement or incentive for teachers to learn the language would
also apply to the principal/teacher.
Principals would need to have completed a
minimum of three years of teaching experience, at least one of which
should have been within the district, serving as teacher under
another administrator. A year as principal/teacher would not suffice.
Any requirement or incentive for teachers to learn the language would
also apply to the principal.
The superintendent would have at least three
years of teaching experience in Alaska, at least one of which should
be in rural Alaska. Any requirement or incentive for teachers to
learn the language would also apply to the superintendent. The
superintendent should reside within one of the villages in the
district or close by. As a recency credit requirement the
superintendent would need to teach in a classroom for a year once
every six years.
Pay Scales
As I listened to the Native teachers in the
evening session of the Academy tell their reasons for going into
administration I was moved by their sincerity and their commitment to
effect changes in their community's school. It made me glad to think
of the ranks of Native teachers coming up over the last ten years. As
a child I was conditioned to believe that teachers are undervalued.
When my high school teachers went on strike my parents encouraged me
to go Out and show support. When I learned that my excellent high
school English teacher had left teaching to take ajob in the central
office and knew that my younger sister would thereby be denied the
opportunity to be taught by this teacher, I felt directly affected by
a facet of the educational system that I have always taken exception
to, i.e. the pay scale that rewards teachers who leave the classroom
for offices where they have less contact with the children.
I do not wish to minimize the contributions of
principal/teachers, principals, superintendents and university
professors who train teachers, but I do feel that the relative value
we place on the efforts of those in the education field outside of
teaching is out of step with their contributions. No person in the
school system has a greater influence on the students than the
classroom teacher. If it is true that one of the primary benefits of
having Native teachers is that they know the Native language and
culture, how sad to think that they too may abandon the classroom for
administrative positions. Some of the candidates spoke as if they
would have a greater chance to change the system from the top. I have
my doubts. To me it seems that one compelling reason for going into
administration is that being there gives one greater financial
rewards and status than being a teacher.
Realizing that any blanket generalizations have
exceptions, I felt that the teachers studying to become
administrators who spoke at the Academy felt a responsibility to be
good models for Native children. Since administrators, because they
are more highly paid than teachers, have a higher status, the Native
teachers feel that as Native administrators they will provide even
better role models than they did as teachers. In the lower
forty-eight the low status of teachers is cause for some of them to
change professions. But, hopefully, there it means that a good
teacher will leave and be replaced by another good teacher. I suspect
that in rural Alaska some good Native teachers go into administration
and are replaced by non-Native teachers. For this movement of Native
teachers into administration to truly create positive change, the
positions they vacate should be filled by Native teachers as well.
However, it will take a beginning Native college student a minimum of
four years to earn a teaching certificate, but only two years for a
Native teacher to qualify to be an administrator.
One way to insure that all teachers who go into
administration do so for the right reasons would be to eliminate the
difference in their pay. To fairly compensate teachers who do wish to
become administrators, districts could pay the cost of their
schooling if they agree to stay with the district for two years after
finishing.
Superintendents in Alaska are paid much more
than teachers. Their pay should be limited, I feel, to a certain
multiple of the base salary for teachers. They too should have a
salary scale that rewards them for having been a teacher. The greater
the number of years teaching experience they have, the higher their
pay. Superintendents as well as principals should be instructional
leaders. There is no better basis for which they can claim leadership
than having spent time in the classroom.
Curriculum
Having taught in several rural Alaskan
communities within the same district I have seen how different from
each other they can be in terms of their curriculum concerns and
extra-curricular preferences. Any district curriculum guide needs to
be broad enough to emphasize what is generally deemed to be
important. To accomplish this, more local control needs to be given.
As it stands in our district and probably in others, the district
administrators decide which extra-curricular programs will be offered
in a given year and sites have the option of participating. For
example, a site could choose not to have a wrestling team, but then
would not receive the money that would have been paid for a coach and
travel, to spend on something else the village deemed more
important.
More flexibility would improve the schools.
There would be a core of required academic subjects (a village could
not choose to offer basketball instead of math) but they could elect
to participate in Native Olympic Games rather than in competitive
wrestling. Ideally, each site would be given a certain amount of
money based on a formula that would take into account the number of
students, the price of seat fare from the village to the nearest city
served by a jet, and the cost of paying a supervisor. Prior to a
community meeting where plans would be finalized, staff would meet to
determine its priorities, taking into account what it feels its
members have the most expertise to provide. Students would discuss
and student council would vote its desires, and the local school
board would come up with its recommendations. At a local school board
meeting the community members would be presented with the options and
vote on how the block of money should be spent. Because staff
turnover often puts a village in the position of not knowing who will
be teaching the next year, these recommendations could be made final
in the fall. For example, if the high school teacher position is
vacant and the village also needs someone who can start a school band
and begin a community choir, they would recommend to the regional
school board that they hire a teacher with a music background. If
however, this doesn't happen the community could choose to reallocate
the money that would have been spent on the music program. The
superintendent, assistant superintendent or perhaps the federal
programs coordinator could be in attendance at the community meeting
to answer questions and to have on hand a copy of how each of the
other sites allocated their resources.
Some of the types of things villages could
choose to spend money for include; competitive sports, sports
equipment, educational travel, grant to start a small school
business, funds to publish a yearbook, Native crafts classes, student
exchange programs, academic competitions, artist-in-the-schools,
study hall monitors, after school club supervisors, Native language
classes, etc.
Community-School
Cooperation
Various approaches to delivering core
curriculum would be presented to interested village members. Ongoing
education of local school boards would be provided by a series of
video tapes that would present different approaches to educating
children. The more educated the people in the community become about
alternatives in curriculum content and methods, the less they would
be at the mercy of experts from outside. When faced with teachers who
want to preserve the status quo or with teachers who want to try some
new method or program, the cooperation between community and teachers
will be a realistic way of deciding curriculum matters.
Staff Development
The plan for staff development would be based
on the individual needs of each teacher as well as on their
collective desires and the ideas of the superintendent. A
superintendent will naturally have his or her own perception of what
direction the teachers as a whole should be moving in, but the wise
administrator would be able and willing to assess what the teachers
want in relation to their professional growth and, to the extent
possible, provide it. To that end each teacher, or perhaps in these
hard times each tenured teacher, would have expenses paid to attend
one professional conference each year. In addition, district wide
inservices would be held - one addressing the superintendent's
priorities, the other addressing areas teachers have identified as
being high priority. The district would also pay for teachers to take
summer courses that relate to areas in which they teach.
Conclusion
An ideal school system will probably never
exist. But having spent the past decade teaching in rural Alaska I do
feel that the above modifications in rural teacher and administrator
training, hiring, and pay, as well as in curriculum adoption, extra
curricular activities, staff development, and cooperation between
school and community, would lead to better a education in Alaska's
rural schools.
Foreword
Ray Barnhardt
Part I *
Rural School Ideals
"My
Goodness, People Come and Go So Quickly Around
Here"
Lance C. Blackwood
Parental Involvement
in a Cross-Cultural Environment
Monte Boston
Teachers and
Administrators for Rural Alaska
Claudia Caffee
The Mentor Teacher
Program
Judy Charles
Building
Networks
Helen Eckelman
Ideal Curriculum and
Teaching Approaches for a School in Rural
Alaska
Teresa McConnell
Some Observations
Concerning Excellent Rural Alaskan Schools
Bob Moore
The Ideal Rural
Alaska Village School
Samuel Moses
From Then To Now:
The Value of Experiential Learning
Clara Carol Potterville
The Ideal
School
Jane Seaton
Toward an Integrated,
Nonlinear, Community-Oriented Curriculum
Unit
Mary Short
A Letter from
Idealogak, Alaska
Timothy Stathis
Preparing
Rural Students for the Future
Michael Stockburger
The Ideal
Rural School
Dawn Weyiouanna
Alternative
Approaches to the High School Curriculum
Mark J. Zintek
Part II *
Rural Curriculum Ideas
"Masking" the
Curriculum
Irene Bowie
On Punks and
Culture
Louise J. Britton
Literature to Meet
the Needs of Rural Students
Debra Buchanan
Reaching the Gifted
Student Via the Regular Classroom
Patricia S. Caldwell
Early Childhood Special
Education in Rural Alaska
Colleen Chinn
Technically
Speaking
Wayne Day
Process Learning
Through the School Newspaper
Marilyn Harmon
Glacier Bay
History: A Unit in Cultural Education
David Jaynes
Principals of
Technology
Brian Marsh
Here's Looking
at You and Whole Language
Susan Nugent
Inside, Outside and
all-Around: Learning to Read and Write
Mary L. Olsen
Science Across
the Curriculum
Alice Porter
Here's Looking at
You 2000 Workshop
Cheryl Severns
School-Based
Enterprises
Gerald Sheehan
King Island
Christmas: A Language Arts Unit
Christine Pearsall Villano
Using Student-Produced
Dialogues
Michael A. Wilson
We-Search and
Curriculum Integration in the Community
Sally Young
Artist's
Credits
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