Review of Native Americans in the School System: Family, Community, and Academic Achievement by Carol J. Ward

Authors

Jon Reyhner, Department of Educational Specialties, Northern Arizona University

Date of this Version

Spring 2007

Comments

Published in GREAT PLAINS RESEARCH 17:1 (Spring 2007). Copyright © 2007 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

Abstract

The title of this volume promises more than the content delivers. The heart of the book is information from Ward's 1992 University of Chicago doctoral dissertation, which focused on the social and cultural reasons leading to students dropping out of school. Her first two chapters provide a good review of research on dropouts and Indian education; the following six focus on the results of her 1987-1989 study of 698 Northern Cheyenne, Crow, and white high school students attending the Colstrip Public, St. Labre Catholic, and Busby Tribal Schools in Montana. Fifty-two percent of the students in this study were Indian, with a dropout rate of 45% .