Grantee Spotlight

Challenging Students to Beat the Odds on the Yurok Reservation

In Klamath, California, in the furthest northwest corner of the state, the simple act of going to school can take more than two hours of driving over winding, unpaved logging roads that border dizzying cliffs to the Pacific below. The majority of the Yurok Indian reservation lacks basic electricity and telephone services. This lack of infrastructure alone might explain the county's 50 percent high school dropout rate, but the issue is compacted by the pervasiveness of drugs, alcohol, poverty and abuse in the surrounding community.

In September 2005, with the partnership of the Center for Native Education at Antioch University, the Yurok Tribe, College of the Redwoods, United Indian Health Services and the Reinventing Schools Coalition, the Klamath River Early College of the Redwoods was founded to increase high school and college graduation rates for Native American and other local students in the Yurok Reservation area.

As Del Norte County's only independently chartered high school, the school represented a substantial paradigm shift in the area, as students were challenged with high expectations and college-level curricula, and supported with daily mentoring and a standard-based model that organizes students' classes according to skill level as opposed to age. Students of all backgrounds attend the Klamath River School for four or five years tuition-free, and can earn up to two years of college credit by the time they graduate. True to the school's mission of creating healthy and sustainable communities through education, enrollment is also available to adult members of the community pursuing Associates Degrees.

Ninety percent of the Klamath River School's 26 students qualify for a free or reduced lunch, and 80 percent are Native American, the population with the lowest high school graduation rates statewide.

"We are working to develop our future leaders," said Geneva Wiki, founding director of the Klamath River School. "We want our young people to be successful on and off the reservation, and it is important that they develop a strong sense of self to lead this community in a positive, healthy and traditional way."

This holistic approach to education has already seen dramatic success. In Fall 2005, no students scored at the level of basic proficiency on the College of the Redwoods' college English entrance exam. At the end of that school year, 50 percent tested in. This year, every 10th grader passed both the English and Math sections of the California High School Exit Exam on their first attempt. Most 11th and 12th graders are taking college classes, and school enrollment numbers are growing each year.

In addition to tailored class schedules and advanced curricula, students meet daily with advisors to receive social support and direction in developing their college and career portfolios and applications. They also receive public speaking training, Wiki said, to allow them to speak on behalf of their community. At the end of each trimester, community members come to the school to observe and score the students' academic presentations.

In 2008, Klamath River School graduated its first senior class, and the school's faculty will follow their progress closely, continuing to offer support and encouragement. The five or six students graduating in 2009 will be the first to receive College Access Foundation scholarships of approximately $5,000 – filling gaps in state and federal funding, and driving home the fact that the distant dream of college is now a reality.

"Because this grant gives scholarships to kids, it's about giving hope," said Wiki. "We feel confident that we are giving them the skills and tools to help them achieve emotionally, intellectually and socially, but we couldn't guarantee the financial ability to succeed in college.

"When they found out about the College Access Foundation scholarship grant, some of the parents asked me, ‘The kids don't know yet how big this is, do they?' But one by one, they are figuring out what it means, and they can't believe it's real."

For more information on Klamath River Early College of the Redwoods, click here.

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