The U.S. Department of Education and Science Education for Native Americans

An Interview By Richard Simonelli

Victoria (Vicki) Vasques is the deputy undersecretary for the Offi ce of Indian Education (OIE) in the U.S. Department of Education. She is a member of the San Pasqual Band of Mission Indians, located outside of Escondido, California. Vasques spoke with Winds of Change during the February 2004 Native American Science Bowl in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Winds of Change
What role does your office play in science education for Native Americans?

Vicki Vasques
Our office funds over 1,100 school districts across the nation. The OIE formula grant program is unique because the funding goes directly to the local school districts. We fund BIA schools on reservations as well as public schools. Your school could be eligible for our formula grant funding if the school district forms an Indian parent committee and a certifiable number of Indian children are in attendance. Our programs fund tutorial programs and cultural academic programs that might be blended with a math or reading learning activity or a mentoring effort. We don’t set the curriculum, but we work with the schools to make sure they are designing a program to meet the needs of Indian students.

Does your office support the Science Bowl in particular?
We support it as one of many initiatives that help accomplish high-level academic achievements for all children. My job is to advocate for our Indian children. Wherever we see opportunities to recognize best practices in any subject to get our children performing at the highest academic level, we will do so. I think it is important to support science. I helped found the National Science Bowl some 15 years ago when I was at the Department of Energy.
At that time we thought, “Why don’t we have one [science competition] that focuses on the Indian children?” It started out with Navajos. We had about 16 kids compete under Steve Gray from Lawrence Livermore Labs (Editor’s note: the Department of Energy oversees the National Labs).
Every year the Science Bowl grew larger. Now I’m here at the Department of Education and I think it’s important that the Indian children know we support their efforts. We want to do more in the future and continue to support the efforts of the Indian Science Bowl. Last year’s winners came and met Secretary Rod Paige and Deputy Secretary Bill Hansen of the Department of Education. They visited the Department, sat in the Secretary’s conference room, and got to go where the decisions are made.

What connection do you see between this Native American Science Bowl and the work of theAmerican Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) with college-age students?
I support the efforts of AISES. I think it’s excellent work to encourage students in the fields of science and technology. This science bowl is a good match for AISES’s efforts. It’s so important to focus on math and science. In my years growing up, we didn’t have a science bowl that made it a little more enjoyable to relate to math and science. Back then you just opened the book, studied the basics, and passed the tests. This type of program provides greater opportunities for kids to feel proud to be a part of math and science. The science bowls are designed for students to be challenged and compete as if they were in an athletic sport. It’s an academic sport! In our school settings there is social pressure—pressure to dress in just the right jacket, to wear the right sneakers, to be on the right team, to be the cheerleader. What provides peer pressure so that academics may be regarded highly? The science bowl provides that opportunity.
With our Indian children we have something that’s even more unique, and that is our culture. I think our culture can blend in with the academic achievement. Many folks think that some of the work we are doing is blending academic learning with cultural learning. So, for example, if you do a math or a science program in the Northwest where the Columbia River is very important, you could make math or science projects out of the salmon runs or other environmental issues of importance to the local tribes.
Our office supports the blending of cultural and academic learning. The main emphasis is to raise levels of academic achievement so that our Indian kids are succeeding at the same level as other kids so they can compete in higher education or wherever they take their skills. They may want to enroll into programs of vocational education, in a community college, in a four-year institution, or in a tribal college. We also work with the tribal colleges in my office, and in particular with our American Indian Teacher Corps Program. The purpose is to teach American Indian students to get their full state certification for teaching in order to go back into areas having high concentrations of Indian students. We are trying to get more Indian students trained to be teachers. We also have an administrative corps program so we can get more Indians to become new school administrators.

How does the Native American Science Bowl relate to these Indian teachings and administrative initiatives?
Our goal is to have highly qualified teachers teaching the core subjects. I encourage these kids who are here today to go into the teaching profession, hopefully in the areas of math and science. The anticipated outcome is to have highly qualified Indian teachers trained and certified in those unique subjects and who meet full state certification requirements. Due to the overwhelming teacher shortages in our areas we hope our Indian students will go back and teach in any school; but how great it would be to see them go back and teach a math or science subject in which they are truly knowledgeable, in an Indian school.
Many of our tribal colleges today are instituting teacher-training programs. These are two-year programs where students can start their process for obtaining certification. Others may enter into four-year programs, either in one of the 34 tribal colleges, or at other schools. There are other higher education institutions that have partnered with our Indian communities with some teacher training programs as well. Through the Department of Education, they have many resources available to go into the teaching profession, whether in an urban setting or a tribal setting. We want our students to succeed; we want to see more graduate, and we encourage them to become great leaders.
This math and science initiative [Science Bowl] builds self-esteem. As I walked around the competition rooms here at NASB, I observed many students cheering each other on. They’re excited—they are proud of who they are. Even when a team is not doing well, they are still having a great time. That’s what it is about. They are so proud of who they are and where they are from. A team from Point Hope, Alaska participated and we applaud them for taking a long journey to compete in the Indian Science Bowl in Colorado. I would imagine that some of these students might have experienced their first plane ride out of their region to come. As much as the academics are important, the camaraderie, being with your peers, being proud of who you are, is as important as the academic achievement. This science bowl is sort of like an AISES event. There are so many different cultures represented here. When you go to an AISES event it’s a lot like this. Jim Williamson and this organization reach out to the AISES groups for volunteers and other support.

Do you have any message for Native parents about supporting their children in education?
Be involved from birth to graduation. Let us work with you from early childhood programs on. Be a part of your school system. Speak your voice. If your children have a special interest in science or math, keep pushing them, keep supporting them and applaud their efforts. They’re doing the right thing. Support your children’s interest in technology and computers. Our children are our future and I promise to ensure that no American Indian child is left behind.

Richard Simonelli is a free-lance writer and advocate allied with Native American issues in healing, traditional knowledge, and education. He can be reached at richsimone@earthlink.net