User:Amanuel25/sandbox

Only 50% of Native Americans complete high school, while compared to 80 percent of the White students graduate high school. The Wyoming Department of Education is looking to collaborate with the North Central Comprehensive Center is looking to improve the reservations education so they conducted 3 listening sessions with 40 people attended in different schools within the reservations. After the session, both parents and students came to the consensus that the Wind River reservation schools needed more teachers that are Native American. The Wind River reservation dropout rate is 40 percent more than twice the state average. Teenagers are twice as likely to commit suicide compared to other young adults within Wyoming. Other issues such as child abuse, teenage pregnancy, sexual assault, and domestic violence are endemic, and alcoholism are common problems within the reservation. There was the death of an eighth grader at Wyoming Indian Middle School who was killed by voluntary manslaughter in April 2010. Wind River’s crime rate is 5-7 times the national average, and it has a long history of gang violence. Also there is alarming number of gangs, so they also advocated for more security in order to lessen bullying and gangs, and more Native American relevant courses, such as the Native American Language. Lastly, students and parents want a standard for academic expectations that should be held within all schools within the reservation. One of the parents remarked “My grandson goes to the school in Lander. We won’t transfer him back here to the reservation because they’re two years behind where my grandson is.” Megan Degenfelder, Wyoming Department of Education Policy Advisor, said the inputs from the listening sessions has the department headed in the right track “to improve education for Native American students and to best be able to allocate our resources and time.”