Reservationbased Partnership Program

1
Enduring Legacies
LEADS Barbara Smith, Provost Emeritus, Evergreen
State College and Mark Reisman, Dean Extended
Learning, Grays Harbor College      

• Reservation-based Partnership Program
• with the WA State Community Colleges and The
  Evergreen State College

Friday, May 16, 2008 at TACTC Presenter Kayeri
Akweks, SBCTC eLearning See http//www.evergreen.e
du/tribal/
2
Our Situation

• Washington State has a large Native American
  population (nearly 160,000 Native Americans and
  more than 30 tribes).
• Many of these tribes are rural and difficult to
  reach, but Indian higher education on
  reservations is in urgent need of improvement.
• The need is especially acute since most
  Washington tribes are now pursuing the important
  goals of self-determination and community
  sustainability.

3
In Washington, the majority of Indian children
are failing in school

• In Washington, the majority of Indian children
  are failing in all subjects at all grade levels
  on Washington Assessments of Student Learning
  (WASL) tests.
• At least 32 of Native American students in
  Washington who enter high school do not complete.
  
• Only 36 of Indian students receive a B.A. within
  six years of entering a four-year college
  program.
• Only 15 of degree-seeking Indian students in
  Washington receive a community college degree
  within three years.
• Nationally, only 29 of the Indian population
  (compared to 79 of whites) are high school
  graduates.
• About 3 of Indians (compared to 8 of whites)
  have degrees from community colleges.
• About 6 of Indians (compared to 18 of whites)
  have Bachelor's degrees.
• 3 of Indians (compared to 9 of whites) hold
  advanced degrees (U.S. Census).

4
What is the Partnership?

• Based on funding from a Lumina Grant
• Reservation-based direct transfer A.A degree that
  provides access to Evergreens B.A. program

• MAIN PARTNERS
• The Evergreen State College
• Grays Harbor College
• Washington Online
• State Board of Community and Technical Colleges
  (SBCTC)

5
Partner Colleges Course Partners

• Evergreen State College and Grays Harbor College
  (Lead Institutions)
• Olympic Community College (Allowed program in
  their service area/possible future Course
  Contributor/connection site with Early College
  High School)
• Walla Walla Community College (Course
  Contributor)
• Spokane Falls Community College (Course
  Contributor)
• Pierce College (Course Contributor)
• Whatcom Community College (Course Contributor)
• Big Bend Community College (Course Contributor)
• Skagit Valley Community College (Course
  Contributor)
• Peninsula College (Course Contributor)
• South Puget Sound Community College (Course
  Contributor)
• South Seattle Community College (Course
  Contributor)
• North Seattle Community College (Course
  Contributor)
• Seattle Central Community College (Course
  Contributor)
• Green River Community College (Course
  Contributor)

6
Partner Colleges (cont) Case Partners

• Northwest Indian College (Case Partner)
• Salish Kootenai College (Case Partner)
• Bainbridge Graduate Institute (Case Partner)
• Dine College (Case Writers case workshop
  attendees )
• Sinte Gleska University (Case Writer)
• SUNY-Buffalo Center for Case Teaching (Case
  project advisor, faculty development partner)
• Spokane Tribal College (Case Writer case
  workshop attendees)
• United Tribes Technical College (Interest in case
  project)

7
Who are the Tribes Involved?

• Program started in Fall 2005 with three tribes
• Muckleshoot
• Quinault
• Nisqually
• Now serving nine tribes at 10 sites - with the
  addition of
• Lower Elwha Klallam
• Makah
• Squaxin Island
• Shoalwater
• Franks Landing
• Chehalis
• Green Hill Maximum Security Facility for
  Incarcerated Youth
• Expressed interest from five other tribes.
• Plus, we are considering possible expansion to
  tribes in Eastern Washington and Idaho

8
Evergreen in collaboration with Grays Harbor
College developed a lower division bridge program

• Began in fall 2005 and was designed to serve
  first- and second-year college students.
• Students enroll as Grays Harbor College students
  and work toward a direct transfer Associate of
  Arts degree.
• The curriculum is a hybrid of the best available
  online classes and instructors.
• Students attend weekly study sessions in the
  tribal communities that the program serves.
• Bridge students attend the weekend classes at the
  Longhouse - providing opportunities to work with
  and learn from the programs upper division
  students.

9
What Makes for Good Partners?

• Evergreen has offered a successful
  reservation-based upper division curriculum
  leading to a BA degree for more than 15 years on
  six Indian reservations (Makah, Quinault, Port
  Gamble, SKlallam, Nisqually, Muckleshoot,
  Skokomish).
• Since 1993, the Evergreen program has educated
  more than 400 degree seeking students and has a
  BA completion rate of 76 (compared to a national
  completion rate of 36).
• The Evergreen program uses community-based as
  well as main campus faculty.

10
Why is it Working?

• New AA course pathway
• Cultural Resource Technician Certificate
• Cultural relevance
• Applicability to the overall four-year degree
• Online-hybrid cohort program
• Library course designed to be foundational to all
  other courses
• New student orientation course
• Face-to-face and online developmental education

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Enduring Legacies Program for Native Student
Success
Native student success
Trained college faculty
Learning Community
Redesigned on-line courses
Native case studies
Trained study leaders
eLearning strategies for Native learners
Culturally sensitive curriculum
Other partners
The Evergreen State College (lead)
Tribal communities reservations
Grays Harbor College
Washington Online (WAOL)
12
Growth in the 2nd Year

• Recruited a large new class of entering students
  (23) from existing reservations as well as two
  new sites - Shoalwater and Lower Elwha/Makah.
• Several new study leaders were added. These
  whipman/aunties and uncles continue to provide
  invaluable and much appreciated support to our
  students.

13
What Success Looks Like Thus Far

• Fall (2006) the State Board for Community and
  Technical Colleges named the program a Best
  Practices/Student Achievement Program.
• In just one year, the number of tribes served
  has gone from 3 to 10.
• The number of students has risen to sustainable
  levels for funding online classes.
• The program has successfully faced and dealt
  with a number of obstacles including the need for
  additional courses for students with weak skills
  in English and mathematics.

14
What Success Looks Like

• In his report at the end of the first year, the
  external evaluator, Peter Ewell from NCHEMS (the
  National Center for Higher Education Management
  Systems) showed the programs wider implications
  The first year convincingly verified that the
  need the project was conceived to meet is real
  and demanding. It is clear that the Native
  community target populationwhich consisted
  overwhelmingly of women with heavy family and
  work obligations and limited resourceswas
  reached in a way that no previous program had
  been able to do.

15
Funding and sustainability

• The program has reached an enrollment level at
  which the budget is sustainable.
• The colleges have developed budgets to transition
  some of the major expenses off Lumina funding by
  July 1, 2007.
• College Spark Washington made a one-year grant in
  September 2006 to Grays Harbor College to support
  the program there.
• Proposals are being developed to the National
  Science Foundation to fund the program expansion
  as well as a national dissemination project for
  the Native Cases Initiative.
• Explorations are underway to tie these efforts to
  other Native initiatives such as the Native Early
  College High School programs coordinated by
  Antioch University and a distance education
  program being considered by Oregon State
  University.

16
Development of new courses

• We have developed seven new courses
• Speech
• Creative Writing
• Exploring Science through Cases
• Exploring Battlegrounds in Indian Country through
  Cases
• e-Portfolios
• Preserving Native American Culture and History
• Our Peoples Stories

17
Development of new courses

• This includes
• the entire first year of a three-year core course
  sequence for the upper division
• as well as on-line courses in
• Economics
• Quantitative Reasoning
• Statistics

18
Case development

• The grant promised to develop 14 original cases
  (see below) on important Native issues to use as
  culturally relevant curriculum at both the two-
  and four-year levels.

We have completed over 30 cases to date.
19
Use of cases

• Four Evergreen courses are using the new cases,
  and they are also being used at all the partner
  institutions which participated in the case
  development process (Grays Harbor College,
  Northwest Indian College, Salish Kootenai
  College, and Bainbridge Graduate Institute).

Broader use of the cases should expand rapidly
next year, as the tribal college consortium,
AIHEC, has promoted our cases on its website.
20
Implementation of the e-Portfolio Initiative

• This involved developing I/T software, staff
  capacity and related curriculum.
• Students started doing e-Portfolios in Fall 2006.
• The e-Portfolio system has spread to other
  programs at Evergreen.

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Faculty and staff development

• Weve used many different strategies and tools to
  promote faculty and staff development, including
  
• conferences/meetings
• handbooks
• one-on-one coaching
• support materials
• internal program evaluation approach. (This
  involves extensive student surveys and staff
  interviews and results in a reflections report,
  called Gleanings, that is issued quarterly.)

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Websites Developed

• Native Cases Website www.evergreen.edu/tribal/case
  s
• ePortfolio website http//www2.evergreen.edu/eport
  folio/
• Grays Harbor College Reservation-Based Program
  Website http//ghc.ctc.edu/distance/reservation/in
  dex.htm
• Grays Harbor Curriculum http//www.evergreen.edu/t
  ribal/graysharbor.htm
• The Evergreen State College Reservation-Based
  Program Website http//www.evergreen.edu/tribal/

23
Contact Info

• Barbara Smith, provost emeritus, Senior Scholar
  and Special Assistant for Enduring Legacies
  Reservation-Based Project, The Evergreen State
  CollegeSmithB_at_evergreen.edu
• Mark Reisman, Dean Extended Learning, Grays
  Harbor College mreisman_at_ghc.edu
• Mark Ramon, Bridge Program Coordinator
  mramon_at_ghc.edu
• Connie Broughton, Managing Director of WAOL
  cbroughton_at_sbctc.edu
• Kayeri Akweks, SBCTC Online Student Services
  Manager kakweks_at_sbctc.edu