A recent report from the Indigenous Student Identification Project (ISI) found that K-12 Indigenous students may be undercounted by as much as 70% across the United States.
This has nationwide consequences for school funding and the services they can provide for Indigenous students. The U.S. Department of Education is developing new guidance on the collection and reporting of race and ethnicity data. This gives leaders time to consider how Indigenous students are currently counted, the real-world consequences of undercounting and emerging best practices to collect more accurate, appropriate and accountable Indigenous student data.
The Problem
The impetus for ISI was the Indigenous Education State Leaders’ Network (IESLN) — a community of practice for more than 20 state education agencies’ Indigenous education staff. IESLN members expressed concern that some Indigenous students are not receiving services because they aren’t being counted. While there are many ways students may self-identify as Indigenous (racially, politically, culturally, socially, by descent, etc.), it’s apparent that current federal demographic data doesn’t accurately account for the diversity of Indigenous identities.
The Consequences
For Indigenous students to receive a culturally responsive and relevant education, they have to be identified as Indigenous in school data. If schools don’t know how many students they have, how can educators make sure they’re integrating culturally appropriate practices in the classroom? Culturally appropriate education is correlated with several positive outcomes for American Indian and Alaska Native students.
If state education agencies and districts don’t know how many Indigenous students they have, how can they ensure their systems serve their students and know their eligibility for federal funds? This is one of the most significant impacts of undercounts: Schools lose out on funding they could use to support Indigenous students. For example, according to analysis, more inclusive counts of Indigenous students could lead to 1,806 additional districts being eligible for Title VI Indian Education Formula Grant funding and enable 1,029 American Indian and Alaska Native data in public student reporting.
Promising Methods
In response to these concerns, several states have already started implementing innovative methods to count Indigenous students. The ISI and IESLN have identified three key indicators to guide high-quality Indigenous student counts, the AAA Standard: accuracy, appropriateness and accountability to communities.
AAA Standard-based best practices are beginning to emerge. These include using inclusive counts wherever possible, ensuring data collection tools allow for later disaggregation by race and ethnicity to avoid eliminating American Indian and Alaska Native students in data, and consulting with Tribal governments on the collection of Tribal affiliation and other data.
Tribal affiliation is a whole different grain size of data collection that allows for greater disaggregation of American Indian and Alaska Native students and can facilitate data sharing with Tribes. For example, in 2023, Arizona began to collect Tribal affiliation data alongside race and ethnicity data and became the first state to allow Indigenous students to select affiliation with multiple Tribal nations. Minnesota has been collecting additional data on Indigenous students since 2018 and uses an inclusive counting methods to inform state reporting requirements, policy implementation and eligibility for state aid. These and a growing number of states including Michigan, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Utah and Wisconsin have all worked with the Tribal nations to identify Indigenous student identification needs and move toward improving their state systems to collect more accurate, appropriate and accountable data.
Though the Department of Education is in the process of developing new federal guidelines, states don’t have to wait for that guidance. It’s an exciting time for partners at every level to ensure every Indigenous student is properly counted and receives the services to which they are entitled.
