American Indian Youth Literacy

AIOIC's high school is a diploma program contracted through the Minneapolis School District. Our focus is to provide quality education and support services that will improve the post-secondary and career options that improve the long-term earning potential of the Native American and other youth, to further increase the economic security of their families, and to break the cycle of poverty. We work to meet these goals by providing coursework that drastically improves the academic levels of students often from early elementary levels to college ready levels.

Our students are talented, bright individuals who struggle with variety of challenges that are usually outside of their control. Approximately 40 percent of the students are homeless, over 90 percent live in severe poverty, and most have been affected by ongoing violence.

Due to these challenges, many students have not made great strides in their academic progress. Locally, we have watched the academic gap and drop-out rates for urban, poor youth widen from their peers. Only about 10% of students come to the school with the ability to read at their grade level. In fact, many high school age youth come to AIOIC with elementary age reading levels.

As you can imagine, low reading levels make comprehension of any subject difficult. Reading is the key component of academics that allow critical thinking skills, strategic thinking, spatial reasoning, and creative reasoning that are important to comprehend course work. Without adequate literacy skills, the ability to graduate high school, gain meaningful employment, or post high school education/training is difficult.

However, AIOIC's high school has helped students make great strides in their literacy. Last year, our school helped 25% of students reach their grade level within one school year even though they may have started the year at a 2nd or 3rd grade level. Our reading-intensive focus combined with a cultural approach has helped students become more engaged in learning and has resulted in substantial academic progress. We are very proud of our student's progress. We are also proud to have one of the highest graduation rates for American Indians in Minneapolis.

While the nation needs workers in varying occupations from fast-food service to geneticists, the lower end jobs are usually left for those from marginalized populations who are undereducated. Most of the youth at AIOIC come from single parent families without high-school diplomas. We expect that an investment in this school will prevent this generation from experiencing a similar fate by giving them tools to succeed. Successfully participating in an enriched reading program gives our students a choice rather than simply gravitating to the lower end of the job market. Empowering our student's with educational success will improve our student's knowledge base to compete and access better post-secondary opportunities which will help them build a foundation for a more stable, satisfying future as well as stretch the academic benchmark for the next generation.