Native American Higher Education

The experiences of Native Americans in seeking higher education are often fraught with barriers to success, including access, economics, and cultural differences, but more and more Native Americans are enrolling at colleges across the U.S. According to Change, as of 1986, "Over 90,000 Native Americans were enrolled at a variety of colleges," an 18 percent increased over a decade before (Native, 1990, p. 27). More recent data show that although Native Americans traditionally have low rates of participation in higher education, in 1997 they "increased the number of associate and baccalaureate degrees earned by 7.3 and 7.2 percent respectively" (Chenowith, 1998, p. 20). Despite numerous barriers to higher education, community colleges often remove such barriers for Native Americans. This essay will discuss these barriers to education and how community colleges and other initiatives help undermine them for Native Americans.

Community colleges often remove some of the barriers that plague Native Americans seeking higher education. One barrier stems from low high school graduation rates for Native American, 40 percent have not graduated from high school (Native, 1990, p. 28). When they do attend schools, Native Americans often receive their education in impoverished school districts. The poor quality of education leaves them unprepared for college-level work. Community colleges often offer a less-rigorous curriculum intende

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students. They view their institutions as second-rate. However, community colleges and minority educators are helping thwart such misconceptions. As Fields (1998) argues: Scholars of color are emerging in leadership positions on campuses that have never before had melanin-kissed faces in such roles. Meanwhile, minority-serving community colleges are raising student and faculty performance standards, upgrading their curriculum offerings, and getting their technology acts together (6). The tribal colleges and universities in the U.S. serve a population of 30,000 full-time and part-time students (Hammer, 2003). Community colleges have upgraded efforts described above because of increasing enrollment by Native Americans in non-tribal colleges and universities. Likewise, in line with President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act, Indian tribes, schools, and state and local agencies that serve American Indian children have been provides $105 million in grants by U.S. Secretary of Education Roderick Page (Hammer, 2003). The funds are intended to close the gap between high school graduation and college enrollment, with $5 million dedicated to "college preparation" and "partnerships between schools and community colleges" to assist in

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