(Editor’s note: Indian parents often are concerned about the quality of education their children are receiving. They know high drop out statistics don’t reflect the intelligence of their children. Those who do succeed academically often are not prepared to be good tribal citizens. Some tribes have addressed this problem by adopting codes that reflect the community’s standards of teachers and teaching. The Rosebud Sioux Tribe adopted their code in October 1991. )

A Tribal Code of Education is widely recognized as an act of a sovereign nation, developed and implemented by a tribal government under the authority granted by its tribal constitution. Throughout Indian Country, tribes aim their education codes primarily at K-12 education, but their interest in pre-school and college level issues is increasing.

Of the 557 federally recognized tribes, approximately 80 have tribal education departments while less than a dozen have tribal codes of education, according to the Native American Rights Fund (NARF). The content and format of codes vary with the interest of each individual tribe. For example, the Red Lake Chippewa Code of Education focuses on culture and language on its reservation in Minnesota while the Rosebud Sioux Tribe’s code is aimed at governance and management of K-12 school systems on its reservation in South Dakota. A code establishes the framework for accountability for schools within a tribe’s jurisdiction. With an education code, a tribe can hold school boards responsible for ensuring tribal children receive a quality education, as defined in the code.

Ideally, the tribe creates its code’s standards and rules using input from the community, parents, school, and children.  On the Rosebud Reservation, the code was developed through a series of education forums and community hearings combined with input from the tribal council and tribal administration. The Native American Rights Fund assisted the Rosebud Sioux Tribe.

Developing and implementing a tribal code of education is an evolutionary process. Initially a code contains broad guidance in the form of goals, policy statement, and general outcomes. Over time, additions are made including administrative rules and standards. Administrative rules prescribe how the goals should be met. For example, to achieve language fluency, administrative rules would require certification of language teachers as well as language instruction and assessment at various grade levels. Additionally, the code may require that students meet some type of language requirement in order to graduate from a tribally accredited school Standards define the types of educational knowledge that the tribe expects of school children. For example, it will eventually be commonplace for tribal codes to include requirements for meeting certain reading, language arts, social science, mathematics, and science standards. These standards will define the tribe’s expectations of quality education.

Areas of implementation include governance; management and administration; curriculum and instruction; finance; and special program areas such as exceptional education, gifted and talented, alcohol and drug abuse education, and parenting education. Governance focuses on the tribe-school board relationship. Processes for communication between the tribe and the school board are established in the code, providing a means for the school board to demonstrate how it is meeting its responsibilities to children.

The Rosebud Sioux Tribe requires schools to provide the tribe with an annual report describing student achievement and participation. These reports along with other information pertaining to education on the reservation are compiled in an annual State of Education Report, which then allows the tribe to analyze its progress toward its goals.

Curriculum and instruction regulations include teacher certification, school standards, language and culture requirements, and special programs. Tribal codes can emphasize that teachers must  be certified in the culture, history, and language of the tribe, as well as the learning needs of tribal children. This provides communities with a cadre of better qualified teachers. If standards emphasize cultural relevancy and academic achievement, they ensure that children receive a tribally-based education. Generally, language and culture requirements are components of standards although in some codes, they may stand alone.

Tribal accreditation of schools is a long term goal of tribes with tribal codes of education. Accreditation requires that the tribe has sufficient staffing and financial resources to examine all aspects of a school, including certification of staff, finances, policies and procedures, curriculum, and standards. Reciprocity with states may be necessary to ensure that students graduate with recognized degrees and that they remain eligible to participate in high school activities associations. In South Dakota, state accreditation is required for such participation. The Rosebud Tribe has been working with limited success on a reciprocity agreement with the state for the last several years.

When implementing tribal codes, tribes often encounter problems when they lack experience regulating education and lack enforcement authority. In its haste to regulate education, a tribe may adopt a state’s administrative rules, thus effectively eliminating the basic reason for a tribal code—tribal control of education. In the case of tribally chartered schools ,the only real sanction available to a tribe is to abolish or amend the school’s charter. For public an private schools operating within the jurisdiction of a tribe, enforcement of the code often hinges on the relationships between the tribe and those systems.

Tribal codes are statements of tribal policy and expectations regarding the education of Native youth. They help the tribal community achieve high quality, effective education. Tribal grant and contract schools have only existed for slightly more than 25 years while tribal codes of education are generally less than 10 years old. If based in sufficient, active community participation, codes will identify educational issues that are important to the tribe and provide regulation for these issues. The real goal of a tribal education code is to ensure learning for tribal children and to remove all school barriers to learning so that our tribal children can become productive, contributing tribal citizens.

Cheryl Crazy Bull is the chief educational officer for St. Francis Indian School, the tribally chartered school on the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation. Sherry Red Owl is the director of education for the Rosebud Sioux Tribe and the chairperson of the National Advisory Council on Indian Education. Both have long-standing affiliations with Sinte Gleska University.