Review of Academic Achievement at Yakama Nation Tribal School in Washington

We inspected the Yakama Nation Tribal School, a grant-operated day school for students in grades 9 through 12, located in Toppenish, WA, to evaluate programs in place to help close the educational achievement gap and increase graduation rates. The No Child Left Behind Act, signed into law in January 2002, requires schools to complete a comprehensive needs assessment with which to develop a strategy aimed at meeting students’ academic development needs. We used the assessment to help evaluate Yakama’s progress.

 

We found that the school’s comprehensive needs assessment did not address a number of critical areas. Since the assessment was incomplete, specific needs of the school’s unique student population may remain unknown to school administrators, leaving the school unable to effectively prioritize its resources to ensure the successful educational achievement of its student population.

 

In addition, school children may have mastered conversational English but may not be able to express themselves effectively using academic English, the formal written, auditory, and visual language used in learning environments. All states require some type of English language learner (ELL) assessment that ranges from simply asking parents to identify the primary language spoken in the home to a formal test administered to all students. We found that Yakama Nation Tribal School officials had not administered ELL assessments.

 

We make three recommendations that, if implemented, should improve educational achievement efforts at the Yakama Nation Tribal School.