Posts Tagged ‘Lodge Grass High School’

7
Jun

Schools of Promise program focuses on Indian reservations

   Posted by: admin    in Denise Juneau, Education, Northern Cheyenne

At Lodge Grass School, home economics teacher Renee Elsen and eighth-graders Cheryl Robinson, Monica Chief At Night, Alissa Yarlott, Paul Nomee, Lenord Little Light, Vohn Brien and Julian Prez, from left, count up proceeds from a lunch-hour fundraiser. (Bob Zellar/Billings Gazette)

At Lodge Grass School, home economics teacher Renee Elsen and eighth-graders Cheryl Robinson, Monica Chief At Night, Alissa Yarlott, Paul Nomee, Lenord Little Light, Vohn Brien and Julian Prez, from left, count up proceeds from a lunch-hour fundraiser. (Bob Zellar/Billings Gazette)

Here‘s the second story in a series by Billings (Mont.) writer Lorna Thackeray on Montana’s efforts to improve schools on Indian reservations, the worst-performing schools in the state. Read Day One, here, on the Schools of Promise program:

LAME DEER — Lame Deer High School will open this fall with a big celebration to welcome its incarnation as one of Montana’s “Schools of Promise.” That much is certain.

“They’re telling us our first day is going to be different than any other first day,” said Connie Sell, president of the Lame Deer Education Association and a second- and third-grade teacher.

But how the transformation will be accomplished during the intervening three months, and what the school will look like in the end, are a little murky. Details are still in the works, including crucial questions of who will lead the school next year and who will be teaching what. The curriculum will be getting a makeover, too.

“The stress level here is really, really high,” acknowledges Jill Henzie, district curriculum director, who is enthusiastic about the opportunities she sees in Schools of Promise. “They don’t know who the principal is going to be. They don’t know who the superintendent is going to be or what their job assignments are going to be.”

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6
Jun

Help at long last for Montana’s failing Indian reservation schools

   Posted by: admin    in Crow Tribe, Denise Juneau, Education, Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, Fort Peck Indian Reservation, Northern Cheyenne, Rocky Boy's Reservaton

Zac Cummin, Rudolph Old Crow Jr. and Henry Speelman Jr. eat lunch at Lodge Grass High School recently. (Bob Zellar/Billings Gazette)

Zac Cummin, Rudolph Old Crow Jr. and Henry Speelman Jr. eat lunch at Lodge Grass High School recently. (Bob Zellar/Billings Gazette)

This story is the first in a two-part series by Lorna Thackeray of the Billings (Mont.) Gazette. It points out the shameful fact that the worst-performing high schools in Montana are on Indian reservations. And it talks about what’s being done to change that:

Montana Superintendent of Schools Denise Juneau (Bob Zellar/Billings Gazette)

Montana Superintendent of Schools Denise Juneau (Bob Zellar/Billings Gazette)

There is no glory for the five high schools on the bottom of Montana’s academic ladder — except perhaps on the basketball court.

It won’t come as a shock to most that the lowest-ranking schools in the state are in isolated communities on Indian reservations, that the students are among the most economically disadvantaged or that the schools have been failing students for years.

What may be a surprise is that they are all in Eastern Montana. From the bottom up, according to proficiency scores reported by the Montana Office of Public Instruction (OPI), they are Hays-Lodge Pole with 13.2 percent of its students at or above proficient levels; Lodge Grass High School, with 14.4 percent; Frazer High School with 15 percent; Plenty Coups High School in Pryor at 15.5 percent; and Lame Deer High School at 17.8 percent.

For comparison, Wolf Point High School was at 45.9 percent; Harlem High School was at 48 percent; Hardin High School was at 54.6 percent; and Billings Senior was at 71 percent. (Like the lowest-ranking schools, all are Title 1 schools.)

Graduation rates are equally abysmal. In 2009, the rate at Frazer was 61.5 percent. It was 60 percent at Hays-Lodge Pole; 39 percent at Lame Deer; 52.1 percent at Lodge Grass; and 74.1 percent at Plenty Coups.

Each school struggles in its own way, but there is one constant, said Denise Juneau, Montana superintendent of schools. Poverty.

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