Pinpointing student success rests on academic, personal factors

BOBBI SAMPSON

June 19, 2008 at 3:39PM AKST

What is student success? Is success knowing one’s culture and language? Is it having a strong Yup’ik identity? Is success being able to pass standardized exams? Or is success being able to succeed in the modern world?  

From 2004-07, I worked closely with Bethel residents, teachers, and parents to examine different ideas about student success and bilingual education. This information was used as part of my work for a graduate degree in anthropology.

I interviewed 26 Bethel residents. I also read articles in The Tundra Drums and Delta Discovery from the past 30 years to help me further understand the issue.

This article is a brief report of my findings. I would appreciate hearing any comments or any opinions about bilingual education in general.

I found that participants in this study identified two forms of student success: academic success and personal success.

Standardized test scores, according to many participants, were an indicator of academic success. Other participants thought that having a strong Yup’ik identity through learning Yup’ik language, culture, and heritage was a marker of personal success.

Because many participants thought the standardized test scores were important, I examined these scores and compared the test scores of Kilbuck Elementary to Ayaprun Elitnaurvik in the third- and sixth-grade benchmarks and in the CAT5 exam.

An analysis of scores revealed that overall, Kilbuck Elementary had higher scores than Ayaprun Elitnaurvik in most categories. However, this does not mean that Ayaprun students are not getting a good education.

Research has shown that Alaska Native students and other minorities typically perform poorer on standardized tests than their non-Native peers. Since Ayaprun has a much larger Alaska Native student population than Kilbuck, we can expect that their test scores will be lower.

Ayaprun parents and teachers believe that it is important for students to develop into “good people” with strong Yup’ik identities and emphasized knowing heritage, language, and culture is important. Supporters of Ayaprun Elitnaurvik believe that the benefits of personal success outweigh the importance of standardized exam scores.

A more in-depth presentation of this study will be given this fall. Announcements will appear in The Drums and on school bulletin boards. Everyone is invited and encouraged to attend.

In the meantime, any questions about the research or findings can be directed to me at fsbes@uaf.edu.  I sincerely enjoyed working with the community on this project, and thanks to everyone who participated, the schools and the Bethel community.

Bobbi Sampson is a graduate student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and holds a master’s degree in anthropology.