Is paramount that it involves cultural values & teachings

The Institute will provide services to evaluate current program curriculums within schools and give expert recommendations to develop, restructure, realign and articulate curriculums to mandated state and federal regulations, based on the NCLB Act of 1991.  Most importantly, the Institute will integrate the curriculums by incorporating the traditional Native American teachings and principles to current pedagogies of teaching in the 21st Century, USING THE CORNSTALK PHILOSOPHY. Along with the curriculum development and alignment, the Institute will assist in realigning current local school assessments and rubrics to specifically target individual student needs in their mental, emotional, social and physical developmental areas.

The Institute staff are available for long term school-wide evaluation of instructional and organizational effectiveness of individual schools, whether they be public, private or BIE.  Our staff has expertise in implementing a schoolwide model in making determinations of school limitations and strengths, thus making recommendations for realistic Action Plans that can be reviewed on a consistent basis throughout the school year.  Our staff uses the following steps in providing this technical assistance:

1. Developing the Profile: outlines a process analyzing information in a variety of critical areas that leads to a comprehensive profile of students and communities served by the school.
2. Defining Beliefs and Mission: assists schools in articulating their beliefs and mission to help guide a shared vision for a common purpose and direction for the school.
3. Defining Desired Results for Student Learning: guides in the identification of goals and expectations for student learning aligned with the school’s beliefs and mission.
4. Analyzing Instructional and Organizational effectiveness : helps schools analyze the effectiveness/quality of their instructional and organizational practices & determine alignment of these conditions with the schools’ beliefs, mission and goals for student learning.
5. Developing the Profile: provides a process for determining the target area goals for school improvement, the design of data-driven and research-based school improvement initiatives to achieve the goals, estimate the timelines and resources required for implementing the strategies, Implementing the Plan
6. Documenting Results: helps schools monitor the implementation of the school improvement plan, collect evidence of the achievement of the target goals for improvement and sustain the commitment to continuous improvement.

The Institute has been providing conferences in different locations throughout the Navajo reservation on how the native cultures can be integrated in the school curriculum as well as in the work place for administrators, school board members, teachers and paraprofessionals.  Some of the conferences we sponsored are:

• NCLB Facts
• Legal History of Indian education
• Navajo Nation Polices and Procedures of School Board Members
• Leadership skills and principles from Native American perspective
• Integration of culture stories in school wide curriculum and policies
• Strategies of implementing culture in the classrooms
• Birth of Changing Woman
• Navajo Constellations
• Winter Stories
• Changing Woman’s migration to the West
• Killing of the Monsters and how it pertains to educational problems within students
• Traditional Navajo Classroom Management Skills

Other Areas of Technical assistance, all based on the traditional Navajo Philosophy:

• Education of leaders int eh areas of business and government and leadership, using the Dine Philsophy
• Effective administration of Head start programs and staff development
• Early Childhood Education
• Culture – Based Curriculum Development
• Eduction of Gifted and Talented native people
• Mental Health issues
• Substance Abuse, Prevention, including alcohol, inhalants, and other drugs