The National Indian Education Study: Reporting More Results Than Ever

The release of the National Indian Education Study (NIES) 2019 report contains the largest amount of American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) subgroup data in NIES program history. NIES is designed to describe the condition of education for AI/AN students in the United States. There are two central components to NIES. The first component is the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) mathematics and reading assessments administered to students at grades 4 and 8, along with NAEP survey questionnaires that are also administered to these students as well as their teacher and school administrators. The second component is an NIES specific survey for AI/AN students, their teachers, and school administrators. One of the central goals of NIES, since its inception, has been providing more subgroup data. State-level data has steadily expanded and more recent reports, including this one, spotlight contextual factors associated with higher versus lower academic performance among AI/AN students.

The 2019 report includes state-level data for 15 states that have relatively large proportions of AI/AN students. Generally speaking, if a state has over one percent of AI/AN students, state specific results are reportable. All AI/AN students participating in this study—including those in states without state-specific results—play a vital role in ensuring our ability to report reliable and representative data. For instance, while we do not have AI/AN-specific results for California, students who completed NIES in California (as well as students in any state) contribute to the study’s results at the national-level, by school type, and by a myriad of other demographic variables.

The NIES 2019 report, consistent with previous reports, features data for three mutually exclusive categories of schools:

• Low density public schools (where less than 25 percent of all students in the school were AI/AN)
• High density public schools (where 25 percent or more of all the students in the school were AI/AN)
• Bureau of Indian Education schools

NIES 2019 results show the diversity within the AI/AN student group. The AI/AN Culture and Language section of the report provides an in-depth look at the findings from the student, teacher, and administrator survey questions. In addition to these NIES survey questions, the report also provides information on student achievement. For example, a subsection of the report – Perspectives Beyond the Average Score – examines individual and contextual factors that are associated with higher versus lower academic performance among AI/AN students. Compared to their lower-performing peers, higher-performing AI/AN students were more likely to report that they had:

• Internet access at home (at both grades 4 and 8 in reading and mathematics),
• More than 100 books in their homes (at grade 8 in reading and at grades 4 and 8 in mathematics), and
• A school library, media center, or resource center that contained materials about AI/AN people (at grades 4 and 8 in reading).

Similar to the last NIES report, the NIES Technical Review Panel made up of individuals with expertise in matters related to the education of American Indian and Alaska Native students has authored a supplementary document, National Indian Education Study 2019: Setting the Context. This document helps provide a perspective of how NIES is situated within a much broader context. The Panel notes, “. . . we know firsthand that positive academic outcomes can be evidenced when AI/AN youth have access to learning environments that recognize, elevate, and honor their linguistic, cultural/tribal, and academic diversity. Unfortunately, there is a dearth of published research on this topic. This study provides a unique and much-needed opportunity to explore these relationships.” Setting the Context is available online at https://oese.ed.gov/files/2021/05/NIES_setting_the_context_508.pdfClick to open pdf..

Learn about AI/AN academic performance and cultural experiences from these reports and explore more data with the NIES NAEP Data Explorer (NDE).