 - Graduation rates on the Wind River Reservation have been “trending upward” over the past decade, state education officials reported last month. ){kind=link}
(Riverton, WY) – Graduation rates on the Wind River Reservation have been “trending upward” over the past decade, state education officials reported last month.
“(They’re) still not where all of us would want to see the graduation rates, but they are improving,” Wyoming Department of Education Native American Liaison Rob Black told the Wyoming Legislature’s Select Committee on Tribal Relations during a meeting last month in Riverton.
He pointed specifically to the graduation rate at Wyoming Indian High School, which rose from 50 percent in 2023 to 76 percent last year, according to the WDE.
“That’s a huge jump – (a) very significant jump,” Black said.
Fremont County School District 14 Superintendent Elizabeth Smiley said the 76 percent graduation rate represented a cohort of 51 seniors, 45 of whom graduated in 2024.
She also pointed out that the five- and six-year graduation rates for WIHS have been “steadily in the 60 to 70 percent range” since 2017.
“We continue working with students as long as they are willing to work with us – up until they are 21 years old,” Smiley said. “Sometimes there are things that happen in their lives that they need that extra time, and we provide that for them.”
Arapahoe Charter
The graduation rate at Arapahoe Charter High School was 42 percent last year, according to the WDE – down from 47 percent in 2023 but a marked increase from the 18 percent graduation rate recorded in 2022.
Fremont County School District 38 Superintendent Curt Mayer said last year’s graduating class included 14 seniors – “the highest (number) ever” – and this year, 13 students graduated.
“(We’re) very excited about that,” he said. “And we just keep growing as we go along.”
There are currently 56 students enrolled at ACHS, Meyer said, with about 30 students on the waiting list.
Fort Washakie
The graduation rate at Fort Washakie High School was 32 percent last year, down from 50 percent in 2023 and 35 percent in 2022, according to the WDE – but despite those statistics, Fremont County School District 21 Superintendent Deb Smith said, “we are making gains.”
For example, she said FWHS graduated 23 students this year – the largest graduating class in school history.
Wyoming Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, said that achievement was likely the result of district efforts to increase student attendance.
Smith had just reported that 92 percent of FCSD 14 students had five or more unexcused absences last year – but this year that number fell to 46 percent.
“That’s a huge drop,” Case said.
Similarly, Smith said 56 percent of students recorded 20 or more unexcused absences last year – down to 6 percent this year.
“We are making a difference,” she said. “We are making those relationships with students. We’re doing home visits. … And we are having kids wanting to come to school and wanting to stay at school.”
Graduation ‘gap’
Statewide, Black said the graduation rate for all Wyoming students was almost 82 percent in 2024, but the graduation rate for Native students – who make up about 3 percent of the overall student population – was 53 percent.
“So, there is a gap there still, (and) the gap has remained fairly consistent over time,” Black said. “It kind of goes up and down and depends on the district and the schools … but I think it’s fair to say none of us are happy that that gap is not closing as fast as we would probably like.”
That “gap” is evident at Riverton High School, where administrators said the 2024 graduation rate was about 63 percent for all students and 29 percent for Native students – who make up about 30 percent of the student population in Fremont County School District 25.
Roy Brown, the Director of Native American Education at FCSD 25, said that 30 percent ratio probably makes the Riverton school district the “least homogenous” in the state.
The diversity of the student body could have an impact on Native student achievement, he noted, since teachers in FCSD 25 are likely to spend less time on “cultural awareness and understanding” compared to teachers at Wind River Reservation schools, where the vast majority of students are Native (97 percent at FCSD 14, 96 percent at FCSD 21, and 90 percent at FCSD 38, according to Black).
The superintendents for those districts all said they emphasize Native culture and language throughout the school day and beyond in order to encourage student and community engagement.
“That’s kind of been our focus,” Smiley said. “How do we build that sense of community for the students and the families where everybody feels comfortable, and how do we tie in our language and culture?”
Language, culture
FCSD 21 organizes regular “cultural activities” designed to engage local families, Smith said, and for the past two years district seventh-graders have been able to go on multi-day field trips to the Lamar Buffalo Ranch, where they participate in “project-based learning” activities that incorporate “culturally based and culturally relevant practices.”
District eighth-graders have the opportunity to attend the Teton Science School, she added, and this year a small group of students traveled to Wisconsin to work with dinosaur artifacts.
At FCSD 38, Meyer said cultural celebrations take place every Friday, and the district regularly celebrates “Heritage Week,” when “we take the students out of the classroom and we focus on different parts of the Northern Arapaho culture,” engaging in activities like “tanning hides, beadwork, (and) hand games” as well as trips to the Arapaho Ranch and local buffalo pastures.
Students also receive Arapaho language lessons on a daily basis, Meyer said, and teachers participate in monthly training sessions where they learn how to incorporate the Arapaho language into their lesson plans.
The Arapaho language is also visible on signage throughout the district, Meyer said, and the Arapaho language app was recently updated to feature videos of elders pronouncing Arapaho words and phrases.
FCSD 14 offers Native language classes to all of its students too, Smiley said – including 125 students who are currently enrolled in the district’s K-4 dual language immersion program.
The district is also building a computer science curriculum that incorporates Arapaho and Shoshone language and culture, she said, and all teachers regularly receive resources to help them “weave” aspects of Native culture and language into “their normal science or math lessons.”
After school, FCSD 14 students can participate in extracurricular activities like drum groups and beading circles, Smiley added, and in the summer they can work with local fish and wildlife agencies to release the trout that were raised in the classroom during the school year.
Wyoming Rep. Ivan Posey, D-Fort Washakie, commended the superintendents from the reservation schools for their “efforts on cultural methods of teaching.”
“It’s good to see (that) those students that are more exposed to their culture and tradition … have a better success rate in school,” he said. “So I’m glad you guys are making progress in that.”
Case agreed that “integrating cultural instruction and immersion and identity and learning is so important” – even if school administrators don’t have the “definitive ability to show that it’s creating results.”
“There must be positive results, (but) we don’t have proof,” Case said, adding, “That’s not a reason to get rid of it. … I’m just saying it’s hard to figure out what works.”