The U.S. Department of Education Office of Indian Education has awarded one million dollars to a consortia of nine federally recognized tribes of the Pacific Northwest and the UO College of Education’s Area of Teacher Education. Funded by the federal Department of Education’s Indian Professional Development Program, the three-year award to the Sapsik’walá (Teacher) Program will support a comprehensive teacher education program to recruit, train, and mentor American Indian teachers serving American Indian communities.

“The confederated tribes and the UO College of Education have together identified a need for increasing the number of American Indian teachers,” says Pat Rounds, COE Teacher Education faculty member and principal investigator for the new program. “The Sapsik’walá program is unique in its provision of an induction year of services—professional support and resources for the newly licensed American Indian teachers during their first year of teaching,” says Rounds.

The rigorous COE teacher licensure programs lead to a master’s degree and include completion of State of Oregon initial teaching licensure requirements in general or special education at elementary or middle/high school levels. Induction-year services include provision of mentors, formative evaluations, support for professional conference attendance, seminar meetings and on-site consulting, an electronic distribution and discussion list, and on-line consultation and website conferencing.

“These services will create a networked and sustainable Oregon American Indian Educators professional learning community,” says Martin Kaufman, dean of the COE. “This complements the university’s larger mission and role in fostering American Indian education and research.”

The Sapsik’walá Program is a component of the University of Oregon’s Native American Initiative. The initiative’s goal is to make the University of Oregon a regional and national center for American Indian education and research. The initiative encompasses and coordinates many programs or services created at the UO over the past decade to learn from and serve the American Indian communities of the Northwest.

Grant activities of the Sapsik’walá Program will be overseen by an advisory council of representatives from the tribal consortia, the local community, and the university. The UO Teacher Education Program will work with the university's coordinator for Native American enrollment services, Az Carmen, and James Florendo of the Office of Multicultural Affairs as they consult with education specialists from the tribes to recruit and counsel potential applicants.

The tribes partnering with the UO College of Education are:
• Burns Paiute Tribe
• Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians
• Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde
• Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians of Oregon
• Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla Tribes)
• Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation
• Coquille Indian Tribe
• Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Indians
• Klamath General Council (Klamath, Modoc and Yahooskin)

“The tribes and the college are eager to create these opportunities to train American Indians to become licensed teachers," says Rounds.

"We look forward to our partnership in the training of teachers whose professional development and cultural sensitivities will bring about long-term, much needed improvements they seek for the elementary, middle, and high school educational experiences of American Indian youth,” says Rounds.

Tribal representatives and faculty from the university and college will gather this winter at an inaugural event to share work plans and honor their shared vision for improving the education of American Indian youth.