Center for Alaska Education Policy Research, University of Alaska Anchorage
Abstract
In Alaska, 80% of rural students are Alaska
Native. But fewer than 5% of Alaska’s certified
teachers are Alaska Native, and 74% of
teachers hired by Alaska’s public schools come
from outside the state. Teachers new to rural
Alaska typically remain on the job just one or
two years.
Since 1970, there have been numerous teacher
certification programs intended to bring more
Alaska Natives and rural residents into classrooms.
Many community and education leaders
believe rural schools could benefit from
having more such teachers, because they would
likely stay on the job longer, be more familiar
with their students’ communities and cultures,
and provide more powerful role models for
Alaska Native students.
The share of rural teachers who are Alaska Natives
or rural residents remains small, but efforts
to increase their numbers continue. The
programs offered in the past few decades have
provided important lessons about how to successfully
recruit and prepare Alaska Native and
rural-resident teachers. But these lessons are
not well documented or consistently used in
Alaska’s current teacher certification programs.
In this brief, we take a first step toward summarizing
the contributions of these programs
by describing them, their graduates, and key
lessons learned. This brief does not discuss
current efforts at the University of Alaska to
increase the number of Alaska Native and rural
-resident teachers graduating from regular
teacher preparation programs. But it’s important
to recognize that all three UA campuses
enroll Alaska Native teacher candidates in
their regular programs, and all include distance
-delivered programs, in an effort to recruit and
better meet the needs of teacher candidates
from rural communities
