The Bush Foundation has awarded about $7-million in grants to boost education initiatives in South Dakota.
The grants aim to add to the number of Native American teachers overall and also to increase the number of indigenous language teachers. One grant also boosts an effort to build more customized learning strategies for schools.
Dr. Robert Cook PhD is an enrolled Oglala Sioux Tribal Member who leads the Native Alliance Initiative for the group Teach for America. The organization recruits top tier college graduates and professionals to become educators in high need areas. Teach for America received a grant of $2-million from the Bush Foundation to boost the number of Native teachers in South Dakota. Cook says the organization started with 17 teachers in 2004, today he says there are over 100 educators across the state.
“The grant is really going to help us drive our recruitment of Native teachers and hopefully to matriculate them into the classrooms to serve in tribal schools across South Dakota. But, also to support our Native and non-native teachers in becoming stronger teachers in a culturally responsive pedagogy,” says Cook.
The Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate also won a one million dollar grant from the Bush Foundation to build a college program to turn out more Lakota and Dakota language instructors. The group Technology in Education with the Black Hills Special Services Cooperative received a $4-million dollar grant to boost customized education that fits with students culture and learning styles.
