The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is an internationally known arts institution in Washington, DC. The Kennedy Center recognized that many young people need equitable and ongoing access to the arts in schools because access to the arts often depends on school budgets, scheduling constraints, and administrative commitment. In 2009,…

While the United States is simultaneously recovering from a global pandemic and facing a national reckoning of racial injustice, the effects of COVID-19 continue to exacerbate academic and opportunity gaps that were decades in the making in K-12 systems. Most students are performing worse than before the pandemic. For students of color, there is a…

Background: Over the past decade, courts increasingly have considered cases that involve clashes between public, secular private, and religious institutions in education. Such clashes appear to have intensified as recently as the 2019-2020 Supreme Court term, and the confirmation of Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the Court in 2020 suggests…

From the beginning, preservation and continuity of tribal histories and cultures have been at the center of the strategic vision for tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) (Bordeaux, 1989). TCUs have developed the infrastructure and networks to support the revitalization, preservation, and teaching of Indigenous languages and cultures. But while…

Despite the myriad of challenges that families, students, teachers and policymakers faced in 2021, the momentum to transform education did not waver. New opportunities for students unfolded in more than a dozen states through expanded private and public school choice. An additional 1.7 million students gained eligibility for private choice alone,…

Industries in every state are struggling to find qualified applicants for jobs, while job seekers too often find they lack the skills needed to enter or move along a career pathway to a good job. Preparing a workforce that is poised to meet the needs of businesses and ultimately to make the state more economically competitive is a top priority for…

This case study explored artistic journeys of six artistically gifted middle school adolescents in rural Montana, USA, in order to ascertain the perceived level of support offered by their schools and communities, for developing their talent. Two primary questions guided the qualitative research, and related to: 1) student perceptions of personal…

The education system of the United States is not adequately preparing a large proportion of its students for college, career-training, and, ultimately, jobs that provide enough income to support a middle class standard of living. Because the education system has failed to attain hoped-for outcomes, some states are investigating new systems,…

The average age of farmers and ranchers is rising and each year, there are fewer young and beginning farmers and ranchers (YBFR). Therefore, it is critical that agricultural educators and programmers provide learning opportunities that develop the knowledge and competencies YBFR need to be successful. The purpose of this study was to develop a…

The purpose of this article is to address a gap in the empirical literature by analyzing levels of proportional representation of American Indians over time in state and local government bureaucracies in key states. The authors limit their analysis to six states with the largest percentages of American Indian populations in 2000: Alaska, Arizona,…

Creating opportunities for students to actively apply hazards theory to real-life situations is often a challenge in hazards geography courses. This article presents a project, the Jocko Lakes Fire Project, that implemented learning strategies to encourage students to be active in wildfire hazards research. Wildfire hazards stand out as an…

With local lumber mills shutting down, Robert Kenning, an instructor at Salish Kootenai College in western Montana, and the tribe's forestry director, came up with an idea. Kenning landed a $200,000 Department of Agriculture grant in 2010 to explore the possibility of turning logging scraps and smaller trees into chips or pellets that could be…

This report provides educators and policymakers with information they can use to celebrate their successes, understand their unique challenges, and set meaningful goals to increase opportunity for all students. It is important to note that while AP® Exams are valid measures of students' content mastery of college-level studies in specific academic…

This paper describes an ethnographically-oriented participant-observation study conducted during the annual Crow Fair, held in south central Montana. Data collected included audio-recorded interviews with participants, participant observations, photographic and video recordings. Narrative interviews were transcribed and analyzed using the constant…

As an open-access institution and a tribal college, Salish Kootenai College (SKC, Pablo, Montana) accepts all students who walk through the doors. Part of SKC's mission is to provide educational opportunities and access for students who are historically underrepresented in higher education. In recent years, national attention has focused on the…