Stone Child College excited about new 4-year degree program

Stone Child College at Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation is working to keep teachers not just in Montana, but on reservations like Rocky Boy with the addition of their newly accredited four-year teaching degree.

Teacher Education Instructor Kadene Drummer, Ph.D., said the accreditation process took about six years, but she's excited for the future of Rocky Boy Reservation schools with the new program.

Drummer said she and her staff asked for input from students, faculty and the community about what programs they wanted at SCC.

"Teacher education degree was just one of (the degree programs) that came up as a need for the community," she added.

Stone Child started by partnering with Salish Kootenai College in what Drummer called a "two and two" program.

Salish Kootenai College sent teachers to run classes at Stone Child, with Stone Child later using its own teachers in the classes, which were still part of the Salish Kootenai curriculum.

Eventually, Stone Child developed its own program and received accreditation from the Montana Office of Public Instruction and from the Board of Education.

In creating the program, Drummer said, they spoke with students to get an idea of what they thought of the curriculum and how to best mold it for them. She added they also worked with the University of Pennsylvania in regards to best practices for hands-on experience.

One of the ideas to come out of this collaboration is the use of "clinical rotations." Drummer said once students begin the actual teaching degree stage in their academic cycle, they are paired with an instructor who acts as a mentor.

Stone Child also has a partnership with the Montana School for the Deaf and Blind where SCC students who are pursuing their four-year degree can go and prepare a lesson plan about their culture and present it to the class, she added.

As the students progress through the program, they add to their e-portfolio. Drummer said by the time students graduate they will have sufficient experience documented in their e-portfolios.

Drummer said the first graduates from the four-year program will receive their degrees this coming spring.

Indian Education Professional Development Program member Susan Sutherland said Stone Child College still helps their graduates through its grant-funded induction program. She added that with the current grant, the college can offer these services for a year and with the second grant they are receiving, they can provide the service for two years.

"Our hopeful impact is that we will have more Native teachers in local schools as well as surrounding schools. And that is basically the goal of the grant is more Native American teachers, teaching Native American kids," she added.

Students are excited to be able to share their culture with the kids they will one day be teaching, Drummer said.

"It also has been an opportunity for them to meet the Montana requirement for Indian Ed For All and integrate information and knowledge about culture and tribes into the classroom," she added. "As well as encourage their fellow teachers who may not be Native or even those that are Native that are just learning some of them and getting comfortable to bring that mandate forward and to integrate that into the curriculum so that the children build a sense of self-identity and understand their own culture and their own language."

Stone Child College President Cory Sangrey-Billy said it is important that the community has teachers who are not only Native American, but from that same community.

"I think it gives them role models," she said. "It gives them, 'Oh, hey, I want to be a teacher. I want to do this. I can do that.' It gives them more of that, 'I see somebody that I know from my community doing something and I want to do the same thing.'"

Sangrey-Billy said enrollment did increase this year from last year with the addition of the bachelor's degree program for teaching. She added that the college is at capacity for its classrooms, but its focus remains on growing the bachelor's degree program for now.

She said tuition hasn't increased despite the new program.

"Right now if you go to school 12 to 15 (credits) you pay different after 15. To 21 it's the same, but we're looking at changing our rates so 12 to 18 costs the same," she said.

Sutherland said one of the issues that she had seen in her 32 years of teaching experience in the community was high teacher turnover.

"This program, when we're home-growing our own people from our community that are going to go out and hopefully teach in our local schools, there's a much better chance that that will reduce the teacher turnover rate which will be a huge win-win for both of our schools," she said.

All three women said they have received support throughout the Rocky Boy community.

Drummer said they receive assistance and feedback from local teachers about how to dress for the job, the importance of showing up on time and planning ahead, and ideas on what to add to the program.

Sutherland added that the Chippewa Cree tribal council has been supportive and they recently helped a group of students attend an educator's conference in Billings.

Sangrey-Billy said since the community is so small and close, they know what is going on at Stone Child College and are excited about it.

"It takes a lot of perseverance," Drummer said. "And we've persevered."

She added that one of the things she has learned after going through the accreditation process is that the process has many steps and some steps may take longer than others, but it will eventually come together. Even after the program is established, she said, the work is still not done.

Sutherland said the most exciting part about all of this is seeing all her former students now starting the path to becoming teachers.

"I actually teach a class right now, and I've taught a class the past summer and previous semesters. I always have one or two students in my class that I had in school" she added. "So, to me, that's exciting because they're carrying on their education, furthering it. Hopefully then, they'll one day be out in the school systems."

Sangrey-Billy said watching how happy and engaged the students are makes her happy.

"Somedays they're frustrated, but they've been stepping up to the plate and doing everything that we've asked for. (Going from a two-year program to a third year), there's a huge step in expectations and requirements and they've met those demands," she added.

Drummer said the new teaching program is open to anyone and that Stone Child College does not require students to be Native American to attend.