Less than 50 percent of American Indian and Alaska Native students Pacific and Northwestern regions graduate from high school, according to a new report.

The report from the The Civil Rights Project at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies looked at graduation rates in Alaska, Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington and Wyoming. In one state, less than a third of Native students finished high school.

"Many American Indian and Alaska Native students face a wide variety of challenges including attending schools in rural and isolated areas, high teacher and principal turnover, lack of relevant curricula and assessment practices, inadequate funding, and other health, social, and economic disparities. Effective leadership at the local, tribal, state and national levels is essential to addressing these challenges," said co-author John W. Tippeconnic, III, the director of the American Indian Leadership Program and Batschelet Chair of Educational Administration at Pennsylvania State University.

"American Indian and Alaska Native students continue to graduate at alarmingly low rates across the nation. With the exception of Arizona, California, Montana and Oklahoma, on average, less than 50% of Native students in the states included in this study graduate each year," said co-author Susan C. Faircloth, also at Penn State. "Failure to respond to this crisis will have devastating effects on the educational, economic, health and social well-being of Native peoples and communities."

The average graduation rate for Native students was 46.6 percent. That was lower than the rates among Whites (69.8%), Asians (77.9%), Blacks (54.7%) and Hispanics (50.8%).

"The Dropout/Graduation Crisis among American Indians and Alaska Native Students: Failure to Respond Places the Future of Native People At Risk":
Press Release | Report