The Senate, Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee held a field hearing in Sante Fe, New Mexico on NCLB on August 10, exploring the impact of the law on Native American students, which so far, has been an under-the-radar-issue in the larger reauthorization debate.
Coverage of the event in the Santa Fe New Mexican and the Albequerque Journal mainly focused on criticisms that the law has made it harder for schools to focus on native languages and culture.
Maggie Benally, principal of the Navajo Language Immersion School in Fort Defiance, Ariz., which has made adequate yearly progress the past three years, talked about how her school uses native language as a tool to help students develop higher level thinking skills, according to the local reports. Back in March, Education Week‘s Mary Ann Zehr wrote a profile of the school.