PHOTO CREDIT: LOWER KUSKOKWIM SCHOOL DISTRICT

The Lower Kuskokwim School District (LKSD), located in southwestern Alaska, serves approximately 4,000 students in 29 schools over a land area of 22,000 square miles. About 95% of LKSD’s students are Alaska Native, primarily of Yup’ik or Cup’ig heritage. Five district schools are in the region’s hub, Bethel, which is accessible via jet service from Anchorage, while the remainder of the district’s schools are accessible via small plane service from Bethel.

The mission of the Lower Kuskokwim School District is to ensure bilingual, culturally appropriate, and effective education for all students, thereby providing them with the opportunity to be responsible, productive citizens. Over the past 10 years, the district, under the guidance of the school board, has developed and implemented a strategic thinking model aligned with the district’s mission and core values. The Strategic Thinking Model and Key Measures (three-year goals) have provided a systems approach to language and culture immersion in the district, including the implementation of the Yugtun/Cugtun Dual Language Enrichment (DLE) Model program in K-6. The program is in 19 of the district’s 29 schools. It has also led to fully translated and localized indigenous language curriculum materials. The Key Measures, or three-year student outcomes, drive district budgeting, programmatic decisions, staffing plans, and resource allocation.

LKSD has a long history of investment in bilingual education and place-based learning, spanning over 30 years. The district has also heavily invested in growing its own teachers in support of the mission, and in support of the focus on Yup’ik and Cup’ig language and culture instruction, which is an integral part of the academic program. LKSD has produced numerous localized and translated texts with the support of Yugtun and Cugtun language experts. The district’s Yugtun language arts anthologies are used in all schools that operate a DLE program, as are the localized and translated social studies and science textbooks.

When students use translated, culturally relevant, and place-based materials in school, they are immersed in their native language, and they see images and content concepts directly connected to their lived experiences. For example, in the kindergarten social studies unit on heroes, students not only learn about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but they also learn about local heroes like Molly Hootch and Anna Tobeluk, two women who challenged Alaska to provide for schools in local communities through the 12th grade. In the same text, students learn not only about living in a city and about following rules but also about living in a village and the importance of listening to their elders.

At the secondary level, course options expand into Yuuyaraq Personal Life Skills, and Yuuyaraq Health I and II. Additionally, LKSD offers conversational Yugtun language courses for junior high and high school students, as well as more advanced courses that include Yup’ik orthography. High school students can take Yup’ik orthography courses for dual credit in partnership with the University of Alaska Fairbanks. With enough credits, they can earn a Yup’ik Language Competency Occupational Endorsement Certificate. LKSD also offers secondary students the chance to earn a seal of biliteracy in Yugtun and English. This seal honors the Yup’ik language and heritage, encourages students to study Yugtun, certifies attainment of biliteracy skills, recognizes language diversity, and honors the cultures and languages of our communities.

For nearly a decade, LKSD has been invested in creating an authentic Yup’ik language assessment tool in partnership with WIDA, a consortium of state departments of education, and the University of Wisconsin. Called the Yugtun Piciryaraq Qaneryaraq-llu Cuqyun, or YPQC, this tool measures oral communication, literacy, and cultural language through the subtests of listening, speaking, reading, writing, nonverbal communication, and Yup’ik worldview. Forming a Yup’ik expert group and giving them the autonomy to define what it means to be a proficient communicator in Yup’ik allowed for this measurement to be created without the primary source starting in English. What is most compelling, now that we have our first sets of data (released in January 2024), is the school and community dialogues around the shared responsibility of continuing to foster and promote the Yugtun language in our youth.

More information on YPQC is available on this website.

Without the systematic support from the school board in funding teacher growth programs, the localization/translation of instructional materials, the collegial-level certificated programs, and the building of an authentic assessment, the students of the Lower Kuskokwim area would surely continue to lose their heritage language and their culture. The mission of LKSD to “ensure bilingual, culturally appropriate, and effective education for all students” is strongly shared, supported, and lived by all members of the LKSD community.

Hankins and Powers will present on the Lower Kuskokwim School District's bilingual education and cultural learning initiatives at NSBA's 2024 Annual Conference.