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During his senior year of high school on the Puyallup Reservation, Gerald Dillon traded much of his academic coursework for career training. When he walked into the second grade classroom where he worked as a teaching assistant, students would rush from their seats for a fist bump or a hug.<\/p>\n
The 18-year-old, who once found classes boring and put in only enough effort to pass, found renewed purpose to come to school everyday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt motivates me. I like making connections with the kids, I like helping them,\u201d Dillon said.<\/p>\n
It began in his junior year when he enrolled in career training courses. Soon, Dillon said, his grades improved. He graduated in June from Chief Leschi Schools in Washington and is now considering going to college for a teaching degree.<\/p>\n
Administrators at the school say a shift in focus to technical training and career readiness<\/a> is paying off, with more students not only staying in school but graduating on time.<\/p>\n Those gains are emblematic of progress across the U.S. Bureau of Indian Education, which oversees 183 primary and secondary schools serving over 40,000 students. In 2015, just over half of high schoolers at BIE schools graduated within four years. That number soared to a record high of 79% by 2025.<\/p>\n Some BIE educators attribute that surge to local innovations. Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Billy Kirkland says they reflect the Trump administration\u2019s commitment to Native American students, including efforts to strengthen teacher training. In addition, the way graduation rates are reported across BIE schools was changed to address flawed data collection that previously depressed the numbers.<\/p>\n But concerns loom that changes reshaping the BIE under the Trump administration \u2014 including the planned dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education and continued fallout from cuts instituted by DOGE \u2014 could undermine progress and prevent struggling schools from improving.<\/p>\n The surge in graduation rates reflects, in part, more accurate reporting rather than a sudden leap in student academic improvement, according to agency officials.<\/p>\n For years, school administrators across the system used flawed methods to track graduation rates, often counting students who had transferred to other schools as dropouts.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had to come to a consensus and set an accountability framework for our schools,\u201d said Carmelia Becenti, the agency\u2019s chief academic officer.<\/p>\n Beginning in 2018, BIE began standardizing data collection methods. In the years since, Becenti said, the data has painted a more accurate and encouraging picture.<\/p>\n An AP analysis of BIE data found that graduation rates across the system are up 55% since new reporting standards began rolling out, with nine of its secondary schools reporting 100% growth or higher.<\/p>\n Less than one-third of BIE schools are operated by the agency itself. The rest are run by tribes and receive federal funding. At some of those, educators say data collection is only part of the story.<\/p>\n Don Brummett, superintendent of Chief Leschi Schools, said his staff has been working to correct a \u201cdisconnect\u201d between the high school’s previous laser focus on getting students ready for college and many students\u2019 goals of finding a job upon graduation.<\/p>\n \u201cWe devalued the trades. That was a mistake,\u201d Brummett said.<\/p>\n The school launched its career and technical curriculum in 2020 with funding from the Puyallup Tribal Council. Since then, Brummett has seen students who might otherwise have dropped out instead enter health sciences, education and fisheries management and find new motivation to stay in school.<\/p>\n Dillon, the recent graduate, said hands-on job training was a better match for his learning style.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was kind of the first time I felt excited to go to school,\u201d said Dillon, reflecting on his time helping second graders practice reading skills and learn the life cycle of a frog.<\/p>\n Between 2019 and 2025, Chief Leschi Schools reported four-year graduation rates rose from 53% to 87%.<\/p>\n A focus on trades is just one of the ways tribal-controlled BIE schools have innovated to keep students on track. At Choctaw Central High School, a BIE school operated by the Mississippi Band of Choctaw<\/a>, administrators said a COVID-era experiment in virtual learning<\/a> contributed to a surge in graduation rates from roughly 70% to 93%.<\/p>\n \u201cFor certain kids that have more responsibilities at home, kids that need to work, we saw that (virtual learning) gave them a flexible schedule and an opportunity to earn their diploma,\u201d said principal Alaric Keams.<\/p>\n When pandemic lockdowns lifted, the district maintained a virtual learning option for all high schoolers.<\/p>\n But not all tribal governments have the resources to pay for these kinds of programs or take over management of BIE schools.<\/p>\n Peter Lengkeek, chairman of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, says the BIE-operated high school serving his community is chronically understaffed and crumbling under a backlog of deferred maintenance, including a gymnasium with sinking walls and a rodent infestation. It has reported graduating fewer than 60% of students on time in recent years.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we were able to, we would step in and try to remedy a lot of these things,\u201d said Lengkeek. \u201cWe have to rely on the government to fulfill its treaty promise.\u201d<\/p>\n From the dismantling of the federal Department of Education<\/a> to DOGE reductions<\/a> that swept out longtime staffers, as well as repeated threats<\/a> of deep funding cuts, tribal leaders fear the progress that has been made could be undermined.<\/p>\n In November 2025, the Department of Education began handing off<\/a> oversight of dozens of programs that serve Native students to BIE.<\/p>\n At a tribal consultation session in February in Washington, D.C., dozens of tribal leaders spoke in opposition, saying the transition could overwhelm the already understaffed and stretched BIE with additional responsibilities. Several accused the department of ignoring its legal responsibility<\/a> to seek their input before moving forward.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are here too late,\u201d said Herschel Gorham, lieutenant governor of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes<\/a>. \u201cThe ink was dry on the agreements before the tribes were ever notified. That should never, ever happen.\u201d<\/p>\n Jason Dropik, executive director of the National Indian Education Association, said turmoil at the agency’s Washington office trickles down to schools, pointing to a Trump administration executive order that aimed to turn the BIE into a school choice<\/a> system but was scaled back after an outcry from tribes.<\/p>\n \u201cThat caused some delays and disruptions to services,\u201d Dropik said. \u201cWhen drastic changes go into motion without tribal consultation, there can be unintended consequences for our students.\u201d<\/p>\n Lengkeek worries the BIE could be consumed by political upheaval while schools like the one serving his community continue to underperform.<\/p>\n \u201cThis system holds the future of our nations in its hands,\u201d Lengkeek said. \u201cWe need stability. We need increased funding. We need infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014\u2014<\/p>\n This story is published through the Global Indigenous Reporting Network<\/a> at The Associated Press. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n