Ensuring College Access and Success for American Indian/Alaska Native Students - June 2024

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Rhys

Explores barriers and historical exclusions affecting American Indian and Alaska Native students in higher education, linking boarding school assimilation policies and long-standing limits on access to ongoing trauma and engagement challenges. Argues that race-conscious admissions were important for campus diversity while the Supreme Court decision heightens urgency for equitable review of college preparation, admissions, affordability, and student success. Presents a tribal college movement and promising practices to increase access through Indigenous voices, while affirming tribal sovereign political status as a foundation for inclusive investment.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages30

Reading Time1 h 16 min

AccessFree to download

Preface

Purpose of This Brief

Introduction

1 Ensuring College Access and Success for American Indian/Alaska Native Students Authored by Cheryl Crazy Bull Series edited by Michele Siqueiros and Vikash Reddy, Ph.D. June 2024 Photo courtesy of the American Indian College Fund © 2024. Preface Over 50% of American students in our public schools are Latinx, Black, Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI), or American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN). Tapping into their talent and ensuring their access to a college education is essential to our future economic power and the success of our multi-racial democracy. Despite the historical exclusion and current underrepresentation of many Americans in our colleges and universities, in June 2023, the Supreme Court of the United States severely curtailed the use of race in higher education admissions, prohibiting the consideration of an applicant’s racial status as part of that process. Race-conscious admissions helped ensure America’s colleges and universities were more diverse. Without it, there is a greater urgency for college leaders and policy makers to review current practices for equity, and to identify solutions that provide a fairer approach to preparing students for college, admitting them, and supporting their success. Towards that aim, the Campaign for College Opportunity is releasing a series of briefs, including this one, as part of our Affirming Equity, Ensuring Inclusion and Empowering Action initiative. The series will elevate practices that support the college preparation, admission, affordability, and success of Latinx, Black, Asian American, NHPI, andAIAN students, ensuring America does not return to an era of exclusion in higher education. 2 Purpose of This Brief The Campaign for College Opportunity has always been a champion of ensuring equal and equitable treatment of all students in higher education. We recognize the value and necessity of understanding the experience of diverse learners by disaggregating data to explore trends, opportunities, and challenges. More importantly, we seek to bring attention to the expertise, assets, and strengths of Americans from all backgrounds, while ensuring that solutions are targeted to support these same students. This is the first of four briefs within our national initiative that highlight specific practices to support AIAN, Latinx, Black, Asian American and NHPI students more equitably. This brief is tailored and informed by experts, best practices, and an authentic commitment to ensure that all American Indian and Alaska Native students can go to college and succeed without sacrificing or leaving their cultural assets behind. Additional briefs focused on Latinx, Black, Asian American, and NHPI students are forthcoming. Photo courtesy of the American Indian College Fund © 2024. Introduction American Indian and Alaska Native peoples have been on a long and arduous journey in their quest for higher education. It is beyond the scope of this discussion to go back to the beginning of contact between Europeans and the Indigenous people of what are now the Americas to explore the myriad ways that colonizers used education as a harmful tool to undermine tribal identities and break down Indigenous social and familial structures. Children were removed from families, often living away from their communities for years and forced to abandon their cultural practices and languages, fostering generations of trauma that still impacts engagement with education. The goal of education in the boarding school system that was in effect from the late 1800s to the early 1970s was assimilation and removal of children from the influence of Indian culture and family life. Access to higher education for Native people was limited. But starting in the 1960s, Native American and Alaska Native tribes began a movement to establish and invest in tribally controlled colleges and universities (TCUs) that specifically serve Indigenous students and support thei

FAQs

What is the main purpose of this brief?

It highlights specific practices to support American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) students more equitably, while emphasizing targeted solutions for college preparation, admission, affordability, and success.

How does the brief connect historical boarding schools to education today?

It explains that boarding school assimilation and removal from family and culture contributed to trauma across generations, which still affects engagement with education.

What role do tribally controlled colleges and universities (TCUs) play?

The brief describes TCUs as part of a movement begun in the 1960s to restore Native culture and identity and revitalize family and community life by supporting Indigenous students’ success.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Rhys