Weaving the Web: Evaluation Strategies to Help Native-American Undergraduate Research Training Programs Navigate Students to Success

Native-American cultures are characterized by strong connections to community, family, and the land. These connections are integrated into Native-American education, resulting in curricula that are different from those in Western educational systems. Differences between Native-American and Western cultures create challenges for those educated in Native-American education systems when they pursue postsecondary education in Western cultures. The under-representation of Native-Americans among those earning degrees reflects both extremely low enrollment rates and generally poor retention rates for Native-American college students (UA 2009). Obstacles for Native-American students include inadequate academic preparation, cultural differences, vague constructs of educational or vocational goals, insufficient financial aid, and social isolation (McClellan et al. 2005). Engaging Native-American students in research is one strategy for overcoming these obstacles and improving their college experience. Here we describe a research-based training program focused on Native-American undergraduates, the evaluation model and process used to evaluate this program, and the paradigm-shifting insights that emerged from the evaluation data.