The NACA Inspired Schools Network (NISN) is building a movement of students, families, and educators to create excellent schools relevant to the communities they serve. NISN works with fellows who are committed to Indigenous communities to establish schools in New Mexico and throughout the country that will create strong leaders who are academically prepared, secure in their identities, healthy, and ultimately transforming their communities.
Pole beans need a support to grow. It’s a lesson participants in NISN’s resident farmer training and farm-to-school programs learn. Located north of Albuquerque, on the original homelands of the Tiwa and Keres people, the farm hub offers new programming and curriculum to students at both NISN-network and non-network schools. Curriculum development is just one initiative gaining traction at NISN since the organization decided to deepen its strategic and cultural supports for its 13 existing schools.
As the Senior Director of School Supports, Zell Humetewa is a trellis for school leaders—who include everyone from the custodian to the principal. Together they create an individualized, data-driven plan to improve how their school fosters the spiritual, linguistic, academic, and holistic growth of students. For one school, the focus might be lesson planning, for another it’s teacher coaching or facilities development. According to Zell, while the structural needs of each school vary, what’s consistent is their respective knowledge about how best to reconnect and re-inspirit their communities to create a model of Indigenous education that reflects their culture.
NISN’s member school Saad K’idilye hosts Cradle Board Workshop for students & families.
While NISN schools promote Indigenous culture, identity, and community investment—they also provide rigorous academic curriculum aimed at college preparation. Executive Director Duta Flying Earth says their schools offer a “both-and model.” Students speak their language, know when to acknowledge elders and employ critical thinking in terms of community. Their capstone project—now adopted by the state of New Mexico as a part of graduation – documents learning in a way that’s meaningful to the students and the “powers that be.”
In a spirit of continuous improvement, NISN’s Growing Together Fellowship brings together school administrators and staff from all the schools once per month. During these convenings, participants share their experiences, learning from each other and nurturing their collective vision for Indigenous education. For Zell that dream is realized when she sees Diné children eating, speaking, and learning at a NISN school—and hears Diné spoken with pride.
As NISN helps nurture the growth of school options for Indigenous youth, it’s making its resources publicly available for replication, including an online database of free curricula and reports.
What Partnership Can Look Like
Better Way funding is helping NISN schools create ECD resources, as well as the development and implementation of culturally relevant evaluation to understand program effectiveness and opportunities for refinement.