The Bureau of Indian Affairs Should Do More to Help Educate Indian Students

Gao ID: HRD-77-155 November 3, 1977

In providing grants to Indian students to attend colleges and universities, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) knows little about the students' preparation for and performance in college or about the colleges they attend. The program has grown from 4,300 students receiving about $4 million dollars in 1970 to 16,000 students receiving about $33 million in 1976.

Investigations conducted at seven educational institutions that enrolled about 2,000 Indian students showed that the Indian students, on the whole, had lower assessment test scores and cumulative grade point averages than the general student population. The Indian freshmen particularly need help, as evidenced by the fact that the rate of Indian freshmen not continuing their education at these schools was higher than that for the general student population. The Bureau has neither devoted enough staff to the program nor provided students with needed supportive services.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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