Information on Organization and Functions of the Indian Education Resources Center

The purpose of the Indian Education Resources Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is to provide technical services of monitoring, curriculum evaluation, research and development, and dissemination of information to Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) schools. The Center has four divisions in Albuquerque and one in Utah. In June 1976, the current Director of Indian Education initiated a reorganization which divested the Center of many of its functions and attempted to centralize staff and operations in Washington, D.C. This proposed reorganization has not taken place, and a 1976 Civil Service Commission (CSC) review found that about half of the Center's personnel positions were overgraded due to an erosion of duties and responsibilities largely attributable to a gradual reduction in staff and funds assigned to the Center. CSC directed BIA to take no further actions to reorganize the Center.

Assistance provided by the Center was generally considered satisfactory by its clientele, mostly BIA field offices and schools. However, the Center was not, on its own initiative, monitoring and evaluating BIA-operated schools or ensuring that area offices were adequately performing these functions. Additional needed services such as the monitoring and evaluation of school activities have not been provided because of staffing problems or travel fund limitations. Two of the Center's four divisions currently located in Albuquerque are appropriately located, but there is no reason why the Center's other two divisions need to be located in Albuquerque. However, if these two divisions perform additional monitoring and evaluation, they also will have to perform more travel and may need to be located in the field.