New Program Will Certify Language Experts As Teachers

No Child Left Behind requires that classroom teachers be certified.

This seems like a reasonable requirement, until one considers Native American tribes trying to impart their languages in the schools.

In that case, most of the experts — in some tribes, the only fluent language speakers still around — are not certified teachers.

To sidestep this barrier, the Arizona State Board of Education last week approved a policy to allow tribes to certify speakers of their own languages to teach in public and BIE-funded schools.

Although the Navajo Nation is fortunate to have many credentialed teachers in Navajo language and culture programs, the new policy is welcome news, said Navajo Superintendent of Schools Andrew M. Tah.

“We have lots of elders around who have a lot of knowledge,” Tah said. “They could be an asset to the schools.”

Unlike most of Arizona’s 22 state- and federally-recognized tribes, Navajo can start implementing the new certification almost immediately because it already has a similar partnership with the state of New Mexico.

“New Mexico has been doing this, so we already have an assessment,” Tah said.

Since Navajo was not traditionally a written language, the assessment is oral. In addition to Diné language and culture, there is also a character component.

Tah said the Department of Diné Education is also partnering with Diné College to administer the assessment, so people wanting to pursue the new Native Language Teacher Certificate could come to either DODE’s office in Window Rock or Diné College in Tsaile.

A Native American advisory group worked with the state to develop the new policy, according to a press release from the Arizona Department of Education.