Jennifer Darling dreams of cooking in Arizona.

The Central High School sophomore has her sights set on attending the Le Cordon Bleu program at the Scottsdale Culinary Institute when she graduates high school.

She's passing her classes at Central, but she's never seen a counselor for academic advice, has shied away from advanced courses and doesn't know what classes she needs to take to get accepted into the institute.

With big dreams but few resources, Darling, who is part Native American, is trying to get ahead in South Dakota, one of many states that have not closed the equity gap between white and minority students when it comes to preparing students for college, according to several measures.

The problem is obvious to Ted Hamilton, executive director of the Oceti Sakowin Education Consortium, which runs the local GEAR UP program. Darling is one of the many students in the program aimed at preparing low-income students for college.

"There's something wrong here and we need to be paying attention to that," he said. "The bottom line is we have a lot of kids not being challenged and not going to college."

The facts

Native American students made up 4.9 percent of South Dakota public school students in 2007, but they were just 0.9 percent of the students who scored a passing grade on the end-of-course exam in an Advanced Placement class. Successfully completed AP courses in high school count for college credit at many post-secondary institutions.

According to Central school officials, 14 percent of white students and 6 percent of minorities were enrolled in those courses last year.

Keith Moore, the director of Indian Education for the Department of Education, said the ACT, which is often used an indicator for success in college and helps with scholarships, is another area where minority and low income students are struggling.

In South Dakota, the average ACT score is 21.9 out of a possible 36. Native American students score, on average, 17.6.

Moreover, according to 2007 ACT scores, 15 percent of Native American students were prepared for a college math class, 30 percent for reading, 8 percent for college science and 37 percent for college English.

A connection has to be made between post-secondary success and getting a job, Moore said. Unemployment rates for Native Americans in the state run between 60 percent and 85 percent, he said. It's difficult for students to see the connection if their parents didn't do the same.

"We've got to change that mind set," he said.

Right here

In Rapid City's Central High School, the end-of-course AP exam was taken by 7 percent of white students and 3 percent of minorities.

"That's definitely a problem we need to work on," said Mike Talley, Central's principal.

The district needs a better plan to identify and recruit more students into Advanced Placement classes, especially minority and low-income students who might be falling through the cracks, he said.

The problem is not that Native American students can't succeed at the same rate as white students, he said, it's about guiding them into the classes.

"Once they're here, they're very capable of learning and excelling," he said.

Tim McGowan, a counselor at Central, said the issue of inequity in advanced classes centers more around economics than ethnicity. Families in poverty have an altered environment.

"When a family is focused on making ends meet, and it's about survival and shelter and food, they have to sacrifice something, and maybe studying for classes is it," he said.

For families with more resources, academics becomes a focus, he said.

Students are exposed to education earlier and in a different way, which builds confidence for taking Advanced Placement classes.

Hamilton said that, often, low-income students don't have an advocate to encourage them and push them academically, particularly if they're a little behind when they enter high school.

"They're often not guided into AP courses," he said. "There's an assumption they aren't going to make it."

Darling said she sees that here in Rapid City.

"Society has this way of looking at them and saying 'They can't do it,'" she said.

Succeeding on the rez

Marvell Hand Boy, a Rapid City mother of six Native American students, questions why private tribal schools, such as Red Cloud Indian School on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, continue to have high graduation rates, students who earn competitive national scholarships and a better student-to-counselor ratio.

"I know for a fact we have kids that are smart here, but they're not identified, followed, pushed," she said. "It's easier to get rid of them than deal with issues."

Matt Ehlman, vice president for advancement at Red Cloud Indian School, said about 50 Native American students graduate each year from the private school. The high school had an enrollment of 211 this year, leads the nation in the number of Gates Millennium scholarships awarded and boasts a 92 percent attendance rate. Thirty students took Advanced Placement classes this year including English, history and calculus.

Moore said Red Cloud is doing great things but has the distinct advantage of being a small, private school.

"Red Cloud has raised the bar. That's good, but how do we do that in a public school?" he asked.

Red Cloud's success, Ehlman said, comes from the connection students feel with the staff and each other.

"It starts when the kids are picked up by bus and the driver knows their name," he said.

The students are taught and coached from day one to believe they can succeed, he said.

"The counseling program begins even before high school; all the kids have portfolios," he said. "There is an expectation that, 'Of course you can go to college.'"

The 211 high school students at Red Cloud work with three counselors. At Central, there are only 4.6 counselors for the entire student body of 2141. They do the best they can, McGowan said.

"We ask, 'What do we need to put this student in a position of success?'" he said. "Wherever they are, we want to be able to take them to the next step."

But they can't reach everyone, he said. The counselors not only do academic counseling, but respond to emotional and social needs, which takes up most of their time.

"At Central, there are a lot of crises, social issues, so sometimes the academic part is squeezed out," said Kathryn Sosa, the coordinator of the district's Talented and Gifted program.

McGowan agreed.

"We could stay busy all day and not hit academic and career counseling. That's where the advocacy becomes important."

But hiring more counselors, when the school board just cut $2.7 million from next year's operating budget, is unlikely.

Hamilton said another factor is that the work to catch up students who have fallen behind becomes "drill-like."

"A lot of the work becomes remedial in nature," he said. "Students early on begin to shut down."

With Native American students, it isn't so much about connecting with culture in school as it is a connection with another person, he said.

"How many people in poverty have that one person?" he asked.

Low income

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, poverty presents a grave challenge for students. Four in 10 Native American students younger than 5 live in poverty.

Which is why, Hamilton said, before the district can get to the point at which all students are well represented in advanced courses, school officials have to respond to the basic needs of students in poverty first. Some of the families in Rapid City struggle to simply get their kids to school, he said.

"You're getting frustrated with kids with poor attendance," he said, "but they're walking a mile and a half in subzero weather and in areas that are dangerous."

But Talley said the responsibility to get students to school doesn't fall on the district. The district must partner with families, but getting kids to school is the role of the parent.

The city's bus system, Rapid Ride has a route that includes Central High School and Lakota Homes. In addition, there are about six routes, and all of them can link up to a route that includes Central. Buses run from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Michele Means, Title VII cultural resource specialist for the district, agreed with Hamilton.

"Parents want their students to succeed. For them, it's not just about getting them to school," she said. "Schools need to start taking responsibility."

If things are going to change, Hamilton said, the district might have to go the extra mile.

"This isn't even a Native American thing, but a low-income thing," he said. "Maybe the district has to do a little extra for them. That's thinking beyond treating everybody the same. There's nothing so unequal as to treating unequals equal."

Talented and Gifted

Hand Boy has had six students graduate from Central. Her youngest, Christopher, attends a high school on a reservation in Nebraska, but she would like to bring him back to Central.

She said the district, which has struggled with a high dropout rate among Native American students, should be applauded for its efforts to keep those students in school.

"But it can't stop there," she said, adding that minority and low-income students should also be selected for National Honors Society, encouraged to apply for scholarships and identified for advanced courses as often as non-minority students.

Some of her kids who were identified as talented and gifted were not approached for things like that, she said, and it's had a negative long-term affect on how they feel about school.

Hand Boy was involved in the 2002 civil-rights complaint against the district alleging that the district was subjectively selecting players for athletic teams. As a result, the Office of Civil Rights mandated a set of objective selection criteria for team selections.

There is a bias against minorities and low-income students, Hand Boy said.

"I don't think people realize they do it on purpose," she said. "They just assume our kids are never going to succeed. I think it's one of those unconscious biases."

It's a hurdle, said Keith Moore, Indian Education director at the South Dakota Department of Education.

"We need to ask 'What do we need to do differently?'" he said. "Instead of saying 'Some kids aren't meant to do well,' I don't buy into that thinking. They're in tough situations and have tough backgrounds, but how do we serve them now, not later?"

Self-advocacy

Central's current system is where some students learn to become self-advocates, McGowan said, or seek out teachers and mentors who can guide them academically. There is no prerequisite for students to take Advanced Placement course. Students are identified or recommended by staff, or they can sign up for the classes on their own.

Mark Farrand has been teaching Advanced Placement physics at Central for 12 years and said the school does its best to inform the students of their options, but decisions ultimately come down to parents and students.

Central High School graduate Cedric Williams said minority and race never played a part in who took advanced classes.

"There were students from all over," he said.

Williams, a black student from this year's graduating class, comes from a middle class family, played in the orchestra during high school years and is headed to South Dakota State University in the fall as a pre-med student. He credits his success in school to his parents.

"If it wasn't for them, I really wouldn't do that well in school," he said. "They push me pretty hard."

Not all students have the same support from home, he said, but it has nothing to do with race or income.

"Some are pushed, and some are not, regardless of color," he said. "I've seen students with a lot of money not that smart."

Sosa understands how a parent might be out of the loop when it comes to taking advanced courses - her kids attended Central, and she was in the same position. She went along with whatever her kids said they were interested in taking.

"It's not because they're a minority or low-income; some parents don't participate because they don't know it's there," she said.

Sosa said more non-minority parents and parents from higher incomes do call her more often, she said.

"But if a situation comes up with a minority or low-income student, and I make the call, there's just as much interest and concern as anyone else," she said. "They just haven't been the one to initiate the call."

The change

Means, with the Title VII office, said more counselors, early intervention, and more shared information with parents would be the place to start making improvements.

Continuing to use AP Potential, a College Board program designed specifically to objectively find students who might be able to take advanced courses, is another way, Sosa said.

The program uses scores from other exams as an indicator for students that might do well in an advanced course.

"It's a way to sort of find a diamond in the rough," said Jennifer Topiel, spokesperson for the College Board.

The list is broken down by race, Sosa said, but she ignores it.

"For me, that wasn't a focus," she said. Her goal is to provide opportunities for every student to get to the next level.

"Maybe they didn't realize they had the potential to do well," she said.

She is personally affected by the students who don't get help, and gets emotional when talking about trying to do more.

"There are too many students to reach, and some we miss," she said.

Hand Boy knows the district is trying, but there are students falling through the cracks, minorities and kids in poverty that don't stand out.

"If you're Native American, you have to be a superstar to get anything done and that's not right," she said.

"A whole lot of people have to change the way they think about our kids before there's any progress."

Sosa said the change starts in a one-on-one relationship with a student.

"You can't reach students until they know you care about them," she said. "Part of that is looking at a student and their potential, not whether they are a minority or low income, but that they are valued as a person."

She thinks the Rapid City school district faces a challenge.

"It's if we can blindly provide opportunities," she said.

Contact Kayla Gahagan at 394-8410 or kayla.gahagan@rapidcityjournal.com