During his senior year of high school on the Puyallup Reservation, Gerald Dillon traded much of his academic coursework for vocational training. When I walked into the second-grade classroom where I worked as a teaching assistant, students would rush out of their seats to punch each other or hug each other.

The 18-year-old, who once found classes boring and only tried hard enough to pass, found renewed purpose in coming to school every day.

“It motivates me. I like making connections with kids, I like helping them,” Dillon said.

It started in his third year when he enrolled in vocational training courses. Soon, Dillon said, his grades improved. He graduated in June from Chief Leschi Schools in Washington and is now considering going to college to earn a teaching degree.

School administrators say a shift in focus toward technical training and career readiness is paying off, as more students not only stay in school but graduate on time.

Those achievements are emblematic of progress across the U.S. Bureau of Indian Education, which oversees 183 elementary and secondary schools serving more than 40,000 students. In 2015, just over half of high school students at BIE schools graduated in four years. That number skyrocketed to a record 79% by 2025.

Some BIE educators attribute that increase to local innovations. Indian Affairs Undersecretary Billy Kirkland says they reflect the Trump administration’s commitment to Native American students, including efforts to strengthen teacher training. Additionally, the way graduation rates at BIE schools are reported was changed to address flawed data collection that previously depressed numbers.

But concerns are emerging that changes reshaping BIE under the Trump administration, including the planned dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education and the continuing fallout from cuts instituted by DOGE, could undermine progress and prevent struggling schools from improving.

According to agency officials, the increase in graduation rates reflects, in part, more accurate reporting and not a sudden jump in students’ academic improvement.

For years, school administrators across the system used flawed methods to track graduation rates, often counting students who had transferred to other schools as dropouts.

“We had to reach a consensus and establish an accountability framework for our schools,” said Carmelia Becenti, the agency’s academic director.

Starting in 2018, the BIE began standardizing data collection methods. In the years since then, Becenti said, the data has shown a more accurate and encouraging picture.

An AP analysis of BIE data found that systemwide graduation rates have increased 55% since new reporting standards began to be implemented, with nine of its high schools reporting growth of 100% or more.

Less than a third of BIE schools are managed by the agency itself. The rest are run by tribes and receive federal funding. In some of them, educators say data collection is only part of the story.

Don Brummett, superintendent of Chief Leschi Schools, said his staff has been working to correct a “disconnect” between the high school’s former focus on preparing students for college and many students’ goals of finding a job after graduation.

“We devalued operations. That was a mistake,” Brummett said.

The school launched its career and technical curriculum in 2020 with funding from the Puyallup Tribal Council. Since then, Brummett has seen students who otherwise would have dropped out enter health sciences, education and fisheries management and find new motivation to stay in school.

Dillon, the recent graduate, said hands-on job training better suited his learning style.

“It was the first time I felt excited to go to school,” Dillon said, reflecting on the time he spent helping second graders practice reading skills and learn the life cycle of a frog.

Between 2019 and 2025, Chief Leschi Schools reported four-year graduation rates increased from 53% to 87%.

Focusing on the trades is just one way tribally controlled BIE schools have innovated to keep students on track. At Choctaw Central High School, a BIE school operated by the Mississippi Band of Choctaw, administrators said a COVID-era virtual learning experiment contributed to an increase in graduation rates from about 70% to 93%.

“For certain kids who have more responsibilities at home, kids who need to work, we saw that (virtual learning) gave them a flexible schedule and the opportunity to get their diploma,” Principal Alaric Keams said.

When pandemic closures were lifted, the district maintained a virtual learning option for all high school students.

But not all tribal governments have the resources to pay for these types of programs or take over the management of BIE schools.

Peter Lengkeek, chairman of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, says the BIE-operated high school that serves his community is chronically understaffed and falling apart due to a backlog of deferred maintenance, including a gymnasium with sagging walls and a rodent infestation. It has been reported that less than 60% of students graduate on time in recent years.

“If we could do it, we would step in and try to remedy a lot of these things,” Lengkeek said. “We have to trust the government to fulfill the promise of the treaty.”

From the dismantling of the federal Department of Education to DOGE reductions that eliminated long-time staff, as well as repeated threats of deep funding cuts, tribal leaders fear the progress made could be undermined.

In November 2025, the Department of Education began delegating oversight of dozens of programs serving Native students to the BIE.

At a February tribal consultation session in Washington, D.C., dozens of tribal leaders spoke out against it, saying the transition could overwhelm the already understaffed and overburdened BIE with additional responsibilities. Several accused the department of ignoring its legal responsibility to seek their input before moving forward.

“We are too late,” said Herschel Gorham, lieutenant governor of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes. “The ink was dry on the agreements before the tribes were notified. That should never, ever happen.”

Jason Dropik, executive director of the National Indian Education Association, said the turmoil at the agency’s Washington office extends to schools, pointing to a Trump administration executive order that was intended to turn the BIE into a school choice system but was scaled back after an outcry from tribes.

“That caused some delays and interruptions in services,” Dropik said. “When drastic changes are put in place without tribal consultation, there can be unintended consequences for our students.”

Lengkeek worries that the BIE could become consumed by political turmoil while schools like the one serving his community continue to underperform.

“This system has the future of our nations in its hands,” Lengkeek said. “We need stability. We need more funding. We need infrastructure.”

——

This story is published by The Associated Press Global Indigenous Reporting Network.