Alaska Native and American Indian students in Anchorage have familial and cultural roots throughout Alaska and beyond. Many have mixed race and ethnic backgrounds that combine rich heritages and cultural legacies. The official count of students in the Anchorage School District doesn’t include these students as Alaska Native.
When Alaska Native/American Indian students are fully counted, their population among Anchorage School District students more than doubles, growing from 4,224 to 8,550, and from 8.8 percent to 17.8 percent of the total student body.
To fully count our children, we can track all of the races and ethnicities with which Anchorage students identify. While this creates an over count of total students, it gives a more accurate picture of the size of our particular communities than the official government protocols allow for. See the latest ARISE report for detailed data on student counts.