The Blackfeet Community College-Rural Systemic Initiative (BCC-RSI) proposal is an outgrowth of an earlier effort; namely, the Tribal College-RSI that targeted a larger geographical area. Having been a part of the earlier challenge to coordinate systemic reform efforts for several Indian reservations in five states, BCC-RSI proposes to concentrate its reform efforts on the Blackfeet Reservation, which consists of approximately 1.5 million acres of land located in Glacier County in north central Montana. The current population on the reservation is approximately 9,000 people. Two separate school districts (Browning and Heart Butte) located within the boundaries of the reservation serve approximately 1,900 students. BCC-RSI proposes to service all of the three schools from the Heart Butte School District and five of eight schools from the Browning School District. Of these eight schools, the efforts of BCC-RSI would impact 98% of the K-8 Indian student population and 100% of the Indian high school students on the Blackfeet Reservation. The BCC-RSI proposes to continue to impact student achievement in schools on the reservation by promoting the NSF drivers in addition to addressing the social/cultural needs of the students and teachers that were identified during their development efforts.
