Ethnic engineering: Little white Indians.

• Author: Lynch, Mike
• Position: Citings - California elementary school claims some students as Native Americans to get federal funds - Brief Article

AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL in the small Sierra Nevada town of Colfax, California, entered the era of educational accountability this year when the state withheld $31,000 in special funds on the grounds that 69 American Indian students had failed to measure up academically. Under California's accountability law, schools must improve the test scores of minority "sub-groups" in order to earn reward money, even if the overall test scores would merit a cash reward. Colfax's overall scores made the grade, but the scores of its Native Americans, 20 percent of its student body, didn't improve.

This penalty struck teachers and parents as unjust, most notably because they claim the "Native Americans" are actually white. "We looked at the census and the Native American population was right around 1 percent," says Steve DePue of the California Teachers Association.

But that didn't stop the town's only elementary school from claiming up to 99 American Indian students in order to secure $14,695 in federal funding from the U.S. Department of Education Office of Indian Education. To get that windfall, some of the parents signed forms vouching that their children are part American Indian. Those same parents...