Yupiit Piciryarait Cultural Center and Museum Native Archive Project Evaluation

Project Date: 2007 to present
Project Manager: Thea Agnew Bemben
Lead Associate: Melissa Rodriguez
Clients: Association of Village Council Presidents (AVCP)
Location: AVCP Region Alaska (Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta)

Agnew::Beck has been hired by AVCP as the evaluator for this project, funded through the US Department of Education, Alaska Native Education program. We are working closely with AVCP staff and community members to determine whether the project has met the objectives outlined in the proposal to the Department of Education, as well as assessing the quality and accuracy of products developed. Through these evaluation activities Agnew::Beck, in collaboration with AVCP, will measure the overall outcome of the Yupiit Piciryarait Cultural Center and Museum Native Archive project.

The overall goal of the project is to support the improvement of educational attainment among students of the AVCP Region through access to cultural information that reinforces the cultural curricula presented in the classroom. The project supports the development of curricula and educational programs that address the needs of Alaska Native students through the collection and repatriation of "recorded knowledge." An astounding array of material has been collected and removed from the region over more than one hundred fifty years, making them generally unknown and unavailable for use in schools. The Region's seven school districts are developing a standards-based curriculum that accurately reflects the region's Native cultures. Current cultural curriculum development activities have far outpaced any of the school districts' ability to develop teaching materials and resources to support teachers. AVCP will locate visual images and written documents and prepare them for educational use in collections, on the World Wide Web, and in curriculum materials.