Rocky
Boy native and longtime educator Edward Parisian has been tapped
to become director of the Office of Indian Education Programs
for the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C.
"I
want to focus on implementing No Child Left Behind," Parisian
said Friday in a telephone interview from Washington, D.C., referring
to President Bush's education plan. "I think it's very important
that schools be accountable and that we have results."
Parisian
was appointed by the acting Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs
Aurene Martin, according to a press release.
"Ed
Parisian is well known in Indian education for his leadership, experience
and commitment to quality education," Martin said in the press
release. "I am pleased that he has accepted this new assignment
to bring accountability and improvement to BIA schools."
Parisian
will oversee a BIA-funded education system that consists of 147,000
students - most of them K-12 - in 185 schools across 23 states.
He previously held the same position between 1989 and 1992, he said,
but stepped down for family reasons.
Prior
to that, he was superintendent of schools at Rocky Boy's Indian
Reservation, starting in 1983, the press release said. He also served
several years as chief executive officer of the Rocky Boy Health
Board and was superintendent of Heart Butte Schools on the Blackfeet
Indian Reservation.
Parisian
was education line officer for the BIA's Northern Pueblos Agency
in New Mexico from 2000 to 2002. He has also taught courses in human
growth and development at Stone Child College. He has also served
two years as president of the National Indian Education Association.
As
part of his work in education at the national level, he evaluated
more than 30 Indian education programs across several Western states
including Montana, as well as in Mississippi and Washington, D.C.,
according to the press release.
"I've
seen and operated schools on a local level and I think that's key
to being successful here" in Washington, he said.
Former
colleagues said Parisian is the right man for the job.
"He
is a good man, works hard - works tremendously hard - and is a good
ambassador for Indian country and always has been," said Stone
Child College president Steve Galbavy, who worked under Parisian
as a teacher at Rocky Boy between 1983 and 1990, and then worked
with Parisian when Parisian was a member of the college's board
in 1998.
"He's
a good boss," Galbavy said. "He can be tough, but if you
do your job he can be a good boss."
"I
think Eddie's probably one of the leading Indian administrators
in the nation, really, and probably has been for the last 20 years,"
said Edward Stamper, the foundations and research director at Stone
Child College.
Stamper
said he worked for Parisian when Parisian was the first director
of the Rocky Boy Tribal Education Department in the early 1980s,
shortly after it began administering programs controlled by the
BIA. Stamper said Parisian was directly responsible for an increase
in the number of tribal members graduating with two- and four-year
degrees during those years.
Parisian
received a bachelor's in physical education from Eastern Montana
College in 1974 and went on to earn a master's in educational administration
from the University of South Dakota in 1977, according to the press
release.
Parisian
said he is looking forward to the opportunity personally as well
as professionally.
"Personally
it's a great place to be," he said. Parisian said there are
many historical sites he did not get to visit the first time he
was there.
He
is married and has two children.
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