Keith Moore Expected To Be Named New Bureau of Indian Education Director.

Congratulations to Keith Moore who is expected to be named as the new director of the Bureau of Indian Education, this week.

Let’s give him a chance since he is being named superintendent of the largest district in Indian country with minimal qualifications. On the face this appears to be the same thing we saw with the selection of Stephanie Birdwell-Bighorn as the Post Secondary Director. Moore just received his Specialist Degree in Educational Leadership last year, and now he has been placed in charge of 44,000 primary and secondary students.

Maybe Larry Echohawk should be crying over that.

He met with Ken Salazar and Echohawk back on January 11, 2010 at the follow-up to the Tribal Conference held back in November.

We will leave it up to the reader to review his background listed below and decide for themselves whether Mr. Moore has the qualifications to oversee 44,000 students.

Keith Moore was born in Rosebud, South Dakota, and is a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. He graduated from Lyman High School in 1985, where he was a sports competitor playing football, basketball and running track. He played in two state basketball tournaments during the eighties, the highlight being a member of the 1985 Class B state championship team. He went on to play basketball for the Wolves and graduated from Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota (1990 B.S. in Health and Physical Education/Social Sciences).

After teaching and coaching for nearly a decade, he sought and in 2002 received his Masters in Education Administration from South Dakota State University in Brookings, South Dakota, while being the assistant basketball coach and residential director at Dakota State University in Madison, South Dakota. Keith was the 7-12 principal and head boys’ basketball coach in the Agar-Blunt-Onida school district/Sully Buttes Jr. and Sr. High Schools in Onida, South Dakota, from 2002-2005. During his nine years as a head basketball coach, he was able to be a part of three state tournament teams.

He became the Indian Education Director for the state’s Department of Education on July 1, 2005. And later was the Chief Diversity Officer at the University of South Dakota. In 2009, he received his Specialist Degree in Educational Leadership from Montana State University. This is a post-masters certificate program intended to prepare the recipient to be a principal or superintendent.

http://www.usd.edu/urelations/images/Keith_Moore.jpg.

haskellnews commentary 05/03/2010.