North Dakota high schoolers are graduating at one of the highest rates in the country. State Superintendent Kirsten Baesler says not only that, but an ethnic group that had struggled in the past is now graduating in higher numbers as well.

In the last seven years, the Native American graduation rates went from 57% in 2012 to 72% in the 2018-19 school year.

Baesler says the increase is due to the partnership in education between teachers and families as well as a program called Essential Understandings.

"Curriculum resources and stories of elder shared by tribal people and elders of each and every tribe that connects to science, that connects to math, that connects to reading, that connects to exploration and health and wellness," Baesler said.

Baesler also found that when Native American students take two or more career and technical education courses, they have a graduation rate of more than 90%, which is even better than the state average as a whole.

Out of the 10,000 teachers in North Dakota, 2,000 of them have been trained on the Essential Understandings of integrating culturally relevant material and curriculum into the classroom