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For the first time in its history, the Los Angeles Unified School District reports that in 2025, 100% of American Indian seniors graduated from high school. That is a milestone. It deserves to be acknowledged, honored, and protected.

But numbers, especially small ones, require us to look more closely.

There were 23 American Indian seniors in the entire district.

Twenty-three students in the second-largest school district in the nation. Twenty-three lives carrying generations of history, resilience and responsibility. Twenty-three young people who have too often been invisible in systems that were never designed with them in mind.

Of those 23 graduates, 12 participated in the Native Ways 2 College program at Anawakalmekak, L.A’s only charter school dedicated to student academic excellence, Native wisdom and appreciation of the cultural and intellectual heritage of Indigenous Peoples. Their success did not happen by accident. It reflects years of intentional, community-driven work — families who stayed engaged, elders who showed up, educators who refused to let students disappear into the margins of a spreadsheet.

This achievement belongs not to one school or one program, but to a network of partners who understand that education must be rooted in culture and relationship. The #IENCoalition — including the Gabrielino-Shoshone Nation of Southern California, California Native Vote Project, UCLA’s American Indian Studies Center, the Tataviam Education & Cultural Learning Department, Pukuu Cultural Community Services, and many others — has worked collectively to ensure that American Indian students are seen, supported, and prepared.

This is what happens when community collaborates with intention.

And yet, this is not the end of the story.

Graduation matters. It always has. But graduation alone is not enough.

The same California Department of Education data shows that only slightly more than half of American Indian students in LAUSD met college preparedness benchmarks. When the total number of American Indian seniors is 23, every outcome carries enormous weight. Every gap is amplified. Every missed opportunity echoes.

We cannot accept a reality in which students cross a stage with a diploma in hand but without the academic preparation and confidence to thrive in college. We cannot mistake the meeting of a minimum threshold for the fulfillment of a promise.

Progress should not require invisibility.

For decades, American Indian students have been statistically small in number and therefore politically easy to overlook. But being few does not mean being less. It does not mean our students’ futures carry less value. In fact, small numbers demand greater precision, greater care, and greater responsibility from the systems that serve them.

The data release tells us something important. When American Indian students are supported through culturally grounded, community-based programs, when they see themselves reflected in curriculum, when their languages and histories are honored, when families are partners rather than afterthoughts — outcomes improve.

But the data also tells us that the work is far from finished.

One hundred percent graduation should not be an anomaly. It should be a baseline expectation. And college readiness should not hover at half. It should be universal.

This moment asks something of all of us.

Families must remain engaged: asking hard questions, demanding transparency and insisting that preparation for life after high school is not optional.

Supporters and partners must continue investing in programs that are proven, community-led and accountable to the students they serve. These programs cannot operate on the margins. They must be sustained and scaled.

Policymakers and educational leaders must look carefully at both the percentages and the scale. Twenty-three students should never be an afterthought in a district of hundreds of thousands. Equity requires intention. It requires alignment. It requires the courage to fund and support what works, even when the population is small.

At Anawakalmekak where I am executive director, we remain committed to building pathways that honor identity and prepare students for college without asking them to abandon who they are. We believe that cultural grounding and academic excellence are not competing goals. They are inseparable.

Data can illuminate. It can also obscure. It can celebrate milestones while quietly revealing unfinished work.

So we hold both truths.

We celebrate 100% graduation for American Indian seniors in LAUSD. That matters.

We acknowledge that college preparedness remains uneven. That matters, too.

The students matter.

And the work continues.