This 2004 annual report, continues to investigate the complexities of low achievement that evidently leads to the pernicious dropout problem that North Carolina?s American Indian students are experiencing. Although students in grades three through eight are showing gains on the End of Grade tests and high school students have continued to improve on these tests, the dropout rate has not improved. American Indian students continue to drop out at a higher rate than other groups in the state, with American Indian males having the worst rate. Last year the Council suggested that this dropout problem was multifaceted, perhaps being influenced by the cultural duality that American Indian students bear. This identity issue may become a concrete problem by the time a student becomes an adolescent. Even though there has not been sufficient time to test this hypothesis, hopefully, including the American Indian studies elective in the secondary curriculum and focusing more specifically on American Indian history, where appropriate, will serve as strategies to build students? self esteem and to share more accurate information about American Indians attending schools.