Schools that are required to provide American Indian language and culture classes are falling short, according to a recent statewide report.
The law requires districts where at least 5 percent of students are American Indian — or where 100 or more Native students are enrolled — to offer language and culture classes.
The Midwest Indigenous Immersion Network’s American Indian Language Instruction Report found districts across the state would need to hire more than 150 American Indian language teachers just to reach compliance — and that still wouldn’t meet the needs of Native students enrolled in public schools statewide.
"We find there is a 1:257 teacher-to-student ratio among the school districts in Minnesota that are required to provide language and culture classes,” the report said.
Research consistently links Native language instruction to stronger cultural identity, better academic outcomes, and a deeper sense of belonging — outcomes that matter especially for the approximately 31,000 American Indian students enrolled in Minnesota’s public schools, who have historically faced the highest dropout rates in the state.
“Our students make up about 3.5 percent of the Minnesota state student population, and our American Indian language educators are numbered at 98 out of 200,000 licensed educators in the state,” said Gimiwan Dustin Burnette, President and Executive Director of Midwest Indigenous Immersion Network. “They see Ojibwe and Dakota languages being valued as part-time considerations. That, to me, is the real cost and we don’t talk about it enough.”
A comprehensive picture
The nonprofit surveyed 197 public school districts — those serving 20 or more American Indian students — and all four Bureau of Indian Education schools in Minnesota during spring of 2025. Of those, 194 districts completed the survey, a response rate of 99 percent.
Midwest Indigenous Immersion Network used contact information provided by district administrators to reach out to 87 American Indian language teachers directly. Fifty-five of those teachers completed the survey, with a response rate of more than 60 percent.
Hannah Orie taught a course for the Ojibwe immersion teaching program at Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University, October 2025.
Photo courtesy of Midwest Indigenous Immersion Network
The data reflects some growth in the number of language programs offered by school districts, according to Burnette. When Midwest Indigenous Immersion Network conducted its first survey in the 2022-23 school year, only 35 districts reported offering American Indian language instruction. That number has since grown to 51 — a roughly 40 percent increase in two years.
Burnette credits a 2024 update to state law that strengthened the legal requirement for districts to offer language classes as a significant factor.
“The new legislation was a big contributor to that increase,” said Burnette. “But it’s been a well-known fact in Indian country for decades that we need more.”
Of the 98 American Indian language teachers working in Minnesota public schools, only 11 are teaching full-time. Half of those surveyed spend 20 hours a week or less on language instruction — juggling other job duties on top of their language classes. Many teachers travel between multiple school buildings, teaching students across multiple grades, according to the report.
“Ideally, we’d have multiple full-time American Indian language instructors at each school where student population demands the need,” Burnette said.
The report goes on to say that teachers who do perform the work largely do so without adequate support. Seventy-eight percent reported being responsible for developing all or most of their own curriculum. Just one teacher in the entire survey said their district provided sufficient materials. No comprehensive Ojibwe language curriculum exists at any grade level — early childhood through high school, according to the data.
‘The solution will take time’
Nearly two-thirds of school administrators said teacher recruitment is a challenge, and more than half pointed to funding, according to the report. The two problems feed into each other — without enough money, districts can’t offer positions worth taking, and without good positions, qualified teachers look for jobs elsewhere.
Michael Migizi Sullivan teaching a course for the Ojibwe immersion teaching program at Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University, October 2025.
Photo courtesy of the Midwest Indigenous Immersion Network
The report recommends an increase to the state’s American Indian Education Aid formula grant and investment in training programs for language teachers. The report also seeks the state’s help in establishing standards and curriculum that exists for every other subject taught in Minnesota schools.
Burnette hopes state lawmakers and school administrators will dig into the data and look for ways they can invest.
“The problem is much bigger than we can actually show you in a report,” Burnette said. “The solution will take time, investment and work. You can’t throw five million dollars at this problem and be done with it. This is going to take time, consideration, collaboration and hard work and it’s going to be worth it.”
Vlocity (Salesforce Sectors) provides pre-built Salesforce solutions to meet the needs of specific industries which require CRMs that are significantly customized beyond Salesforce’s out-of-the-box state. Vlocity, which was founded in 2014, swiftly established itself as an “industrial cloud” pioneer, receiving 3 Forbes Cloud 100 honors in 2017, 2018, & 2019. What factors aided them in achieving such quick success?
Vlocity applications (based on the Salesforce platform) provide multichannel sales, advertising, servicing, and CPQ solutions to specific industries like Communications, Health coverage, Energy and Utilities, Financial Services, Multimedia, Healthcare, and Public Sector. The secret to success is straightforward. Companies profit from pre-built flows and procedures that would otherwise take several months (& millions) to construct custom. Salesforce purchased Vlocity in 2020. Salesforce has been able to include Vlocity’s industry-specific CRM systems in its current Salesforce Industries offerings as a result of the acquisition. Vlocity’s creator David Schmaier maintained his position as CEO of Salesforce Enterprises, a corporate unit in charge of establishing clouds for new verticals, following the rebranding.
What is Salesforce Industries, and what does it do?
Salesforce had a step up on the latest vertical solutions after acquiring Vlocity. In general, the 12 existing industry clouds are making progress inside the Vlocity apps. These add to Salesforce’s existing data model and give out-of-the-box services which reflect their industry’s language.
Two often used “clouds” are, for example:
Organizations gain all the tools and apps they need to develop subscription services, handle orders, quotations, and contracts in an agile manner with Media and Communications Clouds.
Financial Services Cloud: Provides a consolidated system with a unified customer’s perspective of their policy, financial information, and claims to support the banking, financial advisory, and insurance markets.
Marketing, sales, commercial agility, and also operating efficiency, are all enhanced by these clouds, which reduce time to value.
What is Salesforce Vlocity, and how does it work?
Salesforce Vlocity is the hottest innovation on the Salesforce platform, which is the industry’s leading provider of industry-specific solutions and software. It stands out as a worldwide forerunner in Customer Relationship Marketing, transforming the total customer experience (CX) (CRM). Vlocity also aids in the comprehension of the CMT, healthcare, and insurance realms. Salesforce Vlocity also has a lot more to offer, such as Lightning Web Omnichannel processes, Integration processes, Vlocity Actions, Tracking services, Data Migration, and so on. Salesforce Vlocity also improves CPQ and guided selling. Salesforce Vlocity is a trailblazer, enabling a slew of top and up-and-coming businesses to achieve their goals through its Omnichannel processes.
What are the different Salesforce Vlocity components?
Vlocity Insurance– To process all components of the insurance, Vlocity employs Microservice Architecture. Financial Service Cloud is intended to function with Vlocity Insurance.
Vlocity Media& Entertainment– This section contains a comprehensive industry solution for ad sales and subscriber sales in order to strengthen consumer and owner relationships.
Industry Cloud for Communications in Vlocity Communications aids in providing a consistent and individualized client experience.
Vlocity Health– Companies could use a Vlocity specialized device called Vlocity Health to run all of the sections relating to the health industry.
Vlocity Energy & Utilities is responsible for a number of industry-specific apps that allow the sale & service of a wide range of commodities and non-commodities.
Vlocity Benefits Salesforce in What Ways?
As a result of this collaboration, industry-specific solutions have become a key component of the platform’s capabilities. Salesforce has improved its adaptability over time, seeking to meet any industry issue. Nonetheless, one stumbling block remains unsolved: IT complexity. Consider a company with a complex IT stack, including some in-house applications. It will take a long time and a lot of money to replace it with a centralized platform. To enable end-to-end business processes, consultants and developers must customize the system, align, and merge apps.
This is where Vlocity comes in. Vlocity adds enterprise product catalogs (EPCs), customer relationship management (CRM), order processing, and digital commerce to Salesforce, and also pre-built methods and new models. The software is developed in strict accordance with industry standards established by organizations such as the TM Forum as well as the MAF. As a result, businesses are able to go live more quickly. They teach their employees and may eventually be self-sufficient, saving money on consultants and developers.
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Overview of OmniStudio
OmniStudio is a modular framework that allows you to easily develop Salesforce flows and solutions using standard click-based components.
The architecture of OmniStudio is made up of three layers:
Digital Experimentation :
This is the User Interface Engine. It contains all of the user interface elements that can be selected and dragged toward the action area. We must choose the appropriate component depending on business requirements. The back-end layer’s entry point is this layer. To conduct any operation, simply connect the back-end components to the components. This UI Engine gets separated into two categories once more:
FlexCards :
Flexcard is an alternative if you really want to display multiple data in less space. Flex cards have been used to display data at a glance. This is a drag-and-drop tool that allows you to quickly configure, preview, and troubleshoot a screen. FlexCards present and summarise contextual information and actions from Salesforce and third-party platforms.
Omniscripts :
OmniScript is being used to give users a guided path through the business processes. That implies you can show multiple screens in a row. We may create pages quickly and effortlessly with the assistance of OmniScript, which is a drag-and-drop application. This is also entirely programmable, allowing it to be tailored to specific requirements. Another omniscript can be called from one omniscript. You may use OmniScripts to create sales, service pathways, and other business operations.
Service Management :
Backend logic & data are handled by this layer. By using integrations, Service Management may read and write data via Salesforce and other external sources.
It is divided into two sections:
1. OmniStudio Dataraptors :
DataRaptors are used to retrieve, transform, and update information. They are used to perform data-related operations such as reading, writing, and transforming data from external sources. There are four parts to Dataraptors
DataRaptor Turbo Extract: As the name implies, this program is used to extract information from a data object. This component has the most efficient data retrieval speed. This option should be used if the need on your page would be to return just a single item.
DataRaptor Extract: Most of the time, we need to work with several objects on a page; in this situation, vlocity gives us this alternative. Use DataRaptor Extract to return many objects.
DataRaptor Load: This component is used to update the information in Salesforce.
DataRaptor Transform: Whenever your data isn’t solely in Salesforce and you’d like to retrieve it and display it in Omniscript/flex cards, use DataRaptor Transform.
2. OmniStudio Integration Procedures :
To carry out such tasks, this instrument is quick and dependable. You can use Integration Procedures to retrieve data from third-party services.
Developer Experience :
OmniStudio Data packs can be managed with the IDX Build Tool. IDX Workbench seems to be a desktop program for transferring Salesforce information and Data packs. In conclusion, like custom programming, OmniStudio provides simple shortcuts and greater reuse chances for adapting the industry-oriented solution to your specific needs.
However, there are several disadvantages to be aware of right now:
Many clouds are combined within one common functionality by industries. As a result, it’s difficult to tell if a certain feature is part of the current implementation.
Since all clouds & APIs receive information in one bundle, updates do not even have a defined structure.
Errors and platform constraints have limited support.
Vlocity’s data model and functionalities are best suited for enterprises at the enterprise level. Some argue that it’s inappropriate again for the SMB market, because not only does it need a greater budget, but it also leaves small-medium firms with capabilities they don’t want and won’t utilize.
Do you want to learn more about Salesforce Vlocity? Watch this Demo video now:
What are FlexCard Actions?
FlexCard Actions can be used to start or modify an OmniScript, connect to a website page or app, show a flyout, launch an event, or change the values of data fields. FlexCards can do the following actions:
Card — Load, modify data source, or erase cards at the card level.
Event Custom — To alert the main FlexCard of an occurrence, fire a Custom Event. PubSub — To alert another element on a website or app of an event, fire a PubSub Event.
Flyout – In a modal or popover, show extra details from such a child card, OmniScript, as well as a custom Lightning web component (LWC).
Navigate — Choose a targeted URL or a PageReference type that allows you to navigate inside Lightning Experience, across Communities, to another website.
OmniScript — Use the FlexCard to launch an OmniScript.
Update OmniScript – Update an OmniScript from a FlexCard incorporated as a customized Lightning web component inside an OmniScript.
OmniScript Action – Update any OmniScript from a FlexCard integrated as a customized Lightning web component in an OmniScript A reusable OmniStudio Action can be used to launch OmniScripts, elements, websites, or external programs. The same OmniScript can be launched from numerous FlexCards using an OmniStudio Action.
Salesforce Vlocity Training
Weekday / Weekend Batches
Conclusion
To summarise, Vlocity achieved a breakthrough by offering businesses such an architectural foundation tailored to their industry. Salesforce’s acquisition signaled the company’s transition to industry-specific products that are easier to tailor and onboard users. For such a quicker digital transformation journey, firms can use the current Salesforce Industry clouds, which offer a configurable data model and a reliable version with reusable solutions.
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