High school dropouts among First Nation students continue to challenge school system
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High-School Dropouts - A Black Mark on Canada's Secondary School System: C.D. Howe Institute
TORONTO, Oct. 22 /CNW/ - Canadian high-school dropout rates are too high, in many cases, and are costly to society, with the problem being particularly acute among Aboriginals and francophone Quebecers, according to a C.D. Howe Institute study released today. In Dropouts: The Achilles' Heel of Canada's High-School System, author John Richards examines the problem's scope on a province-by-province basis and makes policy recommendations to address it.
The high dropout rate among francophone Quebec students, particularly boys, has recently received considerable attention in that province, notes Richards. However, the high-school dropout-rate problem is not restricted to Quebec, he says. Based on the 2006 census, four provinces - Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Alberta - have higher dropout rates among those aged 20 to 24 than do Quebec francophones.
The ratio between the province with the highest dropout rate, Manitoba, and the lowest, British Columbia, is two to one. The major factor underlying the large number of students failing to complete high school in the Prairies is the concentration of Aboriginals and their low completion rate, he says.
Richards, who is Social Policy Scholar at the C.D. Howe Institute, examines different approaches to addressing the education challenges facing francophone Quebecers and Aboriginals, both those living on- and off-reserve.
He emphasizes the value of collecting reliable data on student core-skill performance at various stages in the K-12 cycle and concludes with a range of potential interventions. These include campaigns to shift cultural attitudes toward education, investment in early childhood and early primary school programming, discretionary agreements with entrepreneurial school districts, and major institutional reform of on-reserve school administration.
For further information: John Richards, Professor, Public Policy Program, Simon Fraser University, Social Policy Scholar, C.D. Howe Institute, (416) 865-1904, email: cdhowe(at)cdhowe.org/ CO: C.D. Howe Institute ST: Ontario
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Dropouts are the system's Achilles heel
JOHN RICHARDS - Oct. 26, 2009
While Canadian high-school students tend to perform well on international tests, the results ignore a black mark for secondary education in Canada: the high dropout rate among "at-risk" students.
Canadian educators were understandably pleased when the Programme for International Student Assessment, which tested 15-year-old students in 57 countries, ranked Canada third on a key measure, the average score on the combined science index. But celebrating Canada's performance on international tests overlooks the problem of high dropout rates among two groups in particular: francophone men in Quebec and aboriginals.
Quebeckers are well aware of the problem. In the fall of 2008, then-premier Jacques Parizeau wrote a cri d'alarme in the Journal de Montréal over the dropout rate among francophone Quebeckers, for boys in particular. According to the latest census, two of 10 francophone men in Quebec between the ages of 20 and 24 have not completed high school (which in Quebec finishes at Grade 11).
Quebec elites are rightly concerned; those in other provinces should be too. Based on the census, four provinces - Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Newfoundland - have higher dropout rates among young adults than Quebec francophones do, the main reason for the Prairie results being the concentration of aboriginals in the Western provinces.There is some good news. Among those identifying themselves as Métis in the census, the proportion between the ages of 25 and 34 without high school is half that among those 45 and over. And the proportion of the younger group with a university degree is twice that of the older.
On the other hand, among those who identified themselves as North American Indian, there has been little intergenerational progress in high-school completion rates and no progress in terms of university graduation. The cohort with the best high-school completion results is between the ages of 35 and 44; those aged 25 to 34 do somewhat worse. Among those living on-reserve in this youngest age group, more than half lack high-school certification. Those living off-reserve fare better; still, nearly three in 10 are without high school. By contrast, only one in 10 non-aboriginals between the ages of 25 and 34 has not completed high school.
What's to be done?
The first point is that the provinces share responsibility with band councils and the Department of Indian Affairs for the state of aboriginal education. Only one-third of those who identify as aboriginal live on a reserve, and two out of five on-reserve children attend nearby provincial schools. In other words, four of five aboriginal children attend provincial schools. And if provincial results are better than those on-reserve, that is to damn with faint praise.
Second, devolving responsibility for education to individual bands, each running a "stand-alone" school, is not succeeding. On-reserve schools are currently organized much as one-room rural schools were before the Second World War. The provinces long ago professionalized school administration by drawing schools into school districts and empowering their education ministries. Something similar is needed to provide specialized services and better school administration for students in on-reserve schools.
Third, there are some lessons from success stories for on-reserve schools and particular provincial school districts. Students who drop out do so in high school, but their problems usually begin much earlier. Hence, good school systems place a high priority on early childhood and early primary school programming. They also undertake campaigns to shift cultural attitudes toward education, and local administrators enjoy a lot of discretionary authority to negotiate arrangements that engage aboriginal parents in school life. Finally, in good systems, administrators want to know how well their aboriginal students are faring. They don't shy away from collecting data on student performance.
Perhaps Canadians of good faith are learning these lessons and are now prepared to devote the resources and attention to aboriginal education that it deserves. When Shawn Atleo was elected president of the Assembly of First Nations last summer, Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl congratulated him as a leader who has "articulated a real passion for education." Unfortunately, there is a history of Canadian leaders - aboriginal and non-aboriginal - starting a conversation about education but quickly losing interest.
John Richards is Roger Phillips Scholar in Social Policy at the C.D. Howe Institute and Teaches in the Graduate Public Policy Program of Simon Fraser University