Why is BC Best? The Role of Provincial and Reserve School Systems in Explaining Aboriginal Student Performance

Poor education outcomes for Aboriginals in Canada have long been a source of concern for Aboriginal leaders and the provincial and federal governments. Notably, sixty percent of young Aboriginal adults living on reserves in Canada lack high-school certification. As a result, they face severely limited employment opportunities off-reserve, and limited opportunities on-reserve. Among young Canadians not living on a reserve, those who identify as Indian-First Nation have better education outcomes than those on-reserve, but they are weaker than outcomes for Métis. In general, non-Aboriginals achieve the best outcomes. This Commentary undertakes a suggestive, but far-from-definitive, exercise in assessing the role of education policies and institutions in Aboriginal K-12 outcomes. It disaggregates the young adult Aboriginal population (ages 20-24 at the time of the 2006 census) into subgroups defined by province, location within a province (urban vs. rural and on- vs. off-reserve) and by Aboriginal identity group (non-Aboriginal, Métis, Indian-First Nation). After allowance for the impact of school location and employment rate as a proxy for family characteristics, this examination finds that British Columbia has achieved considerably better K-12 outcomes than the five other provinces, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, with large Aboriginal cohorts. The Commentary discusses three institutional and policy differences between British Columbia and other provinces that may explain its superior outcomes: i) more comprehensive and regular monitoring of Aboriginal student performance in the core competencies of reading, writing and mathematics; ii) incentives for provincial school districts to innovate and consult with local Aboriginal leaders; and iii) the encompassing nature of First Nation institutions providing secondary services to reserve schools.