The Fraser Institute’s Report Card on Aboriginal Education in British Columbia reveals little has changed in the academic performance of aboriginal students in Williams Lake.
The right-wing think tank provides data on the academic performances of students in both elementary and high schools who self-identify as aboriginal. One elementary school from School District 27 is included in the report based on 2009 data; other schools did not have enough aboriginal students to provide viable information. According to the institute, more than 10 students are required to write each of the reading, writing and numeracy exams for grades 4 to 7 and relevant high school exams.
“The aboriginal kids are not doing anywhere near as well on average as the general population,” said Peter Cowley, report author of students province wide.
The report reveals that at Marie Sharp aboriginal students make up 44 per cent of the Grade 4 enrolment. Fifty per cent of the reading, writing and numeracy exams written by grades 4 and 7 students were below expectations.
Cowley suggests this is a special concern given that elementary schools provide the foundation upon which future high school achievement may be based.
Columneetza, whose aboriginal population is 20 per cent of the school’s, ranked overall as 5.7 out of 10. Students’ average exam mark, which includes the performance on provincial examinations of students in grades 10, 11 and 12, in 2009 was 60.1; the percentage of exams failed was 20 per cent and the graduation rate was 88 per cent.
Williams Lake secondary school, with 26 per cent of its population identifying as aboriginal, had an overall ranking of 4.8 per cent out of 10. Students’ average exam mark was 59 per cent; the percentage of exams failed was 18 per cent and the graduation rate was 70 per cent.
Columneetza saw an improvement in its overall ranking over 2008 and was on par with its best year since the Fraser Institute began its rankings. Williams Lake improved over 2008 but was below its best performance of 2007. However,
Cowley pointed out that five years of data is statistically required to establish a trend either up or down.
Cowley says that educators need to take a look at other education systems that may work for aboriginal students because the current one is not.
School District 27 trustee Wayne Rodier would not speak on behalf of the school board but says in response to the report, “Their take on it may be different than ours might be.”
The board, says Rodier, has never expressed an opinion on the Fraser Institute’s reports and he suggested that the reports are “not constructive.”
“They draw conclusions that are very different from the conclusions we might draw from the same information,” he says.
Rodier credited the district’s First Nations education committee as playing an important role in aboriginal education in the district.
“If we’re doing things that are good for aboriginal education a lot of the benefit can be placed on First Nations communities themselves and their involvement,” he says.
Calls to the Cariboo Chilcotin Teachers’ Association and the district’s director of First Nations education were not returned.