'Peer effect' lowering marks of aboriginals: study

Natives perform poorly when they make up a major part of school population

JOE FRIESEN

From Thursday's Globe and Mail

December 4, 2008 at 5:29 AM EST

Aboriginal students tend to perform poorly in schools where they make up a large portion of the population, according to new research.

This phenomenon, known as a negative peer effect, accounts for nearly half the difference in academic performance between aboriginal and non-aboriginal students in the 366 British Columbia public schools surveyed. It's also nearly three times as influential as socioeconomic factors, according to John Richards, professor of public policy at Simon Fraser University.

"School boards should be cautious about concentrating aboriginal students in one or a few schools. In general, concentration has lowered academic outcomes across the province for aboriginal students," Prof. Richards and his co-authors, Jennifer Hove and Kemi Afolabi, write in the study, which was released yesterday by the C.D. Howe Institute.

"It's somewhat politically controversial to say it," Prof. Richards said in an interview, "but peer effects do matter."

A concentration of students from an economically disadvantaged ethnic group can create a school subculture of low academic expectations, where students develop the sense that education is meant for other people, he said. It's the kind of data that prompted calls for the busing of black students to suburban white schools in the United States, but Prof. Richards doesn't think such a radical step is necessary. To combat concentration, he said parents should be given some flexibility when it comes to choosing a school for their child, possibly by expanding school catchment areas.

Overall, the five-year study of Grade 4 and Grade 7 students in the public-school system found a significant gap in achievement between aboriginal and non-aboriginal pupils. On average, just 64 per cent of aboriginal students met or exceeded expectations on standardized tests, compared to 78 per cent of non-aboriginal students.

But there is cause for optimism, Prof. Richards said. Many school districts performed better than expected, and those boards provide an example that the rest of Canada can learn from. If all school districts performed as well as the best in B.C., two-thirds of the aboriginal education gap could be eliminated, he said.

"Some of these school districts are performing way better than you would expect based on the social conditions and the in-class dynamics," Prof. Richards said.

"Among the school districts that have done well, such as Okanagan or Kamloops, one of the features is that the aboriginal leadership is intimately interested in education. Clarence Louie [chief of the Osoyoos Indian Band] is from the Okanagan area. Nathan Matthew [chief of the North Thompson Indian Band] is from the Kamloops area. These are chiefs that have made their career in some part on the importance of education."

Senior administrators in these school districts also tend to place a high value on aboriginal education, and keep good statistics on performance.

The school districts that score poorly don't pay attention to their test results and don't try to integrate aboriginal elements into their teaching, he said.

Prof. Richards said the rest of Canada needs to overcome its profound opposition to publishing educational statistics, which are a valuable, if imperfect, tool for assessing progress.

"Everybody who's interested in aboriginal education knows this is a grim reality, with some bright spots, and we've got a real challenge here," he said. "But we need some real numbers."