Why Are Indigenous Grad Rates Going Up in BC? We Asked Indigenous Grads

Jewel Couchman recalls being “furious” six years ago when she found out she was being transferred out of Vancouver’s public school system and into 8J9J, an alternate school on Britannia Secondary School campus, for Grade 8.

“I thought if you go to alternative, that’s where the bad kids go who can’t do mainstream,” said Couchman, who is of Ojibwe, Chinese and Scottish descent.

But she gave it a shot and discovered her assumptions were wrong. “I tried it out and I ended up loving it,” Couchman said. She soon decided: “This is the place I need to be.”

Now 18, Couchman credits Outreach Alternate, another alternate school on the Britannia campus geared specifically towards Indigenous student for helping her graduate a year early in June 2017. She attended Outreach Alternate from Grades 10 through 12.

The program helped her reach her goals more quickly, she said.

Couchman is far from the only Indigenous student in B.C. reaching their academic goals.

In 2009, less than half of Indigenous students attending public schools graduated within six years of entering Grade 8.

Last month, the province revealed that 70 per cent of Indigenous students graduated within six years in 2017/18 — a four per cent jump from the previous year. There are 70,500 Indigenous students in B.C., about 11 per cent of the total public and private school enrolments.

It was the highest one-year increase since 2010/11 and part of a steady reduction in the gap between graduation rates for Indigenous students and the overall provincial grad rate of 88.7 per cent. (The public school only graduation rate is 88.5, while the private school rate is 90.6. This only includes B.C. residents, not international students.)

An education ministry news release celebrating the jump credited it to the new curriculum including more Indigenous content, as did at least one news report.

Increased Indigenous content in school curriculum is one of the 94 Calls to Action that came out of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Residential Schools in 2015, which the B.C. government has vowed to implement.

But only the new Kindergarten to Grade 10 curriculum is mandatory in all B.C. schools this year. The Grade 11 and 12 curriculum is still in the soft rollout phase and not mandatory until July 2019.

So why are Indigenous students' graduation rates suddenly accelerating?

The Tyee went to the experts: recently or nearly graduated Indigenous youth like Couchman, to ask their thoughts on what is fuelling the grad rate increase. We also asked what else could be done to bring Indigenous graduation rates on par with the rest of the province.

‘For the first time… I actually liked going to school’

Couchman and her former Outreach classmate, Kesley Pepion, 19, extol the virtues of alternate schools in helping Indigenous students who are misunderstood by or pushed out of mainstream education to graduate.

“The alternative [schools] definitely have a big part to play in that,” Couchman said.

Unlike mainstream secondary schools with an average class size of 22 students, Outreach’s largest class has 16 students. The alternate school has capacity for 45 students, with three teachers and two youth and family workers on staff.

While Outreach offers many of the same Grade 10 to 12 courses found in the mainstream school setting, the smaller class sizes allow for more one-on-one time with teachers, and students can work at their own pace. It also encourages students to take on courses like psychology and law, when they may have been steered away from them in a mainstream setting.

The program was the first time in Pepion’s school career when he had Indigenous teachers and classmates, which contributed a lot to his decision to come to school every day.

“That was my main motivation, to see my friends and the fact that we can support each other after school and talk about things. I never had that opportunity in my life, to talk about some stuff and get help,” he said. “For the first time in my life I actually liked going to school.”

Outreach prides itself on holistic learning, focusing on academics but also ensuring students have their needs met outside of the classroom, too. This means assistance in access to food, transit and visits with Indigenous elders. And unlike most schools in the district that start at 8:30 a.m., Outreach classes don’t start until 9 a.m., letting students sleep in a bit.

Although he didn’t graduate on time because of struggles in his personal life, Pepion said his Outreach teachers worked with him to catch up and earn credits through alternative means. He praised In.Business, an Indigenous youth mentorship program that allows high school students to dip their toe into business, which Pepion participated in twice.

“I loved it so much,” he said. “It opened up my eyes: ‘I’m capable of a lot more.’ Just having the support of others, and they believed in me. That’s a huge part.”

Success in mainstream public schools, too

While the number of Indigenous students going into public alternate schools is seeing a slight upswing in Vancouver, Indigenous alternate school enrolments are on the decline province-wide from just over 4,000 in 2009/10 to 3,000 in 2017/18.

The overwhelming majority of Indigenous youth attend mainstream public schools in B.C., and many are succeeding there, too. Take 17-year-old William Mary, who attends Alberni District Secondary School in Port Alberni and is set to graduate in June.

A member of the Tseshaht First Nation, Mary said he noticed more supports for Indigenous students once he got to high school almost six years ago.

“There just seems to be a lot more support” than in elementary school, Mary said. Administrators and teachers encourage students to talk to the school’s Indigenous support worker, he said.

“It’s always on the school news, it just feels like it’s being broadcasted more,” Mary said, adding the support worker often seeks out Indigenous students to let them know about opportunities like career fairs or other postsecondary opportunities.

“It lets me know that there are other people who care about what I do after high school. It gives me motivation.”

While the new Grade 10 curriculum didn’t become mandatory until this past September, Mary’s school started using it in 2016/17 when he was in Grade 10, and they began using the new Grade 11 and 12 curriculum this school year. Mary says he did notice more Indigenous content in his Socials 10 class than anything he had studied before.

“I just felt I learned quite a bit, and I was pretty happy with it,” he said, specifically referencing lessons on Indigenous people’s role in what’s now called Canada in the 1800s. “I wanted to learn more.”

Jayden Iversen, also 17 and graduating from Alberni District Secondary School this June, agrees there are more supports available for Indigenous students. But he highlighted those available outside the school too, like social workers.

“I believe that our network of support around B.C. has improved for Indigenous students in that we have more social workers working at home, which can help prevent or encourage the influence of the previous generation, of course depending on situation,” said Iversen, a member of the Hesquiaht First Nation, adding he speaks from personal observations, not experience.

“And in today’s world economy, I believe more people are beginning to realize that without further education it’s harder to secure jobs of any meaningful profit.”

Closing the gap

While a 70-per-cent graduation rate for Indigenous students is a big improvement, there’s more work to be done to bring the rate to the same level — or above — grad rates for their non-Indigenous students.

Couchman would like to see more encouragement for Indigenous students to pursue academic avenues they might not have considered.

“Like law and psychology. I feel like since it’s been newly introduced more in the Vancouver community, I feel like that’s a huge thing because then kids are realizing what they’re truly interested in,” said Couchman, who is attending Douglas College in New Westminster, inspired by the law class she took at Outreach.

“I find that a lot of Aboriginal youth are seeing what we need and going into those fields, like psychology, counselling, youth workers and criminology.”

Pepion, who took psychology at Outreach, agrees with Couchman. But he also wants to see more out-of-school programs for students to earn school credit while doing something they enjoy, like the In.Business program he participated in. “What kept me in school was programs I was interested in.”

Mary wants to see more support from the Indigenous community for students, citing his appreciation for his own band’s encouragement and support for him and other students.

“Our band sends out a bulletin every couple of weeks, and the one before school started had a page [with] all this attendance stuff to do with school,” he said. “Missing five minutes a day every day for a month is more than one class. It just opened my eyes to some of the people that walk in late, how much learning they’re missing out on.”

But Iversen doesn’t think Indigenous students necessarily need any more supports. Rather, he believes their success is up to them.

“There are Indigenous students around my school who do put in the effort and do try, and it shows,” he said. “I don’t necessarily believe it is the responsibility of outside influence for an Aboriginal student to do well in school. I believe the vast majority of it is up to the individual themselves.”