Neighbourhood effects and education policy in Indigenous communities
Abstract:
Across the Americas and Oceania, Indigenous youth living in historically segregated or marginalized Indigenous communities attain less education than Indigenous youth living elsewhere. Using administrative data from British Columbia and exploiting variation in the age at which students move to and from legally delineated Indigenous communities known as reserves, I show that this gap reflects causal exposure effects rather than differences in student composition. Reserve exposure has especially detrimental effects for students attending on-reserve schools, long under-resourced relative to comparable public schools. I find that increasing on-reserve school funding substantially raises educational attainment, while culturally relevant pedagogy initiatives in public schools also improve outcomes for on-reserve students. Importantly, Indigenous community exposure increases Indigenous language knowledge, highlighting the need for policies that strengthen education while preserving cultural connection.
Organized by: Sam Norris
