In a statement published following the First Ministers' meeting in November 2005 with national Aboriginal leaders, the participants agreed to begin a 10-year dedicated effort to improve the quality of life of the Aboriginal peoples of Canada. With respect to K-12 education, a post-meeting press release from the Prime Minister's office noted that currently, 44 percent of Aboriginal people aged 20 through 24 have less than high school education. The comparative figure for Canada as a whole is 19 percent. The first Ministers have pledged to eliminate this difference by 2016.

While this is a worthwhile goal, can it be achieved? Its realization will be far more likely if Aboriginal students' academic achievement is regularly assessed and school-by-school results are publicly reported. Regrettably, many Aboriginal leaders and education authorities are not yet convinced that assessment and reporting of results are essential to improvement. In Alberta, First Nations officials have successfully blocked the public release of school performance data related to students in band-operated, federally-funded, schools. Similarly, in Quebec, student results data generated at schools operated by the two Aboriginal education authorities - the Cree and Kativik school boards - are not released by that province's education ministry. In British Columbia and Ontario, band-operated schools generally do not participate in those provinces' annual testing programs and, as a result, there are few data available. Given that over $1,000,000,000 - 88% of the funds committed so far to this 10-year race to parity in K-12 - are earmarked for band-school improvement, this conspiracy of silence regarding their academic results will likely doom the First Ministers' initiative to failure.

Tracking the progress of Aboriginal students within the provincial school systems is equally difficult. Only in British Columbia, Yukon, and Alberta is the education ministry able to isolate performance data related to Aboriginal students enrolled in provincial schools. Only British Columbia and the Yukon routinely report this information to the public.

The success of this new Fist Ministers' initiative depends in large part on the willingness of Aboriginal leaders to ensure that the children in their schools participate in provincial assessment programs where available - and in equivalent assessment programs where they are not - and that Aboriginal student results data are made publicly available. In the absence of such a monitoring process, it is unlikely that the target of graduation rate parity by 2016 will be met.|In a statement published following the First Ministers' meeting in November 2005 with national Aboriginal leaders, the participants agreed to begin a 10-year dedicated effort to improve the quality of life of the Aboriginal peoples of Canada. With respect to K-12 education, a post-meeting press release from the Prime Minister's office noted that currently, 44 percent of Aboriginal people aged 20 through 24 have less than high school education. The comparative figure for Canada as a whole is 19 percent. The first Ministers have pledged to eliminate this difference by 2016.

While this is a worthwhile goal, can it be achieved? Its realization will be far more likely if Aboriginal students' academic achievement is regularly assessed and school-by-school results are publicly reported. Regrettably, many Aboriginal leaders and education authorities are not yet convinced that assessment and reporting of results are essential to improvement. In Alberta, First Nations officials have successfully blocked the public release of school performance data related to students in band-operated, federally-funded, schools. Similarly, in Quebec, student results data generated at schools operated by the two Aboriginal education authorities - the Cree and Kativik school boards - are not released by that province's education ministry. In British Columbia and Ontario, band-operated schools generally do not participate in those provinces' annual testing programs and, as a result, there are few data available. Given that over $1,000,000,000 - 88% of the funds committed so far to this 10-year race to parity in K-12 - are earmarked for band-school improvement, this conspiracy of silence regarding their academic results will likely doom the First Ministers' initiative to failure.

Tracking the progress of Aboriginal students within the provincial school systems is equally difficult. Only in British Columbia, Yukon, and Alberta is the education ministry able to isolate performance data related to Aboriginal students enrolled in provincial schools. Only British Columbia and the Yukon routinely report this information to the public.

The success of this new Fist Ministers' initiative depends in large part on the willingness of Aboriginal leaders to ensure that the children in their schools participate in provincial assessment programs where available - and in equivalent assessment programs where they are not - and that Aboriginal student results data are made publicly available. In the absence of such a monitoring process, it is unlikely that the target of graduation rate parity by 2016 will be met.