School Mobility and Educational Outcomes of Off-Reserve First Nations Students
Author: Turner, Annie
Date: 2015-03-31
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Canada Natives,Student Mobility,Outcomes of Education,Nonreservation American Indians,Elementary School Students,Secondary School Students,Student Characteristics,Family Characteristics,Institutional Characteristics

School mobility--changing schools--can have a negative effect on children's academic success. Research in the general population has shown that changing schools is associated with difficulties in school (Mehana and Reynolds, 2004; Mantzicopoulos and Knutson, 2000; Demie, 2002; Alexander, Entwistle and Dauber, 1996). A change of schools may affect academic achievement because it breaks up peer groups and requires children to adapt to new teachers and a new learning environment (Alexander, Entwisle and Dauber, 1996). School mobility has been related to socioeconomic status, in that the students most likely to change schools tend to live in lower-income families, lone-parent families, and families headed by parents who are not high school graduates (Wood, Halfon, Scarlata, Newacheck and Nissim, 1993). Studying school changes among First Nations people may be particularly relevant, given their comparatively high residential mobility and less favourable educational outcomes. According to the National Household Survey (NHS), in 2011, 22% of off-reserve First Nations people were at an address different from where they had lived five years earlier; the corresponding percentage for non-Aboriginal people was 18% (Statistics Canada, 2011a). Also, NHS results show that 31% of 25- to 64-year-old off-reserve First Nations people did not have a high school diploma, compared with 15% of the non-Aboriginal population in the same age group (Statistics Canada, 2011b). The Canadian Council on Learning (2008) has identified school mobility as a contributing factor to low high school completion rates among Aboriginal people. Aman (2008) reported that school mobility was associated with dropping out of high school among Aboriginal students in British Columbia, and as the number of moves increased, the likelihood of high school completion decreased. However, research on the impact of school mobility on First Nations students is limited. Based on data from the 2012 Aboriginal Peoples Survey, the aim of this paper is to understand how changing schools for reasons other than regular progression is related to the academic outcomes of off-reserve First Nations students. This study examines the reasons students in Grades 1 to 6 and in Grades 7 to 12 last moved schools (regular progression, residential move, academic performance, or problematic school interactions). Then, the characteristics of movers and non-movers (see Conceptualizing school mobility groups for definitions) are compared: student characteristics (for example, age, sex, registered Indian status); family characteristics (for example, household income, living arrangements, parental education); and school support characteristics (for example, parental involvement in school activities). Finally, movers' and non-movers' school outcomes (grades on last report card, happiness at school, ever repeated a grade, and receipt of help from a tutor) are compared to determine if having one &quot;non-regular&quot; progression school move was negatively related to academic success. Separate analyses are conducted for students in Grades 1 to 6 and those in Grades 7 to 12.