With the move to self-governance and the dismantling of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC), there is a need to know if Aboriginal education systems are providing superior, adequate, marginal, or unsatisfactory standards of education for their students. A study of 165 First Nations students attending a K-10 First Nations school sought to determine if Aboriginal students were more successful in a locally controlled reserve school, as opposed to a federal school. A student survey examined attitudes toward school, values, and sources of enjoyment. Measures of success at the school, which had come under First Nations control 3 years previously, included academic testing (CTBS), attendance, student suspensions and expulsions, age-grade deceleration, dropout rates, and graduation. Attendance improved significantly under Native control, compared to under INAC control. Student enrollment increased steadily from 1990 to 1997, an average of 25 students per year. Age-grade deceleration was reduced by 20.8 percent, primarily in the K-8 grade levels. Students were staying in school, and 34 older students who had been out of school for some time, returned to finish. The paper includes 25 recommendations for increased school success, and suggestions for further research. Contains 38 references and 34 data tables. (TD)
