Evergreens the result of systemic low expectations for Aboriginal student success

British Columbia is moving away from the over-used practise of granting Aboriginal high school students Evergreen completion certificates instead of graduating them with Dogwood diplomas, and that will have an impact all the way down to kindergarten, said Tyrone McNeil, president of the First Nations Education Steering Committee (FNESC).

“This is relevant well beyond a Grade 12 completion. This is going to signal to anybody and everybody involved in the system that they have to pay better attention to our kids … that everybody involved in our kids’ education has to elevate their expectations for our kids to make sure they’re challenged and not forgotten.”

One out of seven Aboriginal students at the end of Grade 12 in B.C. receives an Evergreen completion certificate, rather than graduating with a Dogwood diploma, compared to one out of every 67 non-Aboriginal students.
 

On Feb. 5, the provincial government announced that Evergreen certificates can only be presented to high school students who are classified as special needs and have formal individual education plans.Evergreen certificates are non-graduation completion certificates and generally do not allow direct entrance to college or university programs, unlike Dogwood diplomas which go to Grade 12 students in the academic stream and open the doors to post-secondary education.
The province’s move comes four months after the auditor general released a report on the education of Aboriginal students and recommended that the ministry work with school boards to ensure that Evergreen certificates be used appropriately.

Up to this point, said McNeil, a number of school districts have been streamlining First Nations students into the Evergreen certificate track without the required education plans.

“Currently, the education system is biased toward First Nations and Aboriginals and sometimes that bias plays out in indifference or little or no expectations and racism,” said McNeil.

Some schools assume that First Nations students will not graduate, so they are automatically put into the Evergreen stream and ignored.

The numbers seem to uphold McNeil’s contention. He points out that FNESC’s latest figures indicate that one out of seven Aboriginal students finishing Grade 12 receives an Evergreen certificate compared to one out of every 67 non-Aboriginal student.

It will now be a costly venture for a school district to put a student in the Evergreen certificate stream, because of the expense involved in doing the required assessments and developing a formal education plan. McNeil is confident that school districts will now start focusing on First Nations students in a positive way.

“Now they have to pay more attention, they have to be more cognizant of where our kids are at and provide the supports that they need so that the majority of our kids will graduate with a Dogwood certificate,” said McNeil.

There will be a cost to the schools to ensure that First Nations students are properly educated.

“Much of that (cost) speaks to what they are currently not doing or what it is they should be doing with existing funding,” said McNeil.
McNeil notes that the Dogwood graduation rate for First Nations students has been slowly increasing over the years. He credits the increased rate to organizations like his that advocate for change for First Nations children, whether that is through collaboration with the education ministry or through lobbying chiefs to bring pressure to bear on the government.

FNESC was joined by both the B.C. School Trustees Association and the B.C. Teachers Federation requesting change for the Evergreen certificate.

It’s too late for any change to have an impact this school year, but McNeil expects to see results come September.

“I’m pretty confident that a good number of our kids, who are being streamed into the Evergreen currently, they’ve got the skills and capability of passing with the Dogwood, but they don’t have the opportunity because they’ve been steered down the other path,” he said.