What Do We Know About Canadian Schools?: Systemic gaps in pan-Canadian education datasets and First Nations Education in Ontario
Canadian Association of Sociology of Education (CASE) and the Canadian Sociological Association's Sociology of Education Research Cluster (CSA).
January 23, 2025 @ 1:30 PM Eastern Time
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Presenter 1: Dr. Christine Corso
What do we know about Canadian schools?: A scoping review of pan-Canadian education datasets
Canada suffers from a lack of comparable data to help understand the impact of policy on schools and students across provincial/territorial borders (e.g., Andrew-Gee & Grant, 2019; Gallagher-Mackay, 2017; Georgiades et al., 2021; Robson, 2021). To lay the groundwork for a new pan-Canadian school survey, we conducted a scoping review of large-scale Canadian education datasets, surveys, and outcomes indicators. The review revealed that some educational outcome measures are available across Canada (e.g., graduation rate is reported Canada-wide, large-scale assessment results are available for provinces but not territories), but information about school resourcing is limited (e.g., school enrolment and expenditure data are reported, but little else). When looking at provincial/territorial-level data or at the more granular school board level, there are more datasets available (e.g., class sizes, credit attainment, attendance) but these are only provided in some regions (and often school board data are only published in aggregate) and the metrics are not consistently operationalized, making data unification impossible. Demographic linkages are very rare – some findings are reported by gender or Indigeneity, but other racial groups and socio-demographic information are rare. The results of this review expose gaps in comparable data, particularly with respect to key resources in schools such as mental health and special education supports, or experiential learning opportunities. In this webinar we will present these findings as well as a proposed framework for the brand new Annual Canadian School Survey, which aims to produce comparable data about resources and programming in schools nationwide.
Presenter 2: Dr. Kelly Gallagher-Mackay
Systemic Gaps in First Nations Education in Ontario’s provincially-funded schools – Disproportionate discipline and high absenteeism
Description: The Truth and Reconciliation Commission put forward a vision – and a Call to Action – that First Nations and all levels of government would work together, with sufficient funding, to “close educational gaps within a generation” (Call to Action #10). To support that work, the Commission called for annual reports to be prepared and published to compare educational attainment of Aboriginal Peoples in Canada compared with non-Aboriginal peoples (Call to Action #9). This data was meant to inform a strategy, jointly developed by government and Aboriginal groups, to eliminate gaps in outcomes (Call to Action #7) and gaps in funding (Call to Action #8) (Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 2015).
This presentation highlights the framework used by the Chiefs of Ontario to assess disparities in outcomes and opportunities in First Nations schooling, and shares early findings on absenteeism and school discipline. It draws on these reports from the Chiefs: https://chiefs-of-ontario.org/chiefs-of-ontario-education-sector-launches-reports-addressing-systemic-gaps-in-k-12-schools/