Regina schools encourage self-declaration among Aboriginal students

Boosting the number of self-declared Aboriginal students in schools is just one piece of the puzzle, as far as Sarah Longman is concerned. The Regina Public Schools' Aboriginal transitions consultant recently led an information session about the benefits of self-declaration, such as specialized programs, resources, and, most of all, more accurate data when it comes to the number of First Nations and Métis students in Regina schools. Longman says that will in turn lead to more factual results when it comes to academic achievement and graduation rates. "At some of our schools, just by looking at them we know that they have a population that's about 90 per cent aboriginal, and yet when we look at the data for that school, it says only 30 per cent of the kids are aboriginal," Longman says. "The goal is to accumulate that baseline data, so we know where performance levels really are, and then we can provide more programs and more services where they're needed." Regina Leader-Post