The Exodus from Kitaskinaw School

Abstract

A bold experiment in integrated schooling appears to have failed. When it opened in 1977, Kitaskinaw school was unique in Canada: it was an integrated school under provincial aegis but situated on an Indian reserve and with a student population that was 70% non-Indian. As county school board policy made alternatives available, non-Indian parents transferred their children to other schools in the area, and by 1991 only 3% of the student body was non-Indian. It appears that the motivation for transfer is in a perception of cultural dif­ference between Indians and non-Indians, and in what that difference implies in terms of curriculum, student academic performance, and school governance.