For Indigenous K-12 students in Canada, educational outcomes can be very different depending on whether they live on or off reserves.
“In my dataset, which covers students graduating between 2007 and 2019, [the high school completion rate] was 51% among on-reserve Indigenous students and 71% among off-reserve Indigenous students, compared to 89% among non-Indigenous students,” said Noah Spencer, a PhD candidate with the Department of Economics.
In Spencer’s paper, Neighbourhoods, Schools, and Funding: Evidence on the On-reserve/Off-reserve Indigenous Education Gap, he uses administrative data from British Columbia to test whether the education gap is due to population-level differences or institutional features of reserves.
“In my paper, I exploit variation in the age at which students move to and from reserves. This approach lets me isolate causal exposure effects rather than just compositional differences,” he said.
Spencer ultimately finds that causal exposure effects explain a large share of the on-reserve/off-reserve Indigenous gap. A key mechanism appears to be attendance of underfunded on-reserve schools.
“Exposure effects are much larger among students who attend on-reserve First Nations schools, which received, on average, 20% less funding per student under the federal funding formula than if they had been being funded provincially, like off-reserve public schools, during my sample period,” Spencer explained.
Spencer then shows that when funding to First Nations schools in B.C. increased in 2012, high school completion rates shot up at those schools.
“That change came through the Tripartite Education Framework Agreement, which aligned the federal and provincial funding formulas,” he said. “I highlight the TEFA as a direct policy response to closing the gap for students attending on-reserve schools.”
Meanwhile, other positive changes came through policies that integrated the unique practices, languages and customs of Indigenous communities into public school curricula.
“From the late 1990s into the 2000s, school districts across British Columbia implemented culturally relevant pedagogy initiatives called Aboriginal Education Enhancement Agreements”, Spencer explains. “I find that these initiatives increased high school completion rates by roughly 20 percentage points for on-reserve students exposed from grade 1 through grade 12.”
Spencer also finds that spending more time on a reserve increases the likelihood of knowing how to speak an Indigenous language as an adult, which highlights the cultural importance of reserves and the need for policies that strengthen education to simultaneously preserve cultural connection.
“I argue that policymakers shouldn’t try to close the on-reserve/off-reserve gap by incentivizing relocation, like we might in other neighborhood contexts, because it risks sacrificing cultural identity,” he said. “Instead, they should meet kids where they are and support them through things like school funding and culturally relevant pedagogy.”
Spencer’s research was inspired by reading outside of the economics discipline.
“I read the Valley of the Birdtail (by Andrew Stobo Sniderman and Douglas Sanderson). It was an eye-opening book to me and helped me understand the differences between the on-reserve education system and the off-reserve education system in Canada,” Spencer said. “It provided vital historical context and important data on funding gaps, but it also featured some really touching personal stories. That combination was what made me want to investigate further.”
Spencer’s investigations are unique, both in terms of content and methodology.
“Noah’s research combines rigorous empirical work with a commitment to ethics when studying indigenous communities,” said Professor Shari Eli, Spencer’s thesis supervisor. “He shows that underfunding, not selection, drives the education gap between on- and off-reserve indigenous students, and that equal funding reforms have substantially improved graduation rates. His research is both policy relevant and an excellent example of the way in which tools from applied microeconomics can be used to learn more about the lived experiences of populations.”
That emphasis on ethics and community-building is also reflected in Spencer’s contributions to the Department of Economics.
“I organized the summer seminar series, the SWEAT series, in 2024, which involved coordinating presenters, scheduling, and logistics,” he noted. “I also serve as an upper-year mentor for two students. I had a great mentor when I was in the program, and I’m trying to pay it forward.”
His research, which emphasizes the need to meet students where they are, has also influenced his approach to teaching.
“Teaching intro-to-micro courses at the Munk School, where many students had no economics background, taught me how important it is not to take knowledge for granted. I make a point of never saying anything is basic or simple,” Spencer said. “I go as slowly as possible and look for nods from the audience to make sure they’re following before moving on.”
Return to the Department of Economics website.
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