Yellowknife (Jan 19/07) - St. Patrick high school may have received a glowing 2005/2006 school review, but Principal Johnnie Bowden wishes more attention had been paid to the problems facing aboriginal students.

With at least 80 per cent of students on academic probation of aboriginal descent, Bowden had been hoping the review would provide some direction on how to address the issue.

"I do not think the survey results helped us," said Bowden. "It did not shed any light on the nature of the problem."

The review was facilitated by Patrick Maguire, a consultant from Calgary. A series of surveys were sent to parents, students and teachers, each with a different set of questions addressing five key areas selected by a steering committee.

Since the surveys allowed parents and students to indicate their aboriginal status, Maguire was able to look for statistical differences between demographic groups.

Although a few of the questions showed one or two decimal points difference in responses, Maguire said that the differences weren't statistically significant.

"People who responded to the survey seemed to be satisfied," said Maguire.

Bowden said other statistics show that aboriginal students have higher drop-out rates, and he was hoping the survey would help explain why.

"We're not interested in sticking our heads in the sand and pretending there isn't a problem," said Bowden.

Bowden said parents who took the time to respond to the survey may be more involved in their child's education, which could have lead to an inflated rating. There was a return rate of just 13 per cent for parental surveys, below the average 25 to 35 per cent response rate.

Kern Von Hagen, superintendent of the Yellowknife Catholic schools, said Bowden's disappointment may be due to "a mismatch in terms of expectations and intent."

Von Hagen said St. Patrick's aboriginal graduation rates are similar to other schools in the territory.

"I would say when we look at the numbers, we do as well as other schools across the NWT," said Von Hagen.

Von Hagen agrees there is room for improvement, and is completing a doctoral dissertation on the issue of helping aboriginal students achieve.

But surveys like the one recently completed are useful to get a broader perspective on areas to improve, he said.

School reviews are conducted by the school board every two years, while program reviews are conducted in intermittent years.