Exploring Historical and Contemporary Academic Disparities: A Comparative Study of Black and Non-Black Nova Scotians

Abstract

In Canada, concerns persist regarding the academic underperformance among historically marginalized racial and ethnic groups. Extensive research has been conducted on the academic achievements of Aboriginal communities, but there’s a noticeable lack of focus on longstanding Afro-descendant populations. Our study aims to address this gap by examining discrepancies in numeracy and overall academic performance, particularly between Black and non-Black residents of Nova Scotia. Utilizing historical census data, we identified a small-to-medium size numeracy gap between European and African Nova Scotians, measuring about one-third of a standard deviation, prevalent in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Furthermore, contemporary data from the 21st century reveals a gap in academic and cognitive test scores between African and other Nova Scotians of approximately half a standard deviation. We analyze these findings in the context of existing research on racial and ethnic academic disparities in the Americas.