Abstract

This thesis analyzes the education policies towards indigenous communities in both Australia and the United States to see if they are helping the indigenous peoples meet educational standards. This will be done by looking at education policies in both countries, education policies specifically for indigenous people, the histories of these indigenous communities, and looking at other factors that may affect their educational outcome. In the past, these populations have severely lagged behind the rest of the general populations in education.

This thesis concluded that there are still consistent gaps between these indigenous communities and general populations. The education policies proved to be inadequate based on comparing graduation rates between the indigenous groups and the overall graduation rate in each country. Education has a perception, which is its ability to help people move in socioeconomic status. Though that may not be the case, especially for these indigenous communities it seems that socioeconomic status is stagnant with the combination in lack of quality education, high unemployment and mass incarceration rates.