1 NON-STANDARD ENGLISH AT SCHOOL: CAN TARGETED FUNDING IMPROVE STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT?* Michele Battisti Simon Fraser University Jane Friesen Simon Fraser University Brian Krauth Simon Fraser University July 2009 Abstract We investigate the effects of providing school districts with supplemental funding to support the language development of Aboriginal students who speak a non-standard English dialect. Exploiting the staggered uptake of this funding across school districts in British Columbia, Canada, we find that the policy substantially improved the reading scores of Aboriginal students. This policy gives school districts wide latitude in how the funds are used. While our results therefore offer little guidance to educators who are developing specific programs and services, they demonstrate that supplementary funding for non-standard dialect speakers, along with district-level program development, can be highly effective. JEL Codes: I21, I22 Keywords: non-standard dialects, literacy, education funding *The data used in this research were assembled by Maria Trache at Edudata Canada from administrative records provided to Edudata by the British Columbia Ministry of Education. Funding for this project provided by Simon Fraser University’s Community Trust Endowment Fund and the Canadian Labour Market and Skills Research Network, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, is gratefully acknowledged. Battisti also acknowledges financial support from the Cross Government Research, Policy and Practice Branch of the British Columbia Ministry of Labour and Citizens’ Services. Corresponding author: Jane Friesen (friesen@sfu.ca).