Maintaining excellence and equity, or affirmative action directives; Toronto District School Board moves to provide equitable access to specialized program

BY PAUL JUNOR

TDSB’s trustees voted to approve a new Student Interest Program Policy to ensure that there is greater access to specialized schools and programs. The goal of this policy according to a press release was to improve access by reducing systemic barriers-such as geographic, socio-economic and race. These barriers were ones that community members mentioned created significant roadblocks to access.

The update to the Student Interest Programs Policy includes the following:

• Using an interest-based application over an assessment of ability through auditions, formal portfolios, entrance exams, or report cards
• Using a random selection process where interest exceeds available space
• Creating unified and consistent applications to streamline the process and promote fairness

These changes that the Trustees of the TDSB approved did not result overnight but resulted from years of feedback from diverse stakeholders as part of a thorough consultation process as well as the Secondary Program Review process. There was a review conducted of: best practices, systems data, and TDSB’s enrolment trends.

As this new policy takes effect, it has generated mixed reactions from diverse groups.

Colleen Russell-Rawlins, Director of Education of the TDSB states in a press release, “Every student with an: interest, passion and motivation should have the opportunity to reach their full potential in local and central student interest programs at the TDSB. Our focus is on maintaining excellence and equity. There is immense talent and brilliance among students who will benefit from these programs.”

Alexander Brown, Chair of the TDSB notes, “It is our responsibility to take action to improve access for all students where we identify systemic barriers. This new policy will ensure a greater number of students have access to these high-quality programs and schools while reducing barriers that have prevented many students from even applying.”

A petition was started at Change.org titled “Fight for specialized programs in the TDSB,” by Brinley Fellows and directed to TDSB’s Director of Education. It states, “If the TDSB truly wanted to make specialized schools more accessible they would be increasing funding and resources so more people could attend, and open more specialized schools across the city, rather than taking away the little resource we have left. If we allow this proposal to become policy we will not recover, which is why it is so extremely important for us all to contact the TDSB and media outlets to express our concerns with the new proposal.”

So far, the petition has garnered about 7,223 signatures expecting 7,500.

Concerns were raised about the removal of entrance auditions at an art-based school within the TDSB. Questions were focused on the use of a lottery system to gain admission to the school and how it would impact the quality of students who gain entry to this prestigious school. Thoughts are that it would unfairly give access to students who are not qualified or lacking in talents and abilities gain accessibility.

The board will ensure that specialty high schools are given one more year to make programming changes to adapt to the new requirements. Ryan Bird, spokesperson of the TDSB stated, “Many programs and schools are aligned with the new policy; however, some arts-focused programs and schools may require additional time. They will now have an additional year to implement any changes to better meet the needs of the community.”