TDSB

Twice as many white students, many wealthy at TDSB's arts schools, 91�Թ� study finds

ullahnor — Mon, 24 Apr 2017 15:49:54 +0000

Twice as many white students, many wealthy at TDSB's arts schools, 91�Թ� study finds

ullahnor Mon, 04/24/2017 - 11:49

Cutline

The study shows the majority of students entering the TDSB arts high schools come from a narrow set of feeder schools that also have an over-representation of white, wealthy students

Lindsey Craig

Author legacy

Lindsey Craig

Topic

City & Culture

Education

Schools

Arts

Culture

Race

Diversity

TDSB

Subheadline

“Our research is important because it suggests that these schools undermine the board’s commitment to equity by benefiting those who are already socially advantaged by race and class”

A recent 91�Թ� study shows students entering specialized arts high school programs in the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) are twice as likely to be white and many come from wealthy families, compared to students across Toronto public schools.

Despite the arts high schools’ open enrolment status, the study shows the majority of students entering them come from a narrow set of feeder schools that also have an over-representation of white, wealthy students.

Researchers at 91�Թ�'s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) say the findings are concerning because the arts high schools – also known as specialized arts programs, or SAPs – were established to provide greater access to arts training to all students across Canada’s most ethnically diverse city.

“Our findings show that these specialized arts schools are implicated in producing racial segregation and inequality, that they are places that cater primarily to white and privileged students in the board,” said the study’s lead author Rubén Gaztambide-Fernández, associate professor and acting director for OISE’s Centre for Urban Schooling.

Read the Toronto Star story

Rubén Gaztambide-Fernández, associate professor at OISE, is the lead author of the study

Researchers examined three of Toronto’s four specialized arts high schools, which are dispersed throughout the city. The study was published on April 23 in the journal Education Policy Analysis Archives.

“Our research is important because it suggests that these schools undermine the board’s commitment to equity by benefiting those who are already socially advantaged by race and class,” said Gaztambide-Fernández, who is also the lead investigator of the Urban Arts High Schools research project, which is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

Using demographic and program data collected by the TDSB – one of the only school boards in Canada to collect such extensive data – Gaztambide-Fernández and fellow researcher Gillian Parekh compared the students entering specialized arts high school programs in Grade 9 to students across TDSB in elementary schools with Grade 8.

Three variables were explored – race, family income and parental education.

In all three categories, researchers say their findings show Toronto’s publicly funded arts schools are “remarkably homogenous” when compared with the student demographics across the TDSB.

Findings include:

Students entering into specialized arts schools are 67 per cent white. They are more than twice as likely to be white compared to students across all TDSB elementary schools with Grade 8, who are 29.3 per cent white.
More than half – 56.7 per cent – of arts high school students come from families representing the top three highest income deciles in the TDSB compared to only 30.4 per cent of students within elementary schools across the TDSB.
Students at specialized arts high schools are 1.4 times more likely to have parents with a university education compared to those at non-arts TDSB high schools. Data shows 73.2 per cent of students at arts schools have university-educated parents, compared to 53.2 per cent of students within elementary schools across the TDSB.

“The pattern across all three demographic variables shows that the student populations in specialized arts high schools do not reflect the population of our very diverse city,” Gaztambide-Fernández said.

Study results also show that the student demographics at SAPs mirror the student demographics of the feeder schools. Researchers say this means most students are coming from schools in predominately white, wealthy neighbourhoods – despite the fact that arts schools are intended to serve students from across the TDSB.

“Our study shows that over a quarter of the students come from only five elementary schools. And, over half come from just 18 schools out of almost 200 elementary schools within the board,” said Gaztambide-Fernández. “This suggests other mechanisms beyond admissions are at play in producing such homogeneity.”

Researchers drew on their own previous studies of specialized arts programs in TDSB schools to try and explain the latest findings. They suggest admissions practices, curriculum and student experience may play an important role in excluding students who are neither white nor wealthy.

“For example if a school focuses on Eurocentric forms of art such as ballet or piano, those who excel in other forms of art such as South Asian dance or slam poetry may not do well in that audition process,” Gaztambide-Fernández said.

The admissions process is only partially to blame, he said.

“If we could say that the reason is because of admissions, the policy solution would be simple – change the admission process or eliminate it,” he said.

“It’s not just that the admissions process works to exclude students without the right kind of background or talent. It’s also that a very Eurocentric idea of the arts shapes the curriculum, which attracts students who see themselves mirrored within it, and who share the same ideals of the school in terms of what it means to be an artist.”

Researchers say that’s going to play a role not just in who is admitted but in who even knows about the existence of the schools and then chooses to apply.

Leslie Stewart Rose, associate professor at OISE, teaches courses in music education and is director of OISE’s concurrent teacher education program.

She shares the concerns of Gaztambide-Fernández and Parekh, and says the decisions and choices made by educators reflect their personal beliefs, values and experiences.

“Even well-intentioned educators teach only what and how they have been taught. So, they continue to replicate Eurocentric curriculum and pedagogies. When a teacher rejects rap or DJ’ing as legitimate musical practices for example, then so too are they rejecting the motivations and histories behind those practices along with the students who identify with those movements,” Stewart Rose said.

On the other hand, an inclusive curriculum reflects the identities of the students, is relevant to their lives and invites the student to “proudly bring their full selves into the classroom,” she said. This is known as culturally relevant and responsive curriculum, which she says is part of the solution.

Researchers hope their findings will lead to change.

“If the idea behind such programs is to be inclusive, and if we are committed to ensuring access to all students across the city not just a privileged few, then we need to reconsider not just how students access such programs, but what kind of arts training they provide and what image of the artist we want to promote through our education system,” Gaztambide-Fernández said.

TDSB students tackle problems in transit, zoos and more at 91�Թ�

geoff.vendeville — Fri, 20 Jan 2017 20:27:53 +0000

TDSB students tackle problems in transit, zoos and more at 91�Թ�

geoff.vendeville Fri, 01/20/2017 - 15:27

Cutline

A student tries on a pair of virtual reality goggles during the event (photo by Yana Kaz)

Geoffrey Vendeville

Author legacy

Geoffrey Vendeville

Topic

City & Culture

Roger Martin

Rotman School of Management

Subheadline

Rotman School of Management hosted event for Toronto elementary and high school students

Elementary and high school students, their teachers and parents came to 91�Թ�’s Rotman School of Management this week to unveil projects they completed using an innovative problem-solving technique coined by business strategist and former Rotman dean Roger Martin.

Called integrative thinking, the method is meant to help anyone wade through enigmatic choices by weighing different ideas and coming to a “creative resolution of the tension” between them.

It may sound complex, but teachers at the Toronto District School Board had apparently no trouble explaining it to students ranging in grades from 2 to 12. Students used integrative-thinking to solve an array of problems.

Jade Mantadee and her classmates in the combined Grade 4 and 5 class at Fairbanks Public School tackled the question of whether to keep animals in captivity.

“We were trying to see if we could make both sides into one solution so we came up with virtual reality,” she said.

Becky Zaimi, a teacher at Fairbanks Public School, uses a virtual reality headset, which was part of her students' class project, looking at whether there should be zoos (photo by Yana Kaz)

Their teacher, Becky Zaimi, a graduate of 91�Թ�'s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, said her class came up with the idea themselves after they read a collection of persuasive texts by fourth graders entitled Should There Be Zoos? and a book about cyberspace.

They used a pro/pro chart, an integrative thinking tool, as opposed to the traditional pro/con chart to arrive at a solution.

Another group, the Grade 1 class at Park Lawn Junior Middle School, analyzed problems of racism and sexism raised in the children’s book, Amazing Grace, by Mary Hoffman.

Students at Park Lawn Junior Middle School explain their project to grown-ups. Their project was based on the children's book “Amazing Grace” by Mary Hoffman (photo by Yana Kaz)

“It’s about a girl, Grace, who wants to be Peter Pan in the school play. But the other students say Peter Pan is a boy. He’s white, and you’re black,” said a volunteer and recent OISE grad at the school, Kathryn Bryce.

After a discussion about racial and gender stereotypes, the class – including Deandray Spencer – concluded that Grace should play Peter Pan anyway.

“It’s awesome because they’re so young, and yet they were still able to think in a good and productive way,” Bryce said.

Deandray Spencer presents a class project on the children's book “Amazing Grace” by Mary Hoffman (photo by Geoffrey Vendeville)

Mitzie Hunter, Ontario’s minister of education and a Rotman graduate, came to the event to tell students that integrative thinking has applications outside the classroom.

Speaking about the pro/pro chart, she said it was useful because it helps her balance the interests of many different stakeholders: teachers, principals, boards and labour unions.

“When I use pro/pro, I try to find elements of common ground where we can work towards an outcome, taking the best ideas from both sides,” she said.

Ontario Education Minister Mitzie Hunter spoke to students at Rotman about using integrative thinking in her work (photo by Yana Kaz)

For Grade 12 students at John Polanyi Collegiate, integrative thinking helped them take on a challenge posed by Metrolinx.

The students were asked to find the best way to build “employee resource groups” within the transportation agency's workforce as part of a new diversity and inclusive intiative.

One group suggested organizing a "discovery fair," where employees could set up booths, showcasing their hobbies so they can find co-workers with similar interests.

The Grade 12 business leadership class at John Polanyi Collegiate brainstormed ideas for building "employee resource groups" at Metrolinx (photo by Yana Kaz)

A first-year Rotman commerce student and former intern at Metrolinx, Kate Azizova, helped arrange the partnership.

She had once learned about integrative thinking in Rotman's business leadership class. Martin is now the academic director of Rotman's Martin Prosperity Institute.

“This class is very different from any other you take in high school,” she told 91�Թ� News. “There are no tests. Everything is based on whether you choose to speak up.

“The biggest thing I learned was to take initiative.”