Should admission to the TDSB's specialist high school programs be merit-based?

In Toronto, where I live, students and their families get a lot of choice about where to go to high school. Every student has a "home" school, which is a school at which they are guaranteed admission. Students in French immersion or gifted programs can choose a high school that continues their program, or they can go to their in-district English school. And then there are the specialized schools and programs. Students can choose a specialized program in the arts, math & science, leadership, athletics, or International Baccalaureate. Until recently, admission to these programs involved an application that usually included an essay, interview, audition, or portfolio.

One problem was that white, affluent students were over-represented in the specialized programs. School board trustees blamed the admission process for this - and rightfully so. In order to get a spot in a music program at a specialized arts school, a student probably needs to take private lessons. To submit a visual arts portfolio, a student needs art supplies, and these are not always available in the art room at their middle schools. For an academic program that requires an essay or interview, it's certainly an advantage to have parents with a Canadian education to guide them through the process. Admissions exams? A tutor can help. Needless to say, these lessons, materials, and tutoring can cost a lot of money, giving an advantage to students whose families have the means to help them.

The admissions process for the specialized high school programs changed for this school year. Now, interested students apply to a centralized application system; they are selected for programs based on a random draw. When this was announced, parents and students (mostly white and/or affluent ones) were outraged. They were concerned that lottery-based admissions would make it less likely for their children to get into the programs and that the quality of the programs would be watered down by having kids who didn't measure up to the high standards set by the old admissions process. Meanwhile, other prospective students and parents applauded the new process; now, families who couldn't pay to give their kids an advantage finally stood a chance.

So, where do I stand on this? Given my interest in equity in the education system, you'd assume that I support the new admissions process. Surprisingly, I support the old process with its interviews, exams, and auditions, but with a very strong caveat.

The problem, as I see it, isn't that specialized schools require auditions, exams, and interviews to get in. The problem is that regular high schools don't provide the high-quality academic, leadership, and arts programs that students are looking for. I believe that all public high schools should have academic programs with high standards; teenagers shouldn't have to apply to special programs and trek across the city in order to get a math class that challenges them and prepares them for university. Instead of having special schools where the "smart" kids are separated from everyone else, we need high schools that offer these challenging courses. We also need elementary schools that prepare everybody to succeed in high school. Currently, students often have to seek out private tutoring in order to succeed in reading, writing, and math.

So how can the TDSB improve this?

1. We need smaller class sizes. Currently, grade 4-8 classes can have well over 30 students! The full-day kindergarten classes often have close to 30 students, with one teacher and one early childhood educator, and are often housed in classrooms that are far too small.

2. We need more educational assistants, special needs assistants, child and youth workers, social workers, and other support staff in our schools to support children who are struggling.

3. We need resources in our classrooms. When I was growing up, we either had textbooks or workbooks in math class. Many schools have stopped using these, preferring more inquiry-based teaching methods, but haven't provided any materials! Teachers have to spend their own money buying resources, or they spend hours creating them or looking for them online. This means that many elementary school math programs are a weird hodgepodge of whatever the teacher can find.

4. We need more special education teachers who can withdraw students in small groups to provide remediation in literacy and math.

5. We need better maintenance for the physical school buildings. Students in Toronto often go to school in classrooms with mouse infestations, mold, and leaking roofs. There are so few caretaking staff that it's nearly impossible for them to keep the schools clean.

6. We need more budget for basic school supplies. Have you ever tried to teach children to measure angles when there is one protractor for every five students?

7. We need air conditioning! In September and June, some classrooms can have temperatures over 30 degrees. Teachers often do whatever they can just to have everyone make it through the school day without fainting. Teachers' and students' productivity suffers due to the heat for up to two of the ten months of the school year, causing us to lose a lot of instructional time. This is not conducive to a good education.

8. We need real professional development to train teachers in evidence-based approaches for teaching literacy and math. When the new math and literacy curricula came out, the training we received was the chance to watch a pre-recorded webinar on our own time. We need every teacher to have paid professional learning opportunities.

9. We need more robust school nutrition programs. As the cost of groceries goes up, more and more families are food-insecure.

10. We need more resources for parents and families. So many parents seem so overwhelmed, and more and more kids are coming to school struggling with self-regulation. Schools need to be community hubs that can connect families with organizations that provide parenting courses, winter clothing, counselling, and the other supports that parents need to succeed.

Ok, so if every school has top-notch academic programming, is there still a need for specialized high schools? I'll write more about that in a future post.