Revisioning Education in Peel Region: 2006 and Beyond

A Strategic Report Presented by the Coalition On Diversity Education

Purpose of PresentationThis presentation will provide a breakdown of identifiable issues in the education system within Peel as they pertain to student achievement, and provide strategies towards this goal.

Research and ExperienceCODE is a diverse group of educational professionals, social workers, child and youth workers, teacher trainers etc.

Conferences, Town hall, field work, academic research, Equity Summit, Harmony Movement etc.

Board Statistics and Regional Demographics

The Changing Face of Education in Peel: A Report from the First Town hall on Education

FeedbackLettersStatements

Sensitivity to race and educational materialsAnti-oppression training for teachers Accountability for equity in educationCommunity participation and educationThe prevalence of anti-black racismResponding to the need of students with varying abilitiesIncreasing the diversity of educational staff

A Matter of Human RightsAs service providers and employers, boards of education have historically experienced their share of human rights complaints form parents/guardians, applicants and employees. However, the recent reports from the Ontario Human Rights Commission takes direct aim at the educational system and the systemic barriers that prevent all students from participating fully in the educational process.

HeadlinesDecember 2003 “Paying the Price: The Human Cost Of Racial Profiling, OHRC Releases Report. Racial profiling has no place in our society. We must stop debating the issue and start acting upon it" Racial profiling usually a term applied to policing and security issues has now found its way into education.

April 2004 “The Commission makes a submission to the Toronto District School Board's Safe and Compassionate Schools Task Force,raising issues around the negative impact of disciplinary practices.” The Commission recommended that the Ministry of Education and school boards across the province collect data on suspensions and expulsions in order to monitor and safeguard against discriminatory application of safe school legislation.

HeadlinesMay 2004“Commission restates concerns about potential discriminationAs a result of submissions made in response to the Commission's racial profiling inquiry and disability and education consultation, the Commission asked the Toronto District School Board and the Ministry of Education to recognize the negative impact these policies and practices may be having on racialized students and students with disabilities.

July 2004 “Commission releases a comprehensive research report, The Ontario Safe Schools Act: School Discipline And Discrimination.”This report added to the debate with empirical evidence from other jurisdictions and the anecdotal experiences of students, educators and front-line community workers in our schools.

Headlines

September 2005 “Commission mediates settlement with school board in sexual orientation complaint.”The Lakehead District School Board had responded to a student's discrimination complaint – discrimination and harassment on the basis of sexual orientation by disciplining the individual student but failed to introduce any remedies to change the systemic homophobic nature of the school environmentOctober 2005 “Commission settles complaints with Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board.” November 2005 “Commission settles employment case with Toronto District School Board.” A complaint of systemic discrimination in hiring and promotional practices was resolved after 10 years. The Board has agreed to 'promote barrier-free hiring and promotion' by adopting an equity plan, establishing an equity office, delivering workshops on employment equity to all senior staff and setting up a joint task force of staff and community members.

What it all means:These very public cases and reports represent the tip of the iceberg in terms of what boards deal with on a daily basis through their equity or human rights officers and policies; and schools through students, staff and parent/guardians. They clearly point out the need for school boards to take a more proactive role in responding to the needs of students. The challenge is for boards and staff to move beyond the rhetoric and intellectualizing of 'all students can learn', to providing the means for that to actually occur.

Regulated PoliciesFrom a human rights prospective, there are many codes, policies and procedures that govern how boards of education must respond to equity issues within the educational system.

• The Ontario Human Rights Code (and its various guidelines on faith and faith accommodation, disability and accessibility, race and racial harassment, sexual orientation, age, sex and sexual harassment

• PPM112 – Policy Program Memorandum – Education and Religion

• PPM119 – Anti Racism/Ethnocultural Policy• PPM 108 – Opening and Closing Exercises

Locally developed policies and procedures

Current Board Policies and Procedures:

The Future We Want (TFWW)Manifesting Encouraging and Respectful Environments (MERE)MERE talks about the isms – ableism, ageism, classism, faith as an ism, heterosexism, racism and sexism. It also talks about power and privilege and how the isms manifest within society and schools. TFWW describes how we change the curriculum to achieve our vision of what equity would look like if the isms, power and privilege did not exist.

PEEL Board

11 public interest remedies to be implemented by the end of the 2007 school year.a new Committee entitled “Safe, Caring and Inclusive schools in Dufferin-Peel” was created to put these remedies into effect.

D-P.C.D.S.B.

IDENTIFYING THE GAP BETWEEN POLICY & IMPLEMENTATION

PPM 119One of the glaring gaps between policy and implementation has been the abdication of responsibility of the Ministry and the boards of education around the PPM119 – Anti-Racism and Ethnocultural Equity in School Boards.

Many equity practitioners and educators do not see the use of this policy as confined or restricted to issues of racism and racial harassment. Rather in their work they use the term 'anti-racism' as an approach and framework to tackle and dismantle various forms of oppression and inequalities that exist within the educational (and other) institutions.

Finally, PPM119 recognized the importance of monitoring the implementation of the policy.

Collecting data based on race and ethnicity of students: In monitoring the impact of anti-racism and ethnocultural equity policies and programs, it will be necessary for boards to collect data relating to the race and ethnicity of students.

Only 2 boards have ventured into the collection of statistics

Literacy, Numeracy and DiversityIn a report compiled by the Equity Team of the Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat, the Secretariat stated that not all students were progressing as quickly as their peers. They cited a recent report commissioned by the Ministry and compiled a group of students who are more disengaged from and/or less likely to complete high school than others. This list included:

• Students living in low-income households• Newcomers and students learning English as a second or additional

language• Lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgendered youth• Aboriginal youth• Visible minorities (e.g. black youth)• Youth in remote and rural areas• Francophone youth• Boys• Students with physical, mental and/or cognitive disabilities

There is an abundance of both qualitative and quantitative evidence (Radwanski 1987, Tate 1997; Lewis 19xx; Oakes & Lipton 1999;Sleeter 2001; Bernard 2003) that students from these marginalized groups are not performing at the same level as non-marginalized groups. Responding to marginalization with belief statements rooted in our commitment to the notion of 'democratic meritocracy' i.e. we can all succeed if we just try hard enough, will not close the achievement gap of these marginalized students or improve the learning environment.

Of all student groups currently encountered over the intense course of a School Social Worker’s professional practice, no one group is remotely paralleled in terms of paradoxical extremes of personal need on the one hand, and systemic resistance on the other, than Sexual Minority Youth (SMY).

School Social Work Advocacy for Sexual Minority Youth

Urgency of ActionThe desperate urgency of need on this specific client-group is well documented through the professional literature revealing that SMY in schools are the highest in:

• Personal isolation• Dehumanization and harassment, both covert and overt• Stigmatization • Invisibility / Threat to systemic integrity• Disengagement from school• Run-aways• Personal doubt often verging on shame/hatred• Suicide

Policy DeficitSimultaneously SMY, we are warned, are the lowest in:

• Policies of Inclusivity• Systemic advocacy: be it from family, peer-

group, society or school,• In-school Service delivery• Positive curriculum representation

Gaps in policy and reality Solutions and implementationOpportunities for leadership and system reformationCommunity and cultural transformationLanguage is where it all starts

SOLUTIONS : overview and explanation

“School should be a place where students and teachers feel secure and cared for, and where all forms of diversity are accepted and respected. Students need safe space, language and opportunities to talk about their lives, struggles and visions. Teachers must ensure that their classroom programs and practices respect their students' many differences; they must find a valued place for those differences in the daily curriculum”The Future We Want PDSB

Creating Successful Classrooms

Curricular Relevance: Making the student the curriculum

Students bring cultural capital with them to their classes, but because of our school structures they do not get an opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge because their cultural capital may differ from the established curriculum goal and expectations. Centre students and their home literacies in the curriculum to create relevance and use existing capital in the classroom to promote multiple school literacies.

Critical literacy promotes an understanding of difference. It views readers as active participants in the reading process and invites them to move beyond passively accepting the text’s message by questioning, examining, or disputing the power relations that exist between readers and authors. It focuses on issues of power and promotes reflection, transformation, and action.

Freire, 1970

Critical Literacy and Classroom Teaching Strategies

Communication and Working through Difference

New instructional models are needed around dialogue in order to create more equitable educational environments for staff and students.Co-action model: Creating authentic dialogue Understanding identity issues and difference Deconstructing and sharing power

Monitoring, Assessment and Goals

“Improvement is not achieved by focusing on results, but by focusing on the systems that create results” National Leadership Network

Monitoring of individual student performance can be achieved when the systems used are investigated, challenged and held accountable.

We must face the challenge of race, classPractices must be research-informedGoals and targets are for all studentsSchool leaders must be relentless in the pursuit of success for all students

Empowering YouthThe source of empowerment begins from within the school

community and involves all the many layers of individuals within school complexes.

The key to empowerment is student validation and exposing the students to people of diverse backgrounds that serve as positive representations for marginalized youth. Minority students continue to rely, on an ethnocentric based curriculum that create intrinsic feelings of inferiority, and develop beliefs of superiority among the dominant groups See: Deena,2001; deCaires Narain,2002; El Saadawi,1997 & Pernal, 2002

Achievement and Self Esteem in Elementary Schools

The foundation of a student’s educational experience is built in elementary schools where attitudes towards diversity and equity must be explicit throughout all aspects of the experiences of the young learner.The greatest work in areas of equity must be done at an early age, be based on firm research and evaluated and reviewed regularly by equity departments to meet the ever changing challenges of early education.

Harmony Work and Peace Building

Empower students to foster an understanding of how their own identity and background can effect their perception on people of diverse backgroundsDiversity initiatives allow students and all participants to be self-reflexive in order to understand how their own biases and prejudice lead to actions, attitudes and behaviours. Develop student leaders while building capacity within the school. Students are given a sense of social responsibility that not only builds character within themselves but also within their school community. From The Harmony Movement of Canada

Mentorship and LeadershipCultivating Values: Active roles and opportunities for change are available at all levels of the system. Equity and human rights implementation meet roadblocks at the doors of Principals, the traditional initiators of change within schools Celebrating Student Voices: encourage students to be leaders and peacebuilders

Community PartnershipsWorking with the communityMaking connections - roles of police, social services, education and City Effective communication between parents and school boards Community Education: Increasing Access and Lobbying powers

Developing cultural and critical literacy skills with existing teachers on a constant basisCentring equity and diversity in schoolsProfessional Learning CommunitiesThe lack of diversity and equity training at training facilitiesBoard developed certificate programsUtilizing external agencies

Teaching Teachers

Cultivating & Retaining a Diverse Staff

Centring values within school cultureStaff education and trainingTeachers as leaders of equityHiring and promotion practices

Leadership and OrganizationThe administration of safe and inclusive school culturesHiring and promotion practicesFostering Belief and Understanding in the StaffIntervention and Special AssistanceCreating Professional Learning Communities

Roadblocks and Hurdles“One of the greatest mysteries in organizational management is the disconnect between knowledge and action. Why does knowledge of what needs to be done so frequently fail to result in action or behaviour consistent with that knowledge?” Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton

Roadblocks and Hurdles contd.Perceived lack of empirical evidence of systemic racism/classism etc.Limited knowledge of relevant research and practices pertaining to identified groups.Reluctance to consider privilegeEquality vs. EquityCollective commitment to the notion of democratic meritocracy:

We can all succeed if we try hard enoughWe’re good peopleWe’re already doing it

Implementation of Board Wide Equity Plans

The development of equity departments is not just a trend, but a necessity to meet the growing needs and challenges of school boards across Southern OntarioImplementation must be directed, monitored and initiated by school leadersThe use of external agencies to review, revise, train and develop equity capital within boardsEthic of Care

Conclusion and Recommendation

The implementation of a system wide achievement plan based on equity is imperative to the ongoing process of research and development, accountability, communication and oversight to ensure all students can reach their full potential.

CODE partnershipGroups like the Coalition On Diversity Education frequently work within the larger educational community bringing together different stakeholders and participants and an awareness of contemporary trends, research and practices. When you need to do needs assessment work, equity audits, curriculum reviews please consider utilizing existing resources within your board and neighbouring board to develop new strategies and assist in launching equity plans and systems reformation and cultural transformation of education environments.

Email CODE at info@diveristyeducation.cawww.diversityeducation.ca