In Chapter 15 we dealt with the concerns of communities that have special constitutional status; however, there are some minority communities without special constitutional or historic status who also raised issues concerning governance, funding, and special programs to support academic achievement. Therefore, in this chapter we address certain concerns of religious, racial, and language minorities, and make a variety of recommendations.
Ontario's rich diversity is not limited to Toronto: people from many backgrounds have settled in communities large and small. Whether born here or elsewhere, Ontarians share one home but have different religions and languages, ethno-cultural and racial backgrounds.*
We can expect this diversity to increase, as we continue to have relatively high rates of immigration from parts of the world that, in the Canadian context, produce religious, linguistic, ethno-cultural, and racial minorities. For example, Statistics Canada estimated that, in Ontario in 1992, there were 1,297,605 "visible minorities" - 13 percent of the provincial population.(1) Although it is always dangerous to make population projections, we think it safe to say that the proportion and number of racial minorities are, at the very least, likely to rise, at least for the next decade.(2)
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms provides all Canadians with basic protection from discrimination "based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age, or mental or physical disability," while also allowing for "affirmative action programs." The Charter requires that it be "interpreted in a manner consistent with the preservation and enhancement of the multicultural heritage of Canadians"; this is an extension of the federal government's announcement in 1971 of a policy of multiculturalism within a bilingual framework; later, a Canadian Multiculturalism Act was passed into law.
The Commission takes with utmost seriousness the school system's mandate to serve all students. It means that the system needs to ensure that every school is welcoming to students of every faith, first language, ethnocultural background, or colour. Ontario must not only build inclusive schools and curricula but, because a student can be formally included but still marginalized, the province must also create schools and curricula that place the views, concerns, and needs of all students and communities at the very centre of the teacher's work.
We believe the Commission has done this throughout our report when dealing with issues such as those related to curriculum, teacher staffing, training, and parental and community involvement.
At the same time, we recognize that it may be necessary to include a section dealing with matters related to specific communities, based on data that indicate the children of those communities are collectively performing "below the norm," at least as compared to students from other communities or to the board average.
A small number of school boards have compiled data that allows these types of comparisons; for example, they have analyzed the proportions of students found in the advanced, general, and basic streams in secondary school. They have also looked at drop-out rates and various indicators of "risk": we know, for instance, that if students fall significantly behind in the number of credits they earn, they are more "at risk" of dropping out.
These data are broken down according to gender, class, ethnic, and racial categories, so that it is possible to see which groups are better represented in, for example, the advanced level that leads to university, and which groups have higher drop-out rates. It is clear from the data that there are substantial differences identifiable for some groups.(3)
In a paper prepared for this Commission, University of Western Ontario Professor Jerry Paquette makes a very strong case for monitoring the educational benefits derived by various sub-populations.(4) As he points out, it is not possible to assume that all individual students are equal and that all will achieve at the same high degree. Rather, "the equality dimension of public education should take aim ... at an equitable distribution of educational excellence across lines of demographic difference. That is the real and singular challenge of equality of educational opportunity..." In other words, we can expect that, in a truly equitable system, roughly the same proportions of each community will excel, do satisfactorily, or do poorly, as in the total student population. If, as is currently true, they do not, the system needs to be fixed.
We believe that the benefits of learning from and about each other more than justify meeting the challenges of providing an educational system that is sensitive to diversity.
We heard from minority groups who feel their religious beliefs are not sufficiently accommodated in the publicly funded school system. Some of them asked for more consideration and support for their differences so that their children can be educated in the public school system in a manner that recognizes and respects their needs.
Others do not feel that they can expect the public
system to provide an education that is consistent with their values and
beliefs, and have therefore established their own private education
systems. They asked for various degrees of financial support to
alleviate the financial burden of maintaining their own schools, and
want the government to recognize their different needs when it develops
and implements education policies.
Members of several language, ethno-cultural, and racial minority communities came to the Commission concerned about lost opportunities: too many of their children are failing, are in special education or non-university streams, or are dropping out of school.
Schools can and must serve all students. As we have already said, while some of our recommendations will benefit all students directly, some groups of students have special needs that deserve attention. We have proposed improvements in language acquisition support for members of linguistic or ethno-cultural minorities.
We have argued that, in serving the needs of students from ethno-cultural and racial minorities, there must be significant changes in curriculum, initial teacher education, and on-going professional development; there must also be fair testing and strengthened partnerships with the community. However, we are concerned that even this may not be sufficient, and we are suggesting interventions that, we believe, would more fully respond to the needs we heard.
Because it is important to keep track of the educational attainment of different groups in society, we have already recommended that this be done. Given that we know that children of single parents, children whose parents are poor, or children from some minority groups do not do as well as others, the school system has a responsibility to identify barriers to success and, where it can, take action to remove those barriers.(7) This means conducting studies and audits, in partnership with communities, to identify problems that exist. Then, schools and school boards (and the Ministry) must develop action plans and implement them once more, of course, in partnership with parents and the communities concerned.
Finally, the circle would be closed by monitoring achievement levels for improvement, and by taking further remedial action if necessary.
In his report on race relations, Stephen Lewis was moved by what he heard concerning education. As he said,
... it's as if virtually nothing has changed for visible minority kids in the school system over the last ten years ... The lack of real progress is shocking. And I believe it signals the most intractable dilemma, around race relations, in contemporary education: How do you get the best of policies and programs into the individual classrooms? It raises searching questions of communications and accountability.(8)
The Lewis report recommended that the Ministry monitor the implementation of employment equity in schools and in the Ministry, and that faculties of education review their admissions criteria to attract and enrol more qualified members of minority groups. In our discussion of teacher professionalism and development in Chapter 12, we discuss the need for faculties of education and other partners to ensure the existence of a pool of qualified teachers from a variety of backgrounds.
Less than two years ago, an Anti-Racism, Equity and Access Division was created in the newly restructured Ministry of Education and Training; representatives of many groups told us they have high expectations for this initiative. The division, led by an Assistant Deputy Minister, has responsibility for responding to the recommendations of Stephen Lewis's report, and for implementing the anti-racism and ethno-cultural equity provisions of Bill 21.*
In Chapter 17, we return to the issue of the best way to represent the interests of particular communities in the Ministry.
*We strongly recommend that the Ministry of Education and Training always have an Assistant Deputy Minister responsible, in addition to other duties, for advocacy on behalf of anglophones, francophones, and ethno-cultural and racial minorities.
Other government initiatives, such as the recent proclamation of Bill 79, the Employment Equity Act, should also have an impact on the education of children of minority groups. It is expected that, as a result of this legislation, boards will employ a more representative workforce at all levels, and that, therefore, more children will be able to find role models from their own background in the adults who are part of their school communities, and interact with more adults who have an in-depth understanding of their cultural background.
We want to ensure that all these local people have the capacity to implement the anti-racism education agenda.
*We recommend that trustees, educators, and support staff be provided with professional development in anti-racism education.
We also believe it is imperative that performance evaluation for supervisory officers, principals, and teachers should explicitly make implementation of anti-racism policies an important criterion. This would ensure that professionals at all levels are involved in the implementation of anti-racism initiatives; it would also ensure that all students in the province receive the education they deserve.
*We recommend that the performance management process for supervisory officers, principals, and teachers specifically include measurable outcomes related directly to anti-racism policies and plans of the Ministry and the school boards.
In our view, part of the solution to ensuring that policy becomes classroom reality is to involve the community in the implementation and monitoring process: schools and boards should seek input from the community to decide on the measurable outcomes of anti-racism policies and plans.
As part of the monitoring process, schools and boards should receive feedback on whether these outcomes had been achieved, and should make the report public and easily accessible to parents and other members of the community.
In Chapter 17, we deal with the improvement plans schools should be required to develop, and in Chapter 19, we describe the kind of public report the Ministry should require school boards to make annually. These accountability measures should include a full report, not only on implementation of the anti-racism policies and plans, but also on the way parents and the community were involved in the process.
*We recommend that, for the purposes of the anti-racism and ethno-cultural equity provisions of Bill 21, the Ministry of Education and Training require boards and schools to seek input from parents and community members in implementing and monitoring the plans. This process should be linked to the overall school and board accountability mechanisms.
Earlier in this report, we discussed the need for teachers to have curriculum and assessment tools, including texts, tests, software, and audio-visual materials that are unbiased - not just in terms of race and ethnicity, but also on the basis of class, gender, sexual orientation, and religion.
*We further recommend that the Ministry and school boards systematically review and monitor teaching materials of all types (texts, reading materials, videos, software, etc.), as well as teaching practices, educational programs (curriculum), and assessment tools to ensure that they are free of racism and meet the spirit and letter of anti-racism policies.
Our hearings also alerted us to educational issues related to particular communities - especially the black and the Spanishand Portuguese-language communities. Of course, the previous recommendations apply to all groups, and should lead to great improvement in the learning experiences of their children; but we want to examine the particular needs of the three groups, and make recommendations designed to ensure that children from all minority groups are able to achieve as successfully as other students.
Black students, teachers, parents, and community leaders came to the Commission and expressed serious concerns about the achievement levels of their young people. They expressed frustration over a lack of improvement over the years, during which time they have voiced their concerns to school boards and to the Ministry. They are concerned about the future of young blacks who, without a secondary school diploma (let alone a college diploma or university degree), face limited job prospects, social marginalization, and personal defeat. These presenters argued forcefully that the education system is failing black students, and that there is an education crisis in their community.
While the Ministry of Education and Training does not have province-wide data on the achievement patterns of students according to sub-population, there are a variety of good, reliable data from individual boards. Provincial analyses, such as that conducted by the Child, Youth and Family Policy Research Centre for the Ministry of Citizenship in 1989,(9) use reports from individual school boards.
Probably the most comprehensive data are those available from the Toronto Board of Education. These indicate that 9 percent of its secondary school students in 1991-92 were black; in that year, they made up only seven percent of students in the advanced level, but 16 and 18 percent of the general and basic levels respectively. Between 1987 and 1991, there was a slight increase in the proportion of black students studying at the advanced level.
Data showed that 36 percent of black secondary school students were "at risk," based on their grades in English and math courses; this pattern was repeated when only students in the advanced level were considered and when the black student category was broken down into those born in Canada, in Caribbean countries, and in Africa. Even black students who have university-educated parents, or parents in professional occupations, or who live with both parents, continue to do disappointingly, according to the Toronto data. On the other hand, compared to 1987 data, there has been a statistically important improvement, mostly by Canadian-born and African-born black students, although black students still remain significantly behind their peers.(10)
In a separate analysis, the Toronto board tracked students who were in Grade 9 in 1987 and analyzed their record of achievement, based on results at the end of 1992. It found that 42 percent of the black, 1987, Grade 9 students had left the system by the end of 1992 without graduating. Even among those whose parents were in semi-professional occupations, black students were more likely to drop out.(11)
Black parents are concerned that the large proportion of black students in the general- and basic-level courses (as opposed to advanced-level courses) not only limits their opportunities to enter post-secondary education programs, it also increases the risk that they will drop out. This is confirmed by the Toronto board data, which indicate that the non-completion (or drop-out) rate of all students is: 21 percent from the advanced level, 48 percent from the general, and 64 percent from the basic.
The Board of Education for the City of York has also compiled comprehensive data on the achievement levels of various sub-populations.(12) Their data also found that black students are less likely to be taking advanced-level English and, in particular, are less likely to take math courses. Only 44 percent of black students were in the advanced math course, compared to a significantly greater percentage of other students.
When the place of birth is considered for racial groups (where numbers are large enough to permit analyses), Canadian-born black students of Caribbean descent are over-represented in basic- and general-level math courses, but equitably represented in the various English course levels. Foreign-born black students of Caribbean descent are over-represented in basic- and general-level English and math programs. On the other hand, foreign-born black students of African descent are more equitably represented at each level.
The North York Board of Education collected data on the basis of country of origin, and is now planning to do so based on racial backgrounds. Thus the information base to help identify the needs of students from different communities is widening.
Although we know that a good number of black students do very well indeed - and we heard from and worked with some of them the overall situation is hardly in dispute.
Based on the strong, even passionate, presentations from the black community, and on the available data, we agree that "there is a crisis among black youth with respect to education and achievement."(13) Our sense is that this problem is not limited to the Greater Toronto Area, but that the data could likely be extrapolated to other communities in Ontario, perhaps more so in such urban areas as Hamilton and Ottawa than elsewhere.
[Black] parents see the "drop-out" problem as a major issue for the black/African-Canadian community. They are concerned about their kids making the grade, and particularly about the youth who no longer see education as a tool to achieve their life ambitions and dreams.(14)
George Dei
Others have been similarly convinced. We have already mentioned Stephen Lewis's "Report on Race Relations." In Towards a New Beginning, the report of the African-Canadian/Four Levels of Government Committee, the authors found that "virtually every facet of Ontario's education system needs to be examined critically, if it is to be made more responsive to the needs of those who fall outside the mainstream. Teacher training and recruitment, curriculum revision, employment equity, anti-racism education: all these must be the subject of closest scrutiny.(15)
Though almost every submission and presentation to the Commission from the black community included recommendations directed to existing schools and school boards, a number also called for the establishment of what have been called Black Focused Schools (BFS), or more recently, African-Centred Schools (ACS), and Inclusive Schools. (We use BFS to refer to all three.)(16)
Since 1992, when Black Focused Schools (the terminology used) were publicly recommended in the Towards a New Beginning report, there has been considerable debate on the subject, both within the black community and outside it. Our public hearings and submissions became yet another forum for that discussion.
Lennox Farrell, one of our presenters, speaking on behalf of the Black Action Defence Committee, described Black Focused Schools as not necessarily black schools - any student could attend. Nor would all the staff have to be black, but they would have to have an interest in or be experienced in teaching black students, and be willing to ensure they succeed. He went on to say that BFSs are "defined by the staff who will be empowered themselves to empower black students. [They are] not to teach black history, but to teach realistic history ... in essence, to do what education should already be doing: to be realistic, not Euro-centric or Afro-centric in that sense."(17)
The arguments in favour of BFSs are centred on building the prerequisites for academic achievement. Parents and teachers argue that, despite their attempts to bring about systemic change, not enough has been done or accomplished, and there is a need for more dramatic, potentially faster, action.
However, we recognize that we are in the middle of an on-going debate that raises fundamental issues about our values as a society. To some, the notion of Black Focused Schools smacks of a return to segregation, to a time when, unbelievably even in Ontario,(18) black students were not allowed to attend "regular" schools.
Others are not only concerned about the divisiveness such a proposal creates between groups, they are of the opinion that a policy based on race, whatever its intent, can become a racist policy. They believe as well that, in practical terms, because blacks in Canada must operate in a mixed society, moving from mixed schools would be a mistake. Don't separate the black students, they argue: fix the schools.
Opponents also accuse supporters of BFSs of seeking a segregated school system. This is a very difficult issue for members of this Commission, each of whom has spent a lifetime working towards a genuinely multiracial Canada.
There must not be the slightest doubt that this Commission shares the great concern, the desperation even, of the black community, about the under-achievement of black students as a group. We can hardly stress too strongly our conviction that the school system must better accommodate the needs of black children and young black men and women. Schools must become more inclusive, staff must become more representative of our society as a whole, courses must reflect the perspectives and contributions of minority groups.
But even that is not enough. We must, as a matter of great urgency, mobilize the best talent available throughout Ontario to develop innovative strategies for improving the academic performance of black students.(19)
The idea of a "demonstration school" is one that we see as having great promise. In this context, a demonstration school is a school in which particular interventions are planned and carried out to boost the achievement of students. The hope is that lessons from successful models would then be replicated in other schools: challenging and relevant curriculum, innovative and engaging teaching methods, and stronger and mutually sustaining links between the school and its parents and community.
*We recommend that in jurisdictions with large numbers of black students, school boards, academic authorities, faculties of education and representatives of the black community collaborate to establish demonstration schools and innovative programs based on best practices in bringing about academic success for black students.