End streaming in schools, report to Toronto trustees recommends

C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute in North York has had success with its
destreaming pilot project.

“Streaming” students in high school hits low-income and certain racial groups the hardest and should be phased out across the city, recommends a new report going before Toronto District School Board trustees.

The report, to be presented Wednesday, cites the success of a research project at a North York high school that urged struggling students to take academic-level courses in Grade 9 English and geography instead of the lower-level “applied” classes — and, in the end, boosted pass rates.

“It’s something bold and different, and it’s based on the feedback we are hearing,” said Jim Spyropoulos, head of equity and inclusive schools at the TDSB, of the recommendation the research team made after extensive consultations and seeing the results of the pilot project at C.W. Jefferys Collegiate.

“All of this really blends together with the conversations we’ve had … which communities keep feeding into (saying), ‘Applied is killing us. Raise the bar.’ ”

Streaming is a stubborn problem across Ontario, one that persists in all school boards despite changes to the system in 1999 that were supposed to put an end to the decades-old practice.

For several years now, education advocacy group People for Education has sounded the alarm over academic and applied classes, showing how even taking just one applied course — math, in Grade 9 — gives teens next to no hope of going on to university.  (more...)

End streaming in schools, report to Toronto trustees recommends