Streaming — in which students must choose to pursue either an “academic” or “applied” track when they begin high school — has been shown to disproportionately affect Black and low-income students when it comes to graduation rates and the chance of going to a post-secondary institution.
After years of calls from some educators and advocacy groups to end the practice, the Ontario government says it will do away with academic streaming in Grade 9.
Streaming — in which students must choose to pursue either an “academic” or “applied” track when they begin high school — has been shown to disproportionately affect Black and low-income students when it comes to graduation rates and the chance of going to a post-secondary institution.
Details of the province’s decision were first published in the Toronto Star on Monday morning. In an exclusive interview with the newspaper, Education Minister Stephen Lecce called streaming a “systemic, racist, discriminatory” practice.
Lecce echoed those sentiments in a statement issued to CBC Toronto Monday.
“It is clear there is systemic discrimination built within the education system, whether it be streaming of racialized students, suspensions overwhelmingly targeting Black and Indigenous kids, or the lack of merit-based diversity within our education workforce,” he said.
He said students and teachers deserve an education system that is “inclusive, accountable and transparent, and one that by design, is set up to fully and equally empower all children to achieve their potential.”
TDSB had already begun phasing out streaming
A spokesperson for the minister said the full plan to eliminate streaming will be rolled out shortly, and is expected to take effect by the 2021-2022 school year.
Ontario is one of the few places in Canada that continues to separate students into the hands-on applied stream and the post-secon