East asian student outperform blacks peers
Race gap recorded in classroom performance
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TENILLE BONOGUORE AND KATE HAMMER
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
February 28, 2009 at 12:45 AM EST
Almost all parents in Toronto dream of sending their child to university, but achievement gaps between races that appear in Grade 3 and worsen through Grade 6 threaten to derail those hopes before some children even reach high school.
Figures released by the Toronto District School Board Friday show striking gaps in pupil achievements: Children of East Asian descent outstrip their peers on standardized provincial tests, girls perform better than boys and children from lower-income families lag behind their richer classmates.
Those achievement gaps must be closed for the sake of the children, TDSB officials said yesterday.
"One of the findings here that is very stark is that 95 per cent of parents have exceedingly high expectations," board chairman John Campbell said.
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"It's critical that all of our teachers and principals and vice-principals have the same high expectations for their students."
A voluntary survey of 95,000 parents with children in classes from junior kindergarten to Grade 6 was conducted last spring.
The results, released yesterday, show that East Asian pupils in Grade 3 are ahead of their classmates in reading, writing and mathematic ability, with 68 per cent reaching Level 3 or 4 — meaning they met or exceeded provincial standards — in tests for reading, 74 per cent for writing, and 85 per cent for math. White and South Asian pupils had the next-best pass rates.
But at the other end, fewer than half of black, Latin American and Middle Eastern pupils were reaching the same levels.
Only 37 per cent of Latin Americans and 43 per cent of black Grade 3 pupils passed reading.
Of the children in Grade 6, East Asians were also ahead of their peers, recording even better pass rates (78, 83 and 86 per cent passed reading, writing and math). White pupils were marginally behind.
At the other end were black pupils: 47 per cent passed reading, 55 per cent passed writing, and 37 per cent met provincial standards for math.
The report noted "these discrepancies need to be studied further," and that factors such as parental presence in the home, parent educational background and household income "may account for some of the differences."
"We can and must make a difference," TDSB director of education Gerry Connelly said.
"There are some things we can control, and we can level the playing field."
But clear messages of hope also rang through.
A vast majority of parents said they were satisfied with their child's education and said their youngster feels welcome and safe at school.
Ninety per cent of parents said they want their child to go to university.
And the 43 per cent of TDSB pupils who did not learn English as a first language actually recorded better pass rates than their English-only classmates.
But it's the social and economic diversity of Toronto itself that poses the most difficult challenge for the TDSB board and educators.
Eighty per cent of pupils have one or both parents born outside of Canada, and half of them live in families earning less than $50,000 a year.
"These results confirm much of what we know," Ms. Connelly said. "Poverty in this city is not new but it is growing at an alarming rate. This requires a call to action on all of our parts."
Half of all parents said the nutrition program that currently delivers 17.5 million meals a year to school children should be expanded.
The report also highlighted a need for investments in extracurricular activities, homework programs, vision and hearing testing, and early learning programs in order to better prepare new pupils.
The information will be broken down to school level within two months, where it will help principals decide how to best address the achievement gaps in their classrooms.
For Ms. Connelly, the information can't come soon enough.
"If we can improve achievements in students at a very early age, it'll help as the kids go through school," she said.
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