Students facing some tough tests before school
Competition is getting fiercer as more teenagers are turning to specialized academic programs
Open houses and information nights, followed by two-hour entrance exams, nerve-wracking interviews or daylong auditions — and that’s just to get into high school.
Scores of Toronto teens — unlike their parents, who typically attended the one closest to home — are undergoing application processes worthy of any university to get a spot in one of the coveted specialty programs in public schools across the city.
“There appears to be an incredible need from families looking for these sorts of programs,” said Michael McMaster, who heads the highly competitive TOPS science and math program at Marc Garneau Collegiate in East York, which saw 1,500 people attend an open house and 560 students apply for 60 spots.
He fields calls from anxious families when their children are in Grades 4 or 5, asking for advice on how to get them in.
“They are willing to make all sorts of sacrifices in terms of commuting distances for their child and there will be families who pick up and move” to be closer to Garneau once accepted, he added.
“I am shocked and amazed when that happens.”
From catering to aspiring athletes to challenging students through technology or the arts, Toronto high schools are drawing kids in from across the city — and even outside it.
Right now, high school is the talk of the town as acceptance letters go out this month, prompting one proud middleschool teacher to take to Twitter last week to let the world know one of her students made it into the prestigious International Baccalaureate (IB) program at Monarch Park Collegiate.
At the Toronto Catholic school board’s Cardinal Carter Academy for the Arts, near Yonge St. and Sheppard Ave., up to 800 teens want in, but just 175 will make it based on their audition.
Janeen Brownrigg’s daughter Ryan found out last Monday she’d been accepted into the Etobicoke School of the Arts in the Toronto District School Board, which auditioned up to 800 students and offered spots to 250.
“It took three months of preparation or more to get her ready,” said Brownrigg.
Two weeks ago, Ryan spent a day at the school auditioning, performing two musical theatre songs, sight-singing, clapping back, learning a dance routine, writing responses to questions and being interviewed.
“She was there at 9:30 and done at 3:30,” her mom added. “It was a big day, lots of nerves, but it was a good experience for her.” Toronto mom Monica Graham worried about missing application deadlines when her daughter recently applied.
“The whole thing overall seemed a little overwhelming at first,” said Graham.
“On the other hand, I think it’s fantastic that we have these programs available in the public system.”
Her daughter was interested in two programs, MaST (math/science/ technology) at Danforth Collegiate and the IB at Monarch Park.
They visited open houses at those schools and two others that offer a gifted program.
For the IB program, not only was her daughter interviewed, but Gra-
“It took three months of preparation or more to get her ready.” JANEEN BROWNRIGG ON HER DAUGHTER’S AUDITION FOR THE ETOBICOKE SCHOOL OF THE ARTS
ham was, too.
“They are really trying to get the right fit for the program.”
While schools have always offered some specialty programming, in recent years — and especially after the province introduced Specialist High Skills Majors in 2006, allowing students to take several courses in an area of interest — numbers have exploded with most secondary schools feeling the pressure to have some- thing out of the ordinary.
The Toronto public board now has a web page devoted to listing what’s available and the dates of open houses.
These days, kids have a better sense of themselves and their career interests earlier on, combined with a transit system that makes them mobile, say guidance counsellors.
It’s fuelling a big change in the system from a neighbourhood model to a program-based one — which is both good and bad, said Toronto trustee Chris Tonks.
One of his high schools is suffering low enrolment, “and if you look at the catchment area, there are 38 different schools kids are going to outside of it.”
Meredith Austin, the Toronto public board’s program co-ordinator for guidance, career and adolescent development, said not only do kids with strong interests have a lot of options, but said they shouldn’t eschew their local schools which “have a wide variety of courses, and that provides really rich opportunities for exploration of all kinds of things.”
Patrick Keyes, the Toronto Catholic board’s superintendent of student success, used to teach at Cardinal Carter Academy for the Arts and said the focus helps student engagement.
Carter Academy principal Anne Bellissimo agreed, adding that enrolling in a program in high school isn’t about forcing teens to decide on a career early on, but rather enriching a part of their lives. Two-thirds of her students go on to more traditional areas of study in university, especially the health sciences.