Model schools see boost in academics
Extra resources for institutions in need pay off, research shows
Aboost in resources to Toronto’s neediest schools has paid off, with improvements in academics — with the exception of math — as well as student wellness and more credits earned in high school.
Research into the $8-million-a-year Model Schools for Inner Cities, now almost a decade old, looked at the program and its overall, long-term impact on students and schools, said Toronto District School Board researcher Maria Yau.
“I think Model Schools has done so much work over the years that it can’t not have an impact,” added program co-ordinator Simona Emiliani. “What I like is that the program is not just a one-off. It is sustainable; students are gaining things that are going to help them in the future.
“At the end of the day, we are trying to improve the achievement gap” for students from needy homes.
Model Schools provides extra money to 150 schools identified with the highest need, for additional staff and staff training, as well as services such as breakfast programs, vision and hearing clinics, dental checkups and pediatric offices in schools, plus after-school programs.
The schools also make a point of reaching out to parents to get them involved or even provide training.
Yau said her research looked not only at academic achievement, but also student resiliency and kids’ social-emotional health — all of which have improved.
Her study found that kindergarten students’ scores on a widely used scale showed more were considered ready for Grade 1, rising from 56 per cent in 2008 to 60 per cent in 2011.
Among students not in the Model Schools program, the rate was basically unchanged, going from 68 to 69 per cent. Among the other findings: Provincial standardized test scores in Grade 6 reading — while nine percentage points lower in Model Schools than the board as a whole — have increased at a faster rate than others.
Grade 6 writing scores have almost closed the gap, with 73 per cent meeting the provincial standard, compared with 79 per cent in the board as a whole.
While math scores followed the general provincial downward trend in Canadian math tests, Model Schools students were well above the norm, with an average of 82 per cent for Grade 8 students in 2014, compared with the national 77 per cent average.
Students are also accumulating more credits by Grade10 than before Model Schools began. (One worrisome finding: the most impoverished students cope less if they spend two hours a day on video games.)
“We do a lot of work with parents, and we have 24 community support workers who work with parents in the community, through workshops, through going to the places where they live, and working with them.
“We do a lot of information-sharing about the different activities kids can do in the evening,” said Emiliani.
Over time, research has shown that the medical clinics located in eight schools have progressed from providing basics such as dealing with stomach aches or administering vaccines to, increasingly, serving children’s mental-health needs.