Trustee urges arts school application process review
TDSB considering response to study that found students selected mostly white, well off
A Toronto District School Board trustee is calling for the board to review its application process for special arts high schools after an OISE study highlighted that kids who attend such schools are overwhelmingly white and from high-income families.
Scarborough trustee Parthi Kandavel called the results of the study “concerning” but said they come at a good time as the board is reviewing equity and has hired an outside consultant to do public consultations.
“If you come from an affluent family that is able to afford the piano, ballet, art classes, singing, whatever it is, your application is going to look much stronger than those other folks who may not have the experience,” he said.
He also recommended that the school board build another arts school in a lowincome area. TDSB director of education John Malloy said the Integrated Equity Framework will come back in the fall with recommendations on how to address equity beyond just arts schools.
“We understand that we need to make changes,” he said. “It’s important for our community to know that the changes required are complex, but we’re committed to making them, and at the end of the day all of our students need to have access to our programs.”
The study, published Monday in the peer reviewed Education Policy Analysis Archives, found that in the three arts schools analyzed for the report, students were overwhelmingly white and from well-off families.
Black Lives Matter Toronto co-founder Yusra Khogali said the results are not surprising but “validating.”
As a spoken word artist, the 24-year-old discovered the art form through her community and YouTube videos and not through her TDSB education.
She said the cost of equipment, such as musical instruments, can also mean minority students miss out on arts training. And they may be less included to take risks in the arts if they come from marginalized backgrounds.
“This is something that also affects that. We’re not able to take a shot at our dreams though art,” she said.
A separate study led by York University professor Carl James published last Friday, found that only 53 per cent of black students were enrolled in universitytrack academic courses, compared with 81 per cent of white students.