Schools urged to collect race data

York U. researchers say demographic information could help educators make learning more inclusive

School boards across Ontario should collect comprehensive data on their students’ race, ethnicity, religion and gender identity, a new report by York University urges.

This demographic data could help educators make learning more inclusive, from tackling systemic racism to designing lessons relevant to all students’ experiences, says the report, commissioned by the Ontario Ministry of Education.

“If you want to be able to work with particular groups of students, you should know who they are, otherwise you might be putting (resources) where they’re not addressing the issues directly, and that doesn’t help,” said Carl James, a York University education professor and coauthor of the report.

The Toronto District School Boards collects information on student backgrounds through a census produced ev- ery five years. Data collected in those surveys has helped show that Black students are twice as likely to be suspended from school and twice as likely to be enrolled in “non-academic” courses compared with other students.

The Peel District School Board has said it plans to collect race-based data through its own student census, expected to launch in 2018.

The York report’s call for improved data collection falls in line with the province’s three-year plan to battle systemic racism, unveiled in March.

Legislation expected to be tabled as part of this plan would make race-based data collection mandatory in Ontario’s education, child welfare, health and justice systems.

School boards across the province can improve upon the data they already have by requesting demographic information on students’ registration forms, James said.

“Right now, the long-form census does collect race data, so it’s not something that’s beyond what we collect in Canada.”

The York report called for school boards to improve their demographic data collection no later than 2018-19.