Guiding Questions

Last year before traveling to Canada and exploring this guiding question, I really struggled with the fact that a large percentage of my students do not feel like school is made for them. I am realizing now that my deep belief that ALL students can achieve and be successful in accomplishing high rigorous academic work was bending due to the systemic burdens placed on my students to feel pressure to begin working instead of going to school. I think I neglected to reflect on my own teaching practice and our school culture to realize I need to change my own practice and classroom culture to capture students not wanting to be present.

Zaretta Hammond in her book Culturally Responsive Teaching states, “Educators, we have to recognize that we help maintain the achievement gap when we don’t teach advanced cognitive skills to students we label as “disadvantaged” because of their language, gender, race, or socioeconomic status. Many children start school with small learning gaps, but as they progress through school, the gap between African American and Latino and White students grows because we don’t teach them how to be independent learners.” Some of the students struggle to see school as a place they belong because the schools they attended did not teach how to be independent learners nor the values of education beyond a standardized test.

What can I shift and change as an educator to empower the student who says, “Ms, I am just ready to be done with school. I don’t need to be here everyday.” to see himself or herself reflected and supported in my classroom? What is happening at my high school that such a large percentage of students do not see the value of school?

I wrote this guiding question allowing myself to explore if it is an effective way to be able to push students while they are still in school, but then also compromise and let them be finished with school at the age of 16.

On the first day in Toronto, we met with the Toronto District School Board and the presenters immediately addressed my guiding question.

1. Most Canadian students attend school until the age of 18. However, in Quebec, secondary education ends in grade 11, which is generally followed by a two-year pre-university program known as Cegep.

2. Other students who drop out or stop school at the age of 16 are often “tracked” in the Applied pathway. After extensive research Ontario schools as well as other school Districts throughout Canada are working to end this tracking of students- calling the movement “destreaming”. Data shows that tracking students leads to racial and socio-economic inequalities.

Typically starting in 9th grade and as early as 7th grade, students “decide” with school guidance whether they will join the Academic, applied or essential pathway tracks. The academic track most often leads to students attending universities and colleges. Many students in the applied track typically choose going directly into the workplace, dropout, and do not often attend colleges. The essential track is for students in special education and allows for grade 11 & 12 to focus on workplace skills.

By allowing for an applied track, teachers and schools have lower expectations and do not provide the same rigorous education as students in the academic track receive. This is what I believe are the systemic injustices places on the students in my own school and school district. Teachers view students as less capable therefore due not help student reach their full potential causing students to dislike school. My school District does have a form of “tracking” in AP and Honors classes which does add to the gap in the quality of education received.

My answer to my guiding question is that we must dive deeper into the root causes of Fort Worth students not feeling a belonging to the school and particularly students in my school’s zip codes. Toronto invested in research to get to the bottom of the inequities. We must empower students to go beyond the limitations our broken system placed upon them instead of allowing the situation to cause us to lessen the rigor and expectations for ALL students. The only advantage for students to finish school at 16 Is In Quebec, where 16 year old students can continue on the higher-level Cgep program. There are far more disadvantages and actually Inequities for encouraging students to finish school at a younger age without later attending a university.

How can we get the whole community involved in this issue…?

“As a best practice when it comes to working with marginalized and vulnerable populations, community consultation is critical to getting de-streaming right. Without the input from families and students that are Black, Indigenous, low- income or have a disability, policymakers risk increasing alienation and causing more harm to these groups. Prioritizing community consultations in provincial and school board plans to eliminate streaming can also show the government’s willingness to engage with public demand and advocacy around disrupting inequity in education. Neglecting to involve marginalized communities in the planning, decision-making, and implementation of de-streaming poses a significant risk to public buy-in. (Ontario 360).”

“How to End Streaming in Ontario Schools.” Ontario 360, 13 May 2021, https://on360.ca/policy-papers/how-to-end-streaming-in-ontario-schools/. Accessed 10 October 2022.

Canadian schools and the majority of society have a very wholistic and almost natrually inclusive approach towards immigrants and Emergent Bilinguals. "Newcomer" is used instead of immigrant, a positive connotation for a positive outlook on "new" Canadians.

Visiting Toronto and Saskatoon taught me how much the United States needs to demarginalize immigrants and eradicate the bias that exist towards language learners. It made me emotional to witness a country that not only normalizes being welcoming and accepting but intentionally builds systems to ensure that newcomers are supported.

Most cities have newcomer welcoming centers that offer settlement and a welcoming environment. Schools often have Principals with the title "Newcomer Principal". They help families new to the District navigate the school system and life outside of school.

As for within schools, English Language Learners are evaluated and labeled with a certain level of English. Students are then placed in certain classes based on their level of English. In Halton I sat in on an actual "ESL" classroom. The class functioned more like an advisory period with students working on projects for other classes. The ESL teacher pulled students aside individually and asked them clarifying questions about the project. It was a way for students to practice speaking skills as well as receive content feedback. The class had 8 students.

From a different lens, the Cree Bilingual school is another example of Canada making an effort to honor speakers of more than one language. The Cree Bilingual school inspires and reinvigorates indigenous students and families. Read more about the visit on Day 7 & 8: Sacred Spaces.

Strengths: Providing Support to Emergent Bilinguals

• positive outlook and inclusion- use the term "newcomers"

• proactive, intentional systems in place to support newcomers

• schools anticipate students will speak more than one language and they are ready to welcome and support newcomers

• Toronto is a super diverse city making it easier for newcomers to "fit in"

Growth Areas

• An Uber driver casually shared, "Canada only wants the ideal immigrant to move here. Only if you have money and a good education."

• Although the Cree Bilingual school is making changes towards reconciliation with Indigenious peoples, Canada is still continually trying to improve it's treatment of First Nation, Metis, and Inuit people

• I still have a lot questions about Language Learners being placed in certain classes based on their proficiency levels... My wondering is on if that can ever limit a student. Are they constantly reassessing abilities?

Marissa Foti, New Language Teacher, New York

Miho Egnor, Spanish Teacher, native of Hyogo, Japan, Ohio

Ahlam Yassin, Social Studies Teacher, New Jersey