April 2019 Newsletter

• Fewer course offerings for students in smaller high schools;
• Challenges with growing class sizes;
• Negative impacts on students well-being through lack of  access to a caring adult; and
• Challenges with meeting collective agreement class size caps.

• Early intervention supports, including early reading for students and child and family centres and early years programming. 
• Reading by the end of Grade 1 and the development of foundational math skills by the end of Grade 2.
• Providing early literacy interventions and math programs aimed at improving student achievement in reading, writing and mathematics.
• Pre-Kindergarten Summer Learning and transition-to-school programs.
• Professional development for teachers and early childhood educators.

• Supporting Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (STEAM) initiatives, which promote global competencies.
• Creating the conditions and programs in schools for students to personalize their programming choices to best meet their interests, strengths, and long term goals.
• Increasing access to programs such as Cooperative Education that provide students with relevant opportunities to apply learning in real-life employment placements.
• Variety of learning opportunities and specialized programs are critical components of students’ learning. Including co-op placements, experiential learning opportunities, and apprenticeship placements.
• Concerns with larger class sizes and the demands that places on teachers.
  

• Reduce the impact of poverty.
• Understand the impact of low income/poverty on education and respond effectively to our students’ well-being and academic needs so all students have the opportunity to succeed.
• Raise achievement and well-being among all students and eliminate historically disproportionate low outcomes among specific groups. Achievement gaps can be connected to demographic factors such as family income, race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation and disability, among others.
• Equitable access to interventions that promote student wellbeing and student success.
• Nutrition programs are an important component within schools.
• Providing additional resources to specific schools through programs that fund interventions for students experiencing personal and academic challenges.
• Providing support to Toronto newcomers such as specialized programming to accelerate the development of their literacy skills in English, if it is not their primary language.

• School based vs central supports for student and staff mental health and wellbeing supports.
• Hiring qualified staff, but also staff who represent and identify with the school communities they serve.
• Student mental health and well-being.
• Inclusion of students with Special Education needs.
• Academic pathways leading to improved post-secondary opportunities.
• Equity, human rights, anti-oppression and anti-racism.

• Use technology to diversify instruction, assessment, and improve accessibility.
• Improve access for all by working to remove physical and attitudinal barriers that prevent students and staff with disabilities from accessing services by ensuring all new applications are accessibility compliant.
• Focus on improving operational efficiencies by minimizing the usage of printed material and textbooks and identifying opportunities for automation and digitization in schools and departments.
• Increase access to data to improve organizational decision-making, reduce administrative costs, and provide better access to information and services.
• Continuing to modernize and improve TDSB’s IT infrastructure by expanding wireless access in our schools, increasing network capacity, and providing a robust, stable, secure, and highly available computing environment.

• PD needs to be more accessible for all members of staff.
• Importance of system-wide training related to equity, anti-racism, anti-oppression.
• More in-depth training in specific areas including Special Education Needs, behaviour management, early years, technology integration, STEAM integration, new educational insights, practical classroom applications, student success strategies.
• Facilitate parent and community engagement and leadership opportunities, i.e., Parent Conferences, workshops, training sessions, and interpretation and translation services.
• Staff training on strengthening relationships and creating environments where diverse identities are valued and all voices are heard and can influence education in the TDSB.

• Improving parent involvement in school improvement process.
• Significant work underway now at TDSB in the area of parent and community engagement.
• Important work is needed to engage newcomers and parents from marginalized or racialized groups.
• Acknowledge the needs of the surrounding communities to authentically engage parents; different cultural groups may require different engagement strategies; and, understand that there are different levels of engagement possibilities for different families.
• Improve supports and relationships with parents with students with Special Education Needs.
• Improve school to parent communications.

• New school zone safety signs with flashing beacons;
• School zone pavement stencils;
• “Watch your speed” driver feedback signs; and
• Zebra markings at school crosswalks.

• Improve service delivery;
• Shape organizational directions and priorities;
• Ensure community needs are reflected in our services, procedures and policies; and
• Respond and implement change more quickly.

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