Toronto school board considering overhaul of streaming practice in Grades 9, 10
TORONTO — Canada’s largest school board is considering a drastic change to its practice of steering high schoolers toward either “academic” or “applied” courses in an effort to remove barriers and offer equal educational opportunities to all students.
The Toronto District School Board’s director of education, John Malloy, has suggested an overhaul of the policy — known as streaming — that requires students in Grades 9 and 10 to choose whether to take courses such as math, science and English in the more theoretical, university-geared academic stream, or the hands-on, practical “applied” stream.
“Our data suggests that when students are studying at the academic level in Grades 9 and 10 their chances for graduation grow and their opportunities after they leave us are better,” Malloy said, adding that if given the right support in the classroom, almost any student can thrive at the academic level.
“Our goal is to have the majority of students in academic courses and try to minimize the use of applied courses in all schools, and in some schools there will be none.”