Ontario high schools to end ‘streaming’ program for incoming students
- Michael Kras
- 07 Jul 2020
A practice that has long been part of the fabric of Ontario’s secondary school system is being abolished as the provincial government re-examines practices and systems within Ontario’s public education that are shown to systemically and disproportionately impact Black, racialized, and low-income students.
This practice is known as ‘streaming’, for which incoming grade 9 students are sorted into either of two educational streams at their high school.
The first is the applied stream, which takes a more hands-on and practical approach to education; and the other is the academic stream, which is treated as both a practical and a theoretical approach to education and typically supporting students with higher overall grades and more independent learning processes.
This is amazing news! After years of advocacy from so many quarters, and wonderful work in boards, streaming in Grade 9 will end in Ontario along with a ban on suspensions in the early grades. pic.twitter.com/2zYuRNgSfX
— Annie Kidder (@Anniekidder) July 6, 2020
These streams, while they may seem on the surface to be an innocuous means of offering a more specialized model of education to students of varying needs, have long been criticized for their disproportionately high level of placement of youth from Black, racialized, and low-income backgrounds into the more limiting applied streams; thereby impacting their prospects for post-secondary education, excelling in class, or even graduating.
“Students, families and staff deserve an education system that is inclusive, accountable, and transparent, and one that by design, is set up to fully and equally empower all children to achieve their potential,” said Ontario’s Education Minister Stephen Lecce.
“This government will move quickly and decisively to combat systemic racism so that every child – irrespective of colour of skin, heritage, faith or ability – can have a fighting chance at success.”
Ontario is currently the only remaining province in Canada that still uses the applied and academic streaming program in its public secondary schools.
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