Peel Roadmap

At her inaugural speech this year, the Chair of our Board, Janet McDougald, stated that equity and inclusion is the most important work will all do together here in the Peel District School Board over the many years to come.

Our equity and inclusion newsletter, Roadmap, is a fine example of how we are bringing Janet’s words to life. It is my pleasure to highlight some of the many, many initiatives that ensure that students and staff learn and work in a climate that is fair and equitable at all times. Student achievement is what brings us all together with a common purpose – and all of the work that we do together – EngageMath, Modern Learning, Mental Health, Count Me In Peel, support for Syrian newcomers – everything we do has equity and inclusion as a foundation to help us all embody the Peel Board’s vision of achieving success, confidence and hope for all students.

The Board of Trustees have recently changed my title to Associate Director of Equity and Instructional Support Services, and this clearly signaled to everyone here in Peel that the work of equity and inclusion is everywhere. It is not difficult to see that reflected here in Roadmap – and this is only a selection of the fine work being done in every single corner of our Board by outstanding individuals who ensure success for all students. How lucky I am to work in a Board such as ours - - - how lucky we all are!

Enjoy this edition of Roadmap – and your feedback is always welcomed.

Scott Moreash

Associate Director of Equity and Instructional Support Services

The Peel District School Board is committed to providing equity of access and opportunity for all students and staff to learn, work, and develop in an environment that is nurturing, engaging, respectful and inclusive. Although a regular stream classroom is the first option to be considered for student placement, the board provides a continuum of programs and services to maximize the outcomes for each and every student with special needs.

The principles embodied in the Ministry of Education’s Policy/Program Memorandum Number 119 Developing and Implementing Equity and Inclusive Education Policies in Ontario Schools, together with the board’s commitment to providing the most enabling environment for students that maximizes inclusion, provided us with an opportunity to deepen our inclusion practices for all students while considering the needs of students enrolled at Parkholme School and Applewood main sites. These students have a high level of need and require safety planning and staff with a high level of skill and involvement with students. Historically, these schools have had “satellite” classes, located at various secondary schools, whose students and staff remained attached to these alternative sites.

In February 2015, the report Parkholme School: Supporting Students with Developmental Disabilities at the Secondary Level in Inclusive and Enabling Environments was approved by the board. The report proposed to open additional satellite classes that would be attached to Parkholme School with the goal to alleviate the enrolment pressures at this school.

To deepen the board’s inclusion practices, the report proposed that all satellite classes attached to Parkholme School and Applewood School will undergo staffing changes and responsibility assignments. Beginning in September 2017, these satellite classes will be “decoupled” from the Parkholme and Applewood main sites. The classes will be referred to as District Programs. This definition reflects that teachers and teaching assistants will become members of the secondary school staff in which the District class is located instead of the current practice of being a member of the Parkholme and Applewood staff. The supervision of the staff members and the students in the class will become the responsibility of the secondary school principal in which the class is placed. The objective of these changes is to expand the number of staff who have knowledge, skill, and empathy to support students with developmental disabilities as well as expanding opportunities for increased integration.

Through this initiative, the board is committed to a comprehensive plan that provides equitable opportunities for these students and their families to fully participate in its community of learners.

Who commissioned the study?

The Peel District School Board requested that a comprehensive study of the Special Needs Teaching Assistant (TA) staffing practices be conducted. An external researcher, Dr. Lindy Zaretsky of Reaching Education Solutions Inc., was engaged as the principal investigator to conduct the study.

Why was the study commissioned?

Several factors contributed to the decision to undertake a study:

• to maintain and enhance quality Special Education programs and services
  
• recognition that the current practice of determining TA allocation may not be the most effective, efficient and equitable
  
• to ensure a system-wide practice that influences not only sufficient staff in relation to student need, but also highly effective and efficient allocation and use of staff
  
• to obtain evidence that the board is making the very best use of available human resources in relation to student need
  
• 
  

Who participated in the study?

Sixty schools (50 elementary and 10 secondary) were involved in the study. Parkholme and Applewood schools were included in the 10 secondary schools. School administrators, teachers and teaching assistants were interviewed in small groups.

Information meetings were also held with all superintendents of education and groups of central support staff (principals and consultants in Special Education Support Services, itinerant teachers, professional development staff, and representatives from the principals’ associations and unions. Members of the boards Special Education Advisory Committee were also consulted.

How was information gathered for the study?

During school visits, the research team:

• held small group interviews with TAs, teachers and administrators
  
• observed classrooms
  
• analyzed documents
  

Specific recommendations from the report include, but are not limited to:

• providing increased supports for staff and families to support students’ mental health needs
  
• developing a set of practices and protocols that align with the board’s guiding principles for equitable and inclusive education
  
• communicating expectations in the use of existing curriculum, instructional practices and alternative curriculum
  
• collecting and making available effective practices for collaborative teamwork in the context of a shared support model
  
• continuing job-embedded supports to TAs and teachers together by assigning resource staff to designated schools
  
• creating a TA learning network, TA conference, PD for learning teams and a mentoring program
  
• supporting teachers in understanding TAs’ roles and responsibilities
  
• support teachers in building their capacity to instruct students with high needs
  
• establishing writing teams to creative curriculum reflective of learner profiles and pathways, and to develop instructional designs linked to students’ interests, strengths and pathways
  

What steps are being taken to implement the findings and recommendations of the study?

The board has established a Steering Committee to develop an implementation Action Plan. This Action Plan will be multi-year and wide-ranging, encompassing a number of projects related to practices and protocols for inclusive education, increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of the teaching assistant allocation process, and refining structures in the delivery of Special Education Support Services programs and services.

A number of the report recommendations are already implemented and underway. These include:

• continuing and expanding job-embedded supports for teaching assistants and teachers together by assigning resource staff to designated schools
  
• refining and expanding professional learning opportunities for staff supporting students who access Special Education Support Services programs and services
  
• creating a mentoring program for teaching assistants
  
• revising the professional learning modules for teaching assistants
  

The Peel board has welcomed over 1,000 Syrian newcomer students to our schools over the past 18 months. Many people have been involved in helping meet their resettlement needs and ensuring that their transition to school is as smooth as possible.

One of the challenges in providing support to these students and their families has been in identifying what services in the community exist and how to access them in a timely manner. The board allocated funding to provide a full time social worker to assist in identifying assets in the community, articulating the gaps in service and clarifying referral pathways to existing services. She has made many important connections with community agencies and her service mapping has brought greater clarity to accessing community support. Additionally, she has extensive training in trauma informed work as well and she consults with PSSP staff and administrators who may have concerns about particular students and families and how best to meet their often complex needs.

In late February 2017, schools with Syrian newcomer students were invited to send an administrator, ESL teachers, settlement workers, guidance counsellors and PSSP staff to a meeting to identify successes, challenges and questions that they have in doing this work and this information has been collated. Further information will be shared as this work progresses and our understanding grows.

Make Peel Proud – Spectrum is a longstanding advocacy group dedicated to supporting students, families and employees who identify as members or allies of LGBTQ+ communities. In 2016, the group identified a need to expand the curriculum resources available to Peel educators in order that students better understand the lived realities of LGBTQ+ peers and their families.

To do this, a writing team of Peel educators used a critical framework developed by MPP-Spectrum to review hundreds of print, media and online resources related to LGBTQ+ realities. The goal: to develop a suite of resources of all types that provides a preview of the resource content, suggests suitable student audiences, provides teaching strategies, anticipates student questions and articulates possible responses. The result is a collection of peer-reviewed resources, what they look like, where to find them, and most importantly, how their use normalizes the LGBTQ+ experience of Peel students, families and staff. This is inclusion. All the resources can be found here. Better still, educators are encouraged to tweet their impressions of these new resources using #PDSBResourceRainbow to expand the conversation around LGBTQ+ inclusion in Peel schools.

In addition to specific resources for classroom educators, the Resource Rainbow collection includes 3 key professional learning documents for staff: Starting the LGBTQ Conversation, Continuing the Conversation, and When a Student Comes Out. These resources provide a platform for educators to deepen their own understanding of possible misconceptions (e.g. a K student is too young to learn about LGBTQ+ realities), to clarify professional responsibilities in support of LGBTQ+ students, and to provide guidance around the ‘coming out’ experience. These documents are also available here.

Our Workforce Census was open for employee input between November 14 and 28 last year. While it seems like a long time ago, a lot of detailed analysis has been underway on the census results in recent months. An Analysis and Reporting Sub-committee, the Research & Accountability team along with the Manager of Workplace Equity have been pouring over the detailed results submitted by our employees. We’re happy to report that 11,084 of our employees generously shared their demographic data with us. This helps support our objective of identifying strengths and barriers to equity and inclusion as well to develop and implement plans to address barriers to employment and advancement.

The work currently underway involves reviewing the collected Peel employee data and comparing it between internal employee groups, against local regional data or sometimes in comparison to statistics reported by another school board. From there the team is drawing out key findings and themes as well as related activities and next steps that will help us fulfill our mandate for the census.

We’re working toward a public presentation date to our Board of Trustees in May of this year, soon followed by broad communication to all Peel staff. Please watch for further updates on our workforce census.

While we’re on a roll and to leverage the thoughts, strategy and processes around managing a census, we can share that the Equity team has been given the task of developing and implementing a future student census. We’ll start from the ground up to develop the objectives and plans to collect a range of meaningful student data for Peel. We have the mandate to accomplish this by December 2018 so the work on the project will begin almost immediately. To support the Equity team we will add a new staff member in the role of Workplace Equity Officer in the coming weeks.

It is hard to believe that the second cohort of the Aspiring Racialized, First Nations, Metis, Inuit Leaders Mentoring program is finishing their year-long program. What an exciting year it has been. The mentees and mentors have enjoyed fostering relationships and have journeyed together learning about Emotions and Identity, Bias, Tribes, In-groups and Out-groups and their own "personalized psychometric assessment" (Lumina portrait). The program has offered mentees and mentors the time to explore Self-Assessment Tools and the Peel Leadership Framework.

Comments from participants include:

"This was an incredibly valuable learning experience."

"Great program! Will recommend it to colleagues."

As we begin to plan for the 2017-18 school year, we are thrilled to announce that the program is expanding to include the Business and Support staff. Shortly we will be selecting the next cohort of mentees and mentors that will journey together to discover their own leadership pathway.

This is an exciting program that continues to gain interest from across the Board and beyond our school district. If you didn't apply this year, we hope that you will consider applying next year.

In November 2016, the senior leadership team of the Peel District School Board had the opportunity to visit our local first nations – The Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation. This full day excursion had our superintendents of education and controllers take part in a day of rich conversation and learning with the Director of Education and Principal of Loyd S King Elementary School as well as the Principal of the local Six Nations School.

The senior team learned about the traditional heritage, culture and traditions of the Mississsaugas of the New Credit through the sharing of stories and personal narratives. Presenters shared the legacy of migration of the Mississaugas. A tour of Loyd S King Elementary School enabled Peel board representatives to connect with staff and students and to learn about life on the reserve and the strength of the community in supporting one another to find continued success. The senior team learned about the Anishinabe roots and how the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation are a strong, caring, connected community who respects and protects the earth.

The representatives of the Mississaugas of the New Credit were gracious hosts, highlighting the historical partnerships with the Peel board, for example through the development of the Sacred Trust resource and the ongoing relationship and partnerships through the Education Advisory Circle. Through our visit in November, we were able to discuss ways in which we can continue to engage in further collaboration around the success of all of our students. The Peel board is excited to continue partnering and building strong, rich connections with the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation.

During the 2015-2016 academic year, 87 Black male students were interviewed about their school experience in the Peel District School Board. The data obtained through these interviews demonstrated that the students felt excluded from their schools, that there was an opportunity, achievement and engagement gap between them and their peers and that they felt that these experiences were rooted in systemic biases and in the negative teacher and peer perception of black male identity and ability.

Beginning in September 2016, the board has been hard at work in understanding and prioritizing the concerns identified by the students, developing action steps to remove the identified concerns, communicate these action steps broadly with the community and seek ongoing feedback from all stakeholders, and finally implement an action plan designed to support the success of Black male students in the Peel board. In November 2016, a draft plan of action entitled – We Rise Together was brought forward to the Instructional Programs Committee (IPC) where it was presented to a number of school board trustees and other members of the general public. This action plan had 4 key focus areas:

1. Engage with the community,
   
2. Deliver bias awareness and anti-Black racism professional development
   
3. Integrate the experiences of Black Canadians into the curriculum
   
4. Inspire Black student leadership and engagement
   

On December 10, 2016, the Peel board engaged in its first community consultation with members of the Black community. Approximately 100 community members attended. On January 21, the second consultation took place, engaging approximately 200 community stakeholders looking specifically at the draft action steps identified by the board through the We Rise Together plan, looking specifically at what additional measures might be needed to ensure the success of Black students in Peel.

Each of the latter community consultations were led by a steering committee comprised of the board’s equity department as well as a number of Black principals, vice-principals and teachers in the system. The latter group took the feedback provided by the community and set out to incorporate these meaningful suggestions into the We Rise Together action plan.

The board’s internal equity department in Curriculum and Instruction engaged in further student consultation throughout the winter months. Students in grades 6 – 12 were engaged in meaningful questions about the action plan and provided with opportunity to share their voice and perspective in strengthening the Plan by providing direct input into the four focus areas.

In March, the steering committee brought the revised action plan back to the Instructional Programs Committee where it was shared with Trustees and other members of the local Peel community. The We Rise Together Action Plan is nearing completion and in its final phase of revision. This latter process is looking closely at the steps of system-wide implementation and overall success of the plan and Black students here in the Peel board.

During the 2016-2017 school year, Peel board began the First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Strategic Action Plan initiative. This new project was designed to address the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada's Calls to Actions #62 and #63, and the Ministry of Education's Implementation Plan: Ontario First Nation, Métis and Inuit Education Policy Framework. Fifteen schools - encompassing elementary, middle, and secondary schools from all superintendency regions - were accepted as part of this program. This year, the pilot schools committed to learning about Indigenous peoples, their perspectives, histories and contemporary lives. This commitment entailed attending regular professional learning, which included working with Indigenous Knowledge Keepers, Elders, families, scholars, and organizations, reading literature by Indigenous scholars, watching documentaries, and attending bi-monthly meetings to share their learning and to co-plan next steps. Each school committed to sending at least one administrator and one teacher to each event, in order to bring their learning back to the schools. In addition, each school hosted Indigenous organizations in their schools for their own teaching and learning. Going forward, each of these initial fifteen schools will continue to be part of the Strategic Action Plan in the 2017-2018 school year. While they will continue their professional development, year two will focus on purposely implementing Indigenous voices and experiences in their teaching and learning environments, resources, curriculum, and pedagogical practices. Furthermore, fifteen more schools will be invited to participate in the Strategic Action Plan, to begin their journey, while being supported by the initial fifteen schools. All of these schools will be supported by the Curriculum and Instruction Support Services Department, under the leadership of Poleen Grewal, Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction, Harjit Aujla, Coordinating Principal of First Nations, Métis, Inuit & Equity, and Melissa Wilson, Instructional Coordinator of First Nation, Métis, and Inuit Education.

Phiona Lloyd-Henry is the Instructional Resource Teacher for Equity and Inclusive Education. Phiona’s main interest is to serve students; to that end she is dedicated to the integration of culturally responsive instruction and assessment and evaluation practices that reflect students’ multiple identities and build on students' knowledge and schema. Phiona believes in the transformative power of education - of its ability to create successful, critically aware citizens that are dedicated to justice and peace. She has been instrumental in providing leadership and facilitation in support of the We Rise Together action plan.

As the Instructional Coordinator for Equity and Inclusive Education Hiren Mistry takes his inspiration from the late Mary Samuel, whose work with The Future We Want nurtured a generation of socially just educators throughout the Board. In the classroom, Hiren worked with students as an English, History and Social Sciences teacher. As an educator and researcher, he is committed to addressing the question: ‘how can teachers understand, live with, learn about and preserve human differences?’ Hiren is completing his doctorate in education at OISE, focusing on the intersection of policy, religious freedom, religious diversity and leadership. Outside of education, Hiren is passionate about the Muppets, his family and comfort food of all types! (not necessarily in that order!)

Melissa Wilson is the Instructional Coordinator of First Nation, Métis, and Inuit Education. Prior to this role, she was the Acting First Nations, Métis, Inuit, and Equity Resource Teacher. She has also taught in secondary schools in Mississauga and Brampton. Melissa has her Master of Arts degree in Sociology and Equity Studies in Education, and she is currently working on her PhD in Social Justice Education. Her doctoral research is focused on Indigenous education in Canada.