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index
2.1:
Board Policies, Guidelines and Practices 2.2.
Leadership 2.3. School-Community Partnerships 2.4.
Curriculum 2.5.
Student Languages 2.6.
Student Evaluation, Assessment and Placement 2.7.
Guidance 2.8.
Employment and Promotion Practices 2.9.
Staff Development 2.10.
Harassment
The Toronto District School Board mandates that all
persons in schools, workplaces and meeting places associated with the
Board abide by its commitments to Equity Policy Implementation. This
applies to all persons on Board premises, persons working on Board
business, either on or off Board premises, and persons involved with
Board-sponsored programs at other premises. This includes students,
trustees, parents, volunteers, visitors, permit holders, contractors and
corporate partners.
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2.1. Board Policies, Guidelines and
Practices The Toronto District School Board has approved an
Equity Policy Statement which requires that Antisexism and Gender Equity
ideals shall be reflected in all aspects of organizational structures,
policies, guidelines, procedures, classroom practices, day-to-day
operations and communication practices. The Toronto District School
Board policies, guidelines and practices shall ensure that the needs and
safety of all students, employees, trustees, parents, volunteers,
visitors, permit holders, contractors and partners are addressed. These
shall reflect diverse viewpoints, needs and aspirations of community
members, particularly women whose voices have traditionally and
systemically been marginalized and excluded. This includes aboriginal,
racial, ethnocultural, faith, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons,
disabled, working class, low income and poor, and other historically
disadvantaged groups of women. The Board shall provide an appropriate
mechanism to ensure accountability for achieving these goals
by:
- 2.1.1. articulating clearly the Board's commitment to the
principles of antisexism and gender equity for Board policies,
guidelines, day- to-day operations, protocols and practices;
- 2.1.2. identifying and eliminating sexism, gender bias and
barriers in Board policies, guidelines, day-to-day operations,
protocols and practices;
- 2.1.3. identifying the many diverse sectors within women's
communities and other historically disadvantaged groups within the
jurisdiction of the Board and involving these communities in
partnership activities;
- 2.1.4. assessing the effectiveness of community
consultation and partnership involvement;
- 2.1.5. establishing accountability processes to document
progress and ensure continuous implementation of the Antisexism and
Gender Equity Commitments to Equity Policy;
- 2.1.6. providing resources to provide compensatory
education and ensure policy
implementation. Section
2: index
- 2.2. Leadership
An informed leadership
identifies individual discriminatory attitudes and behaviours as well as
systemic inequities and barriers, and demonstrates accountability for
their removal with the goal of achieving equity for all irrespective of
gender. Communication is an integral part of leadership, and
includes the ability to listen to equity-seeking groups. All system
leaders and decision-makers play a crucial role in identifying and
addressing systemic inequities or barriers.
- 2.2.1. assisting trustees, administrators, staff and
student leaders to develop knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours
required to implement the Equity Policy in the area of Antisexism and
Gender Equity;
- 2.2.2. ensuring that policy directions, priorities and
day-to-day implementation of programs and services are consistent with
the aims of Antisexism and Gender Equity;
- 2.2.3. identifying expectations for those responsible for
implementation and incorporating these expectations into the
performance-appraisal processes, including the ongoing evaluation of
teachers, support staff and administrators, annual plans and year-end
reports;
- 2.2.4. ensuring that educational practices are inclusive
and reflect the contributions of diverse groups of girls and women in
our communities, and that all forms of stereotyping, prejudice,
discrimination, sexism and violence against women are challenged and
eliminated.
Section
2: index
- 2.3. School-Community
Partnerships
Effective school-community partnerships enable
representation and active participation from diverse communities and
ensure the inclusion of the perspectives, experiences and needs of
aboriginal, racial, ethnocultural and faith communities to enhance
educational opportunities for all. The Toronto District School Board is
committed to ongoing, constructive and open dialogue in partnership with
aboriginal, racial, ethnocultural and faith communities to increase
cooperation and collaboration among home, school and the
community-at-large. The Board shall work to create partnerships which
ensure effective participation in the education process by:
- 2.3.1. identifying and involving representative and
inclusive organizations and communities of women within the
jurisdiction of the Board;
- 2.3.2. requesting women's organizations and communities to
identify representatives for the purpose of establishing
school-community partnerships;
- 2.3.3. assessing and evaluating the effectiveness of
community consultation and partnership involvement and developing
guidelines for effective partnership that respect the rights of
students in an environment free of commercial intrusion and economic
exploitation in accordance with Policy
E.06 on External Partnerships;
- 2.3.4. encouraging School Councils, Home and School
Organizations and Parent-Teacher Associations to reflect the range of
diverse groups in the communities they represent;
- 2.3.5. ensuring effective and appropriate communication
with community partners in their languages as required;
- 2.3.6. ensuring access by students, parents and staff to
supportive community resources as appropriate for use in TDSB schools.
Section
2: index
- 2.4. Curriculum
Curriculum is defined as
the total learning environment, including physical environment, learning
materials, pedagogical practices, assessment instruments and
co-curricular and extra curricular activities. A curriculum that strives
for racial and ethnocultural equity provides a balance of perspectives.
The Toronto District School Board acknowledges that inequities have
existed in the curriculum; therefore the Board is committed to enabling
all students from aboriginal, racial, ethnocultural and faith
communities to see themselves reflected in the curriculum. The Board is
committed to providing each student with the knowledge, skills attitudes
and behaviours needed to live in a complex and diverse world by:
- 2.4.1. ensuring that principles and practices of antisexism
and gender equity permeate the curriculum in all subject areas;
- 2.4.2. examining and challenging curriculum which has
traditionally been male-dominated or which ignores the experiences of
women of diverse backgrounds in order to ensure inclusivity;
- 2.4.3. developing a process to determine whether
discriminatory gender biases and violence against women are present in
learning materials, programs or practices;
- 2.4.4. ensuring the review and/or modification of materials
which promote stereotyping, the review and modification of programs
which promote stereotyping, discrimination or sexism, and the removal
or materials or programs which promote hatred and/or violence against
women;
- 2.4.5. providing adequate resources and training to assist
all staff in becoming agents of change, to use materials effectively
to promote critical thinking skills and to challenge sexism and gender
bias;
- 2.4.6. ensuring that classrooms, resource centres, school
libraries, audio-visual collections, computer software and internet
sites contain materials and resources which accurately reflect a
diversity of women and other historically disadvantaed groups;
- 2.4.7. developing guidelines to ensure that displays and
visual representation in all schools and workplaces of the Toronto
District School Board reflect gender diversity and include the
contributions of women;
- 2.4.8. supporting student leadership programs in antisexism
education and equity
- 2.4.9. developing and providing programs to address and
support the gender-related needs of female and male students in all
curriculum areas, including early intervention programs to encourage
female and male students into non-traditional gender roles and work;
- 2.4.9.1. ensuring that the contributions of groups of
women in Canadian and world history and historiography are included
accurately in all aspects of the curriculum;
- 2.4.9.2. ensuring that curriculum materials and learning
resources are allocated to challenge sexism, violence against women,
hate groups and hate propaganda based on gender and/or any other
social identity; 2.4.9.3. developing programs to encourage,
promote and support the needs of female students in the fields of
mathematics, science, technology and
athletics. Section
2: index
- 2.5. Student Languages
Language
proficiency is the foundation of academic success. Students from
aboriginal, racial, ethnocultural and faith communities come from all
language backgrounds. The Toronto District School Board recognizes and
affirms the value of students first/indigenous languages while ensuring
proficiency in one or both of Canada’s official languages by:
- 2.5.1. ensuring that students achieve literacy in at least
one official language;
- 2.5.2. providing appropriate classroom support for language
learning;
- 2.5.3. affirming and valuing students' first/indigenous
language;
- 2.5.4. supporting the learning of languages in addition to
English and French;
- 2.5.5. ensuring that students’ diverse cultures are valued
and affirmed in such language learning ;
- 2.5.6. committing to using clear and inclusive language and
design that promotes understanding;
- 2.5.7. ensuring that resources are available to facilitate
appropriate communication with students/parents/guardians.
Section
2: index
- 2.6. Student Evaluation, Assessment and Placement
The Toronto District School Board is committed to evaluation,
assessment, programming and placement processes which are sensitive to
students' aboriginal, racial, ethnocultural and faith backgrounds as
well as personal/family experiences by:
- 2.6.1. identifying, reviewing and changing practices which
lead to the disproportionate streaming of students from aboriginal,
racial, ethnocultural and faith communities into academic programs
which narrow their choices and life opportunities or limit
participation in their local community;
- 2.6.2. ensuring that bias based on aboriginal status, race,
ethnicity or faith does not adversely impact on programming, placement
and academic decisions and that students, with the support of their
parents/guardians (as appropriate), are able to consider and make
informed programming, placement and academic decisions;
- 2.6.3. ensuring that evaluation, assessment, programming
and placement decisions meet individual student needs and offer them
opportunities to reach their highest potential. This process must
consider cultural and linguistic factors, and their interconnections
to faith, gender, sexual orientation and gender identity,
socio-economic factors, disabilities, personal/family experiences,
previous education, students’ future expectations and rights to
continuity, stability and community belonging;
- 2.6.4. reevaluating annually placement decisions that are
jointly considered by the student/parent/guardian and the school to
ensure that placement decisions are consistent with Board policies,
are flexible to meet needs and do not limit education and life
opportunities.
index
- 2.7. Guidance
The Toronto District School
Board recognizes that informed counsellors, teachers and staff in
counseling roles can help to remove discriminatory barriers for students
in the school system and in work-related experiences. The Board shall
respond effectively to the needs of students from all aboriginal,
racial, ethnocultural and faith communities all by:
- 2.7.1. providing counseling services that are culturally
sensitive, supportive and free of racial or ethnocultural biases;
- 2.7.2. providing proactive strategies to ensure that
students from aboriginal, racial, ethnocultural, and faith communities
are not under-estimated on the basis of stereotypical assumptions, and
to assure that all students experience personal growth and reach their
full potential in academic and life paths;
- 2.7.3. eliminating discriminatory biases related to
students of aboriginal, racial, ethnocultural and faith communities in
educational and life planning programs;
- 2.7.4. encouraging and supporting students of aboriginal,
racial, ethnocultural and faith communities and their families in the
identification of non-traditional career options;
- 2.7.4.1. working with students of aboriginal, racial,
ethnocultural and faith communities and their families to identify
career options that historically have excluded them and help them to
choose academic paths that will allow them to reach their full
potential and succeed in a traditionally racist society;
- 2.7.5. ensuring that communication strategies are in place
to keep all parents/guardians informed about their children's current
educational achievement and progress, including their plans for the
future in a language they understand, and including the provision of
translations where
necessary.
Section
2: index
- 2.8. Employment and Promotion Practices
The Toronto District School Board recognizes that there are barriers
to employment which historically have had a discriminatory impact on
diverse groups of women .
The Board is committed to equity for
all in hiring and promotion practices. The Board is committed to the
development and maintenance of employment and promotion policies,
practices and procedures that are designed to employ a workforce which
at all levels reflects, understands and responds to a diverse
population. The Board will respond to and support this work force and
its diverse population by:
- 2.8.1. ensuring that equitable employment and promotion
practices exist;
- 2.8.2. identifying and eliminating systemic barriers in the
employment and promotion system;
- 2.8.3. ensuring that employment and promotion strategies
focus on under-represented communities;
- 2.8.4. establishing outreach activities and affirmative
action strategies (e.g. encouragement, mentoring, training and staff
development) that focus on marginalized groups of aboriginal, racial,
ethnocultural and faith communities in order to ensure that schools
and other workplaces within the Board achieve equitable representation
at all levels;
- 2.8.5. ensuring that the Board's commitment to antiracism
and ethnocultural equity is communicated throughout the Board, and
that staff, students and community are aware of this commitment;
- 2.8.6. eliminating barriers and encouraging diverse groups
of aboriginal peoples and people from under-represented racial,
ethnocultural and faith communities to apply for teaching and
non-teaching positions. Section
2: index
- 2.9. Staff Development
The Toronto
District School Board is committed to on-going staff development on
antisexism and gender equity for trustees and Board staff and will
assist them toacquire the knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours to
identify and eliminate sexist and discriminatory practices by:
- 2.9.1. identifying staff development needs to improve
employees' knowledge, skills and sensitivity in antisexist education
and gender equit;
- 2.9.2. establishing opportunities for employees to acquire
the critical knowledge skills, sensitivity and behaviours which will
support the creation and maintenance of an education system that
empowers all students regardless of gender to learn, to achieve
success and to participate responsibly in a diverse, global society;
- 2.9.3. improving staff's knowledge, skills and expertise in
antisexism and gender equity in order to help them understand how to
identify and challenge prejudice, stereotyping, discrimination and
sexism so that they are better able to meet the needs of all students
regardless of their gender;
- 2.9.4. training teaching and support staff in antisexism,
gender equity and other education methodologies to enable them to
deliver an inclusive curriculum;
- 2.9.5. training and empowering employees to deal
effectively and confidently with issues of sexism, violence against
women, gender bias and discrimination;
- 2.9.6. supporting initiatives which foster dialogue to
create an understanding and respect for gender diversity which will
result in a safe learning environment and community for all students;
- 2.9.7. promoting the expectations that all employee
practices will reflect antisexism, and gender equity policies and
practices, and establishing criteria for accountability and
evaluation;
- 2.9.8. involving as appropriate in the design and
implementation of staff development programs, diverse groups of women
and other historically disadvantaged groups who have advocated on
behalf of their communities.
- 2.10. Harassment
Sexual and gender
harassment, whether intended or not, constitute demeaning treatment and
violent behaviour. Sexual and gender harassment are forms of
discrimination that are prohibited under the Ontario Human Rights Code.
(Please refer to the Board’s draft human
rights policy for the policy and
procedures with regard to sexual and gender harassment. It is
anticipated that this policy will be adopted by the Board in the year
2000.)
Section
2: index |