Toronto public school board Centre of Black Excellence for Student Achievement launched
June 29, 2021
“I refuse to be what my teacher sees when she looks at me.”
That profound statement by a young Black male student motivated Colleen Russell-Rawlins to perceive the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) new Centre of Black Excellence for Student Achievement as an affinity space.
The first of its kind in public education in Canada was launched virtually on June 1.
“A Black affinity space is where students and staff who hold intersectional identities can challenge the stereotypical representation that surrounds us each and every day and where students and staff can develop more accurate ways of expressing their identities within the Toronto District School Board and also foster a sense of safety and belonging,” she explained. “The Centre will also serve as a window or vision to the future, where identity doesn’t predict your educational outcome or experience. That’s where the Centre serves as a window to what’s possible.”
As the TDSB’s Associate Director of Equity, Well-Being, Early Years & School Improvement prior to joining the Peel Board last August at its Director of Education, Russell-Rawlins put forward the recommendation to the Board of Trustees for the initiative.
The Board’s Enhancing Equity Task Force proposed the concept for the Centre three years ago.
She envisages it serving as a mirror and window on the education of Black children.
“The Centre will mirror for the Board of Trustees, educators, communities and our students the complex realities they face each and every day,” said Russell-Rawlins who will become the TDSB’s new Director of Education on August 5. “The Centre will show us examples of Black excellence that are so often erased, untold or denied. They need to be given light and prominence in a system if we are asserting that we are truly committed to equity and we are truly practicing anti-racism. It will also reflect and document the flaws, the often-unseen ways anti-Black racism operates in classes, hallways and departments. The lived experiences of Black students and staff should be recorded through community-informed researchers so that we can all be held accountable for the elimination of anti-Black racism and the disproportionate outcomes it creates.
“Ideally, it will serve as a place to call in others to change more quickly than we often get when we are calling it out. Calling has the potential to reduce the emotional toll that often goes into calling out activities. Simply put, we can’t fix what we can’t face.”
Karen Falconer, the TDSB Interim Director, said the Centre is a space where the voices of Black communities are heard and Black students’ experiences and outcomes can be significantly improved.
“From the creation of Black graduation coaches to offering amazing learning opportunities and experiences, it will and has already begun to be the place to foster Black student success in the Toronto District School Board,” she said.
In June 2020, TDSB trustees unanimously approved funding to create the Centre.
“This was about prioritizing the creation of this Centre of Excellence for Black Student Achievement,” noted Falconer, the daughter of Jamaican-born research scientist Dr. Errol Falconer who passed away a year ago. “It was a concept that may have been years in making, but in that moment, the funding needed to assure the Centre its existence was guaranteed and assured as a priority in our school board.
“To the trustees that had the courage to do this, I thank you because it is always hard to be the first. We know that anti-Black racism is entrenched in many TDSB schools and across TDSB experiences for students, staff and families. And, we know we must do better. While there’s work continuously to be done to dismantle this within our Board, this work is far from complete. There’s so much to do and I know the Centre will support the continuation of our work and take it in all new directions that we want to go.”
The Centre will support Black students to combat racism, navigate complaint processes, identify barriers to success and access appropriate resources, including scholarships and mentoring.
It will also use evidence to highlight promising practices and engage in meaningful research on topics relevant to Black students; create professional learning in anti-Black racism; identify, develop and facilitate culturally responsive and relevant healing practices for students; establish effective mechanisms for monitoring student achievement and provide annual accountability reports and recommendations to the trustees, Board and staff among other things.
“This is work that we are all responsible for doing everyday in every school, every workplace and at home,” said TDSB Chair and Willowdale Trustee Alexander Brown. “We can all be proud to support the Centre for leading us and engaging us in this work. We quite clearly know that these issues exist in our system and as leaders in education, it is our role to build awareness, advocate for change and make it happen for our students, their families and communities.”
For Dr. George Dei who is a major voice in the establishment of Black-focussed and African-centred schools, the Centre offers the opportunity for amazing possibilities.
Dr. George Dei (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
“It’s long overdue and it’s a moment for Black reset,” he said. “But as we also know, it’s easy to set goals and objectives, but it’s another thing to achieve them. That means we must have the commitment from the Board to ensure that this is successful because for far took long, Black educational excellence has been undersold.”
Dr. Nicole West-Burns, a consultant on educational equity issues, welcomed the new initiative.
Dr. Nicole West-Burns (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
“We know that Black excellence has existed and continues to exist,” she said. “The fact now that there is a Centre that’s going to highlight that and is going to take these next steps that we know are so necessary is critically important.”
Over the years, Dr. Carl James has conducted extensive research examining the schooling, educational and athletic experiences of Blacks and other marginalized students.
His 2017 report, ‘Towards Race Equity Education’, examines the schooling of Black students in the Greater Toronto Area.
Dr. Carl James (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
“What we have always wanted is structural and institutional changes and not just getting programs or a teacher to do a specific kind of work,” said the Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community & Diaspora in the Faculty of Education at York University. “It’s very encouraging to move in that direction. But more than just having a Centre of Excellence, it’s vital that we have an institution that’s going to be responsive to the needs of Black students and is going to show us that they can graduate and go on to university and use that education they receive to provide them with the foundation to go wherever they want to go. I also see the Centre as not just speaking to Black students, but the entire Toronto District School Board through the research that comes out of it and the pedagogical work that comes and other kinds of activities that the Board produces for our communities.”
Led by Karen Murray, the Centre will occupy a wing -- under renovation -- at Winston Churchill Collegiate Institute in Scarborough that houses the province’s first Africentric high school program established eight years ago.
Karen Murray (Photo contributed)
In the meantime, services are being offered virtually.
Last month, the Black Girls Book Club was launched and the Smith, Ivey and Schulich Schools of Business partnered with the Centre to offer a two-day Black Students in Business Collective.
The Centre is participating in the Black Student Summer Leadership program that supports students in developing their social and professional networks, transferable skills and, in the long term, increase the visibility of individuals identifying as Blacks in careers in which they may be under-represented.
In addition, the Centre has collaborated with the University of Ottawa to offer high school students an opportunity to take courses at the university while securing credits for their Ontario Secondary School diploma.
“We are trying to access various opportunities and possibilities so students can see themselves in those spaces,” Murray said. “We are trying to push their brilliance. The Centre is a hub that’s going to allow many of our partnerships to flourish. It’s also space that parents and community members can utilize.”
Ontario’s new Poet Laureate Randell Adjei and Provincial Court Judge Donald McLeod have thrown their support behind the Centre that will be supported by a staff of 20.5, including a social worker, child & youth counsellor and five graduation coaches.
Justice Donald McLeod (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
“I was clearing out my mom’s house some weeks ago and I found an old report card,” the 100 Strong Foundation co-founder said. “It was a Grade Four card that showed I had failed almost every single course. Some will ask, ‘How did you do that and still become a Judge’? It took me some time to get to the point to realize that I am worth it. That even though where I live or what I do and what my grades are, it doesn’t matter. I am still worth it. I am hoping that the Centre of Excellence will go and find other Donald McLeod’s and other young people just like me who may not look like they are worth it, but know we are worthy of excellence.”
Adjei feels the Centre provides an opportunity to re-define what success looks like for Black students.
“When we often think about Black students, there are not many times I have heard them and success mentioned in the same sentence,” added the spoken word artist and motivational speaker. “I think this is an opportunity for students to really be able to understand how to navigate a system that wasn’t necessarily designed for them to succeed.”
