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The Centre of Excellence for Black Student Achievement

The Centre of Excellence for Black Student Achievement Research Studies

Black students who participated in different programs, including Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) and Specialist High Skills Major (SHSM), shared perspectives that reinforced the need to prioritize and design programs to improve their overall experience from Kindergarten to Grade 12 and transition to postsecondary education. Consideration should be given to the recommendations taken from evaluations of the following programs:

  • A Day in the Aviation Program: Partnership with the Black Aviation Professionals Network
  • Black Girls Book Club
  • Black Student Summer Leadership Program
  • Black Veterinary Association of Canada: Pathways to Veterinary Medicine
  • Dalla Lana School of Public Health - Pathways to Public Health (University of Toronto)
  • The Interac Experiential Learning Program
  • The Life Education Program
  • Pathways to Public Relations (Humber College)
  • Sunnybrook Hospital: Day of Discovery and Meet the Scientist
  • Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) Conference (York University)

Recommendations
 

Culturally Relevant and Responsive Pedagogy in Safe School Spaces

  • Continue creating affinity spaces to help strengthen students’ identity and sense of self.
  • Continue cultivating safe and positive classroom spaces for Black students, especially girls, to improve and honour their literary practices.
  • Continue supporting educators to incorporate a wide range of learning models to understand the concepts of identity, racial identity, and racial identity development.
  • Continue providing equitable access to resources and Black professional support to enhance Black students' academic achievement in different programs.
  • Continue organizing and planning explicit training for teachers and administrators on social justice and racial, linguistic, and culturally responsive pedagogy and practice.

Increase Pathways to Postsecondary Institutions

  • Continue to establish partnerships with postsecondary educational (PSE) institutions, specifically with administrators, alumni, and graduate counsellors to ensure Black students have equitable and early access.
  • Continue to leverage partner network of supporting Black mentors to guide Black students in selecting academic programs and career pathways at the postsecondary level. Black mentors are better positioned to support, validate, and affirm Black students' racial identity and success.
  • Continue to partner with established peer mentorship programs to increase Black students’ interest and enrolment in PSE affiliated programs. For example, increased Grade 10-12 students’ access to Black peer mentors in university programs that are aligned with their career interests.
  • Continue to provide educational and social opportunities in communities that promote postsecondary and career readiness.

Mentorship, Professional Learning, and Career Building

  • Continue to update the database of Black-serving agencies/service providers and professional networks to help Black students build stronger connections between academic programming, mentorship, and pathways which align with their professional interests.
  • Continue collaborating with various departments in the 吃瓜黑料网 in developing learning opportunities at the Kindergarten to Grade 12 level to engage, inspire, nurture, and develop Black students’ interests in academic programs.
  • Continue establishing a peer network in schools for unique mentorship and educational opportunities so that Black students can have a fulfilling student experience through personal, academic, and professional development opportunities.
  • Continue organizing professional learning for educators to cultivate an understanding of identity development among Black students. Professional learning should focus on learning about and recognizing racism, anti-Black racism, and anti-oppression in school.
  • Continue providing in-school networking and mentorship opportunities in spaces exclusively for Black students with Black professionals who can provide insight on various professional and postsecondary pathways. These opportunities should start at a young age and be frequent and ongoing.
  • Continue training educators to implement the principles of culturally relevant and responsive pedagogies to improve classroom conditions.

Network of Support: School-community Partnerships and Engagement with Stakeholders

  • Continue to apply action-oriented advocacy programs to counter institutionalized anti-Black racism that Black students, families, and communities encounter.
  • Continue extending and managing the time required and needed for the programs to meet the needs of students and program partners.
  • Continue to develop and disseminate information to students and experiential partners before placement and at different intervals of the program. Students and partners will have the opportunity to understand program expectations and impact.
  • Continue to establish an ecosystem of support with community stakeholders, families, and policymakers at the school, system, and community levels to support Black students' development in SHSM and other programs.
  • Continue to extend the duration of the program to facilitate placement exploration, student preparation, and enhancement of research skills among others (e.g., Black Student Summer Leadership Program/Youth Participatory Action Research).
  • Continue improving efforts in mobilizing community outreach and mentorship programs to increase Black and racialized students' access and exposure to professions and career pathways in STEM (e.g., Aviation). Equally important is extending support for students to complete the application process for different pathways to STEM careers.
  • Continue incorporating more frequent interval check-ins with experiential partners and students to highlight areas of needed improvement and progress.

Preparing Black Students for the Workforce

  • Continue providing Black students with more hands-on opportunities for them to interact and utilize resources to support their learning in programs such as STEM career pathways.
  • Continue developing Black students' 21st-century skills—including critical thinking, leadership, collaboration, problem-solving, negotiation, self-direction, accountability, ingenuity, initiative, and work ethic (Dede, 2010)—that are integral to their survival in the world.
  • Continue enhancing Black students' knowledge in SHSM and STEM fields in schools. In doing so, Black students can make informed decisions about their career path or field of interest.
  • Continue to improve hiring practices to foster equitable and diverse representation of Black educators and staff across different programs, including STEM, to support students’ needs.
  • Continue integrating financial literacy skills in school programs, as this is foundational in building Black students' economic well-being.

References

Dede, C. (2010). Comparing frameworks for 21st century skills. In J. Bellance & R. Brandt (Eds.), 21st century skills: Rethinking how students learn (pp. 51-76). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

吃瓜黑料网. (2019a). Preliminary research report to the anti-racism directorate. 吃瓜黑料网.

吃瓜黑料网. (2019b, October 30). Transforming Student Learning in Literacy and Mathematics (P038).


Reports

 


Black Students Adventures in Engineering
December 2021

Black Students Adventures in Engineering program highlights the 吃瓜黑料网's efforts to improve equity in access and reduce barriers to post-secondary education (PSE) and pathways to science and engineering for Black students. The program was evaluated in June and July 2021 using a pre-and post-evaluation survey to explore ACB students’ early exposure to and participation in PSE and science and engineering post-secondary pathways. 

Focussed Conversations with African, Afro-Caribbean, Black Students, Families and Community
January 2022

In 2021, The Centre of Excellence for Black Student Achievement conducted consultations with African, Afro-Caribbean, and Black (ACB) students, their families and community members. The consultations sought to elicit perspectives from each education partner in relation to the role of the Centre of Excellence and the 吃瓜黑料网 as a whole. 

Black Student Summer Leadership Program (BSSLP) 2021
February 2022

The Centre of Excellence for Black Student Achievement at 吃瓜黑料网 designed and delivered its third annual Black Student Summer Leadership Program (BSSLP) in July 2021. The BSSLP is a unique program that offers leadership training and paid work experiences for self-identified Black students in secondary schools across the 吃瓜黑料网. This report provides an understanding of how Black students and experiential partners interacted with and benefited from the BSSLP. 

 


Aviation

April 2023

 

The Centre of Excellence for Black Student Achievement partnered with the Black Aviation Professionals Network to develop a program for Black students at the 吃瓜黑料网 wishing to pursue a career in the aviation field. The program was designed to support a key Centre of Excellence mandate, which was to provide support to Black students, identify barriers to their success, and access appropriate resources through scholarships, networking, and mentoring.

 

Initiated in 2022, the focus of A Day in Aviation was to engage Black students in Grades 10-12 to explore aviation as an academic and career pathway.

 

In the program, students have an opportunity to engage in discussions with Black professionals and learn about the roles and complexities of working in the industry.

 

Black Girls Book Club

April 2023

 

One of the mandates of the Centre of Excellence for Black Student Achievement is to develop and facilitate culturally responsive and relevant healing practice for students. To assist in fulfilling this mandate, the Black Girls Book Club (BGBC) was initiated in 2020 for Black girls in 吃瓜黑料网 secondary schools.

 

The space provided by the BGBC was an identity-affirming space that provided opportunities to counter misrepresentations, stereotypes, and discrimination which Black girls experience in school and the wider community. The BGBC was perceived as a space to inspire healthy discourse among Black girls. As a result of its success, the BGBC was expanded in 2021-2022 to include Black middle schools in Grades 6-8.

 

Music Industry Discovery Program with ADVANCE Canada’s Black Music Business Collective

April 2023

 

The 吃瓜黑料网’s Centre of Excellence for Black Student Achievement developed a partnership with the ADVANCE Canada's Black Music Business Collective. This partnership is aligned with the Centre of Excellence’s mandate to identify barriers to success, access appropriate resources (e.g., scholarships, networking, mentoring), and engage in strategic community partnerships related to education.

 

The core of the partnership was based on a nine-week program that aimed to increase the interest of Black students in Grades 11 and 12 in a career path in the music industry. The objectives of the program were aimed at:

 

  1. connecting Black youth with industry executives and professionals in the music business;
  2. providing students with mentorship opportunities through partnerships with professionals in the music industry;
  3. supporting the development of students’ transferable skills that will facilitate increased access to opportunities (such as communication, planning, etc.); and
  4. educating Black youth (Grades 11 & 12) about different career opportunities in the music industry (e.g., marketing manager, content creator, among others).

Pathways to Veterinary Medicine and Associated Fields

April 2023

 

The Centre of Excellence for Black Student Achievement partnered with the Black Veterinary Association of Canada to create the Pathways to Black Veterinary

Medicine Program, a program for Black students in Grades 7-12 at the 吃瓜黑料网 who aspired to pursue a career as a Veterinarian or Veterinary Medical Paraprofessional, fields in which Black professionals are very underrepresented.

 

During the six-week program, students received support and guidance about the requirements to apply to veterinary colleges and veterinary technician programmes and learned about education and career pathways in veterinary medicine.