June 15, 2023
Minister Lecce,
The Toronto District School Board is dedicated to establishing a school system characterized by fairness and free of any form of hate and discrimination. As part of this commitment, we strive to offer our students and staff inclusive learning and working environments that affirm and validate their identities. We emphasize the development of skills necessary to confront and counteract different manifestations of hate, including racism, homophobia, antisemitism, and many others.
Despite this focused work, TDSB’s 2021-2022 Human Rights Office Annual Report notes that reported incidents of racism, bias, and hate have surged over the past three years, with anti-Black racism accounting for 56 percent of race-related incidents.
Systemic and individual acts of anti-Black racism manifest in classrooms and schools. In the TDSB, Black students speak to these experiences and as a response a course IDC4U: Deconstructing Anti-Black Racism course was created. This course was created for students to learn about the histories and diverse experiences of Black communities and to develop skills to identify, address and prevent anti-Black racism.
The IDC4U: Deconstructing Anti-Black Racism course, created in collaboration with the TDSB’s Centre of Excellence for Black Student Achievement and in association with subject matter scholars, uses existing objectives from course curricula already approved by the Ministry of Education.
The course also supports the TDSB’s Combatting Hate and Racism: Student Learning Strategy Classroom Instruction’s goal of ensuring coursework in all secondary schools, to help affirm students' intersecting identities, and better understand racism, hate, intolerance and oppression. Furthermore, our Multi-Year Strategic Plan commits to transforming student learning, including deep learning in global competencies.
I am writing to you today on behalf of our Board of Trustees to recommend changing the IDC 4U: Deconstructing Anti-Black Racism course designation from an Interdisciplinary course to a subject-specific course with a dedicated code, increasing access, and credit accumulation as a University pathway course. IDC4U’s current designation as an Interdisciplinary course creates multiple institutional and systemic barriers because students can only use one Interdisciplinary course toward graduation.
TDSB’s commitment to addressing anti-Black racism has been long standing. This commitment has been supported by the diverse Black communities we serve. Community has supported the development of the IDC4U: Deconstructing Anti-Black Racism course and continues to look forward to its full implementation in schools. The TDSB’s Black Student Achievement Community Advisory Committee also fully endorses this recommendation.
Objective number 5 of Ontario’s Anti-Black Racism Strategy acknowledges that anti-Black racism affects us all, and that public education will help create a society where Ontarians are aware of, and are better prepared to identify and challenge anti-Black racism. By changing the course designation for IDC4U, I believe it is a meaningful step in our collective efforts to create that society.
Sincerely,
Rachel Chernos Lin
Chair, Toronto District School Board
CC:
Deputy Minister of Education, Nancy Naylor
Assistant Deputy Minister of Education, Student Achievement Division, Yael Ginsler
Director, Curriculum Assessment and Student Success, Mishaal Surti
Ontario Public School Board’s Association Black Trustee Caucus
Ontario Student Trustees’ Association (OSTA-AECO)