Research Partnerships

The TDSB provides a unique environment in which applied research can respond to the current needs of our education community.

The TDSB welcomes interest from researchers and community partners. These research partnerships should be aligned to the Board’s current needs, plan to be collaborative in nature, and plan for results that are useful and relevant to the TDSB community.

The Research and Development department also facilitates ongoing relationships with many scholars across Canadian institutions that support critical advisory work relevant to TDSB’s strategy and policy areas. Recent examples include:

The Special Education Review
The Learning Opportunities Index Policy Review
The mathematics and literacy strategies

Critical areas that we are inviting academic research partnership conversations include:

Forthcoming for the 2025-26 school year

Below are some recent examples of partnership work with different organizations.

If you have a research partnership inquiry, please contact research@tdsb.on.ca.

Partner Organizations

Critical Transitions, York University
'Critical Transitions' is a compilation of projects that are actively examining and disrupting patterns of systemic ableism, anti-Black racism, and the socio-cultural reproduction of inequity through schooling. This site is a repository of research reports and academic articles. It also features new and upcoming projects that explore how schools respond to the perception of ability, how students are organized into programming opportunities and the implications on their futures.

Research & Data Hub, York University
The Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community & Diaspora, Dr. Gillian Parekh, Canada Research Chair in Disability Studies & Education at York University, and Greater Toronto School Boards have partnered to establish a Canadian Youth Research & Data Hub at York University. The Hub aims to bridge the gap between research and the lived experiences of young people, their parents, and communities.

Student Transitions, Access & Research on Tertiary Education, University of Guelph
This partnership is the result of a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Partnership Development Grant held by the University of Guelph, along with five co-investigators from Nipissing University, York University, University of Toronto (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education) and McMaster University. This partnership will explore barriers to student success by linking data from the Toronto District School Board, with data from postsecondary institutions across Canada, and other databases from Statistics Canada on income, employment, and taxes.

Feeding Kids Nourishing Minds (FKNM), University of Toronto

The Feeding Kids, Nourishing Minds (FKNM) School-Based Nutrition Research Initiative is a project funded by a donation from President’s Choice Children’s Charity. Through a landscape policy analysis and series of systematic reviews, a comprehensive overview of school meal and snack programs in Canada is being organized in an interactive dashboard including consideration of equity indicators. The TDSB is supporting the work through school-based research and a Project Advisory Committee.

TARGet Kids!, Research Network

TARGet Kids! is a primary care practice based research network. It is a collaboration between: Child health researchers, Children’s primary care doctors (pediatricians and family physicians), Parents, Teachers, Public health professionals, Dietitians, and Psychologists. The overall aim of this collaborative research study is to improve the health of Canadian children.

REACH School Network

The REACH School Network (also known as The Model Schools Pediatric Health Initiative within the Toronto District School Board) is an innovative health care delivery model at Unity Health Toronto which provides health care to at-risk children through school-based health centers.

SafeTO Collaborative Analytics and Learning Environment (SCALE), City of Toronto
The SafeTO Collaborative Analytics and Learning Environment (SCALE) is a collaborative platform that allows the City and partners to share data, identify effective interventions, and communicate lessons to advance prevention-focused safety outcomes.

Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto
The take-home saliva program has been successfully implemented in many schools in the Toronto region to support home-based testing for symptomatic students and staff. We are excited to use this infrastructure to support further studies to understand the transmission of respiratory viruses, specifically influenza, RSV, and SARS-CoV-2, in schools, as well as explore other infectious diseases impacting our children (e.g., Mycoplasma pneumoniae, pertussis). The potential benefits of this research are significant, including supporting families and students in staying in school or returning to school sooner, which is crucial for students' learning and engagement.

Offord Centre for Child Studies at McMaster University
Building on an established partnership between the Offord Centre for Child Studies at McMaster University and the TDSB, a collaborative applied research project was undertaken to understand whether and how educators' positionality may play a role in kindergarten assessment, such as the Early Development Instrument. This project was made possible by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Partnership Engagement Grant held by McMaster University.