The Wellington Catholic District School Board (WCDSB) hopes a 2023 student equity census helps improve racial equity within the board.
It is the first census of its kind, and other board’s around Ontario have also conducted the census.
The Upper Grand District School Board (UGDSB) will be releasing its census data in the future.
The WCDSB census was voluntary for students in JK to Grade 12, and asked questions regarding race, gender identity, sexual orientation, disabilities and religion.
Grade 8 and under were able to take the survey home to fill it out and Grade 9 and above completed the survey during school hours.
It is a small sample size. In total 1,500 out of 8,500 students in the board took part.
“It’s difficult to draw conclusions from that, say, is this reflective of all of our schools or is this reflective of a few groups,” said Michael Glazier, director of education for WCDSB.
The board uses other data from EQAO results, and the Well-Being and Health Youth survey conducted by Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health to inform changes within schools.
“We’ve been to actually put some things in place to be able to support student success and well-being with our students. Such as the hiring of additional mental health workers, social workers, child and youth workers. Also educational assistants,” said Glazier.
“This is an opportunity for us to learn more about the students we support and help us to identify differences and gaps in our students’ experiences and outcomes, based on their diverse needs,” said in the board’s report.
Thirty nine students, three percent in the board, identify as Indigenous. While 20 per cent of students identified as Canadian, a vast number of other ethnicities came in at one per cent each.
The top racial backgrounds students identified as were 62 per cent identified as white, 14 percent listed as another racial background not included in the survey, 10 percent east Asian and eight per cent Black.
There is a growing number of Eritrean families in Guelph and they speak Tigrinya, said Glazier.
“We are purchasing resources that would help support those multilingual learners in our classrooms that actually have Tigrinya as a language,” he said.
Of the students not born in Canada, 35 per cent are either landed immigrants or permanent residents.
The board works with Immigrant Services Guelph-Wellington and uses the Settlement Workers in Schools program, “to identify new families and some of the needs that they may need as they are coming into our school system,” said Glazier.
“I think anytime that our students can learn about different cultures, learn about the experiences of other students, I think it’s helpful for them within a classroom to be able to support one another. To collaborate with one another to understand different traditions.”
“I think there is a lot of benefit of understanding diversity within our community,” he said.
