Parent groups call on Education Minister to demand provincial review of TDSB

Written By Bruce Yu

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TORONTO, ON – Two parents’ groups opposed to the TDSB Students Interest Programs policy have sent a letter to Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce calling for a provincial review of the TDSB due to its failure to exercise good governance and its reliance on falsified research to justify its Student Interest Program policy.

At the May 17, 2023 meeting of the Planning and Priorities Committee, TDSB staff presented a “Literature review on meritocratic perceptions of public education and diverse learning opportunities” in support of the Student Interest Program, which replaces a merit-based admissions system to specialized programs with a lottery. While designed to increase equity, the lottery has been criticized for eliminating merit, removing student choice, failing to set students up for success, and paving the way for reduction in standards.

A review of the TDSB research in support of the lottery conducted by University of Toronto Professor of Economics Marcin Peski found that it is materially misleading and plagiarized, riddled with false citations, quotations without attribution, non-existent sources, and other violations of basic principles of academic integrity. Among his findings: 

  • 20% of the report’s 90 citations are completely fake

  • Up to 55% of the text has been plagiarized without attribution

“Based on my analysis, it is highly probable that the document was created using ChatGPT or an analogous tool, without any oversight,” concludes Pęski. “This clearly violates the TDSB’s own policy on Academic Honesty, as well as any basic standard of academic review.”

In response, Michael Teper, spokesperson for SOS TDSB, stated, “We are appalled that the TDSB, which governs the education of our children, would so blatantly falsify research to support its policy decisions. This casts doubt not only on the value of this program, but of others based on similar research produced by the TDSB, including policies that affect student safety.”

In addition, the groups highlight significant concerns with transparency, data omission and manipulation, secretive amendments, failure to aggregate sufficient data from the consultations, due diligence and benchmarking, erratic operational decisions, and information flooding of trustees. They also note that the waitlist for Student Interest Programs has been destroyed by the TDSB, resulting in seats in specialized programs going unfilled for the 2023-24 school year.

“As a result of gross mismanagement of the lottery process, the TDSB has failed to achieve its own goals, which is to increase attendance in these programs, not decrease them,” said Bethany Bergman, of ConcernedParents4ArtsTDSB. “They are failing students and will destroy these valuable programs.”

For interviews or further information, please contact:

Bruce Yu
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