Early literacy assessment in Toronto shows large gap based on family income

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A new Toronto District School Board report shows a wide gap in literacy skills among some of its youngest learners from low-income families compared to those from wealthy families, highlighting a need to focus supports after more than two years of pandemic-related school disruptions.

Trustees will review the early literacy report, which provides a snapshot of how children fared as schooling shifted between in-person and online, at a committee meeting on Wednesday.

Although many children adapted to the changes, some studies have suggested the pandemic left others behind. Educators, parents and policymakers are increasingly concerned about the social, developmental and academic skills of students.

Anastasia Poulis, who leads the TDSB’s early years literacy team, said on Monday that while “there is a slight dip in some of the literacy scores,” she was also “optimistic” that young children would catch up. A team she works with, made up of literacy intervention coaches and speech and language pathologists, were redeployed since January because of staffing shortages. However, Ms. Poulis said they would support students in the fall.

The TDSB report analyzed the January report cards of Grade 1 students, a cohort that was in junior kindergarten at the start of the pandemic.

The report found that even though the proportion of students from low-income backgrounds meeting provincial standards, a B-, in reading, writing and oral communication slightly increased when compared to prepandemic levels, there was a persistent gap in achievement when compared to those from high-income families.

In reading, there was a 13 percentage point difference. In writing and oral communication, there was an 18 and 14 percentage point difference, respectively.

“This signals the need to focus early literacy support in schools who draw the highest proportions of students in lower estimated income areas of Toronto,” the report stated.

The report also found that Grade 1 students overall showed stronger oral language skills – a key measure in early literacy development – over the past two years than they did in reading and writing.

The proportion of children meeting standards in reading and writing did not dip substantially compared to prepandemic levels, according to January report cards. However, the report noted that the disruptions to “teaching, learning and assessment have made trend comparisons using report card data from prepandemic periods difficult.”

“Methods of assessment have shifted alongside methods of teaching and learning,” the report stated, adding that educators are currently assessing literacy skills. The results are expected over the summer.

Kelly Gallagher-Mackay, a researcher and assistant professor at Wilfrid Laurier University, has called for more data on how students have fared. She said that funding and resources can be directed to address concerns.

The TDSB is one of the only boards to make data public on how students are faring. The report raises questions, especially around modest improvements in literacy under the learning conditions of the past two years. But it also opens up a conversation about how children are faring academically, Prof. Gallagher-Mackay said.

“In order to understand what is going on with learning, and how these kids are doing relative to earlier years, and their needs for the future, we need some kind of comparable measures for both before and after,” she said.

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