NEW PLAN AIMS TO BOOST SUPPORT FOR IMMIGRANT STUDENTS (JULY 6)

New plan aims to boost support for immigrant students 

Toronto (July 6, 2005) - A proposed new plan is recommending a 10-point agenda for how the education system can better address the needs of new immigrant students. The plan, outlined in a letter to Ontario’s Education Minister, is the result of a forum organized by the Atkinson Foundation with leaders in education and settlement.

“This action plan outlines the key steps that are needed to meet the needs and promote the inclusion of new immigrant students.  At the core of this challenge is the kind of Canada we wish to build.  We can do better. We need to do better,” reads the letter signed by Charles E. Pascal, Executive Director of the Atkinson Charitable Foundation.

The recommendations are the result of discussions with young people, leading thinkers, policy makers, educators and advocates in the field of education in Ontario.  These discussions took place during a forum organized by the Atkinson Foundation with the purpose of generating ideas for how to address mounting evidence that immigrant students are falling through the cracks of the education system.

The “10-point agenda for the inclusion of new immigrant students” proposes action in the following areas:

• Adequate resources for ESL programs attached to accountability mechanisms;
• coherent research and monitoring efforts to measure what counts for the progress of students;
• the development of an innovative and inclusive curriculum and investments in building the capacity of educators;
• the involvement of parents and communities in education;
• a focus on the early years;
• more effective federal and provincial collaboration;
• steps to address poverty and exclusion.

The letter, including the recommendations, is available at http://www.atkinsonfoundation.ca/files/AER2005.pdf

 For more information: 

Pedro Barata, Atkinson Foundation, 416-869-4800 or pbarata@atkinsonfoundation.ca

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For resources about the education system and new immigrant students, visit:

Class Struggles: Public Education and the New Canadian a series by Journalist Andrew Duffy as part of the Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy (September 2004).

Public Education in Ontario's Cities, by People for Education (June 2005)

Renewing Toronto's ESL programs ... charting a course towards more effective ESL program delivery, by the Community Social Planning Council of Toronto (June 2005)