The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) has voted against investigating a report that was found to be full of errors and plagiarism.
In 2022, the school board announced it would be changing the application process to specialized schools, moving away from merit-based evaluations and toward a lottery system.
The largely plagiarized report was used to reinforce the trustees’ decision to move forward with the lottery.
However, parents asked Marcin Peski, a University of Toronto economics professor, to analyze the report.
Mr. Peski found false citations, unattributed quotes, and plagiarized text in the report. It was estimated that about 20 percent of the report’s citations were false and half of it was copied from other sources.
Trustees Weidong Pei and Dennis Hastings brought forward a motion to investigate the report during a Feb. 28 meeting of the priorities and planning committee. However, the committee voted against the move.
During the meeting, he said that the errors in the report tarnished the board’s reputation with the public.
“Trust is a key word here. We must restore it to move forward, but we cannot restore trust without learning first how the unthinkable fraud could have happened.”
The motion asked that the director develop a report to the committee that reveals the review process for the document and present reasons why it was placed before the board without proper review.
Staff told the committee that the report was written by a temporary employee who has since been fired.
Meeting chair Rachel Chernos Lin asked if the employee was paid for the work.
Staff advised the answer to the question be given in private. However, Mr. Pei said that he opposed going into a private meeting.
“This is a report put on the floor in public to all trustees so we have to be transparent to the public. We have to show the public we are accountable,” he said.
The motion for a report to answer questions about the document was voted down in a 7–11 vote.
Lottery System Failure
As part of the lottery system, TDSB said it would accept all indigenous applicants and siblings of current students for the 2023/24 school year.Following that, 25 percent of the available spots would be given to students who self-identified as racialized, LGBT, or disabled. This was to be done through a lottery.
TDSB would use a random selection process for the rest of the available spots.
The board said the move was intended to bring more “equity” to the admission process by giving students who may not have been able to afford lessons or tutoring in subjects like music or math an opportunity to attend unique schools.
TDSB persisted with the lottery plan despite feedback from 3,600 “community members” who were concerned about the process.
A report compiled from the feedback said “there was no clear consensus on the use of a lottery for admissions among any group.”
“Many respondents commented that the application to specialized schools and programs should include some form of merit-based criteria,” said the report.
However, a technical error created a glitch in the lottery process, and applications from minorities that had been waitlisted were not included in the draw.
Parents of these students were upset and said they were considering legal action against the school board.
As a result of the error, TDSB said they would be opening 98 more seats for these students.
“In addition to this, we are offering 34 more seats across the 17 schools to students from underrepresented groups,” TDSB said in a letter.
