Toronto District School Board
Skip to main content

Leadership

  • Leadership in the TDSB is shared and how we create conditions for change to happen. Leadership includes the School Improvement Process (how change happens in the classroom), Service Excellence (how we serve clients) and effective Governance (supporting the Board of Trustees to serve in their role as elected officials). Together, these set direction and provide support for how we work and ensure that staff have the ability, knowledge, resources and tools to meet the unique needs of their students and communities.

  • Action Plans

    • Leadership Development
      It is critical to have leaders who have knowledge, skills and resources to ensure anti-oppressive and equitable practices are in place to support student success.

      To do this, we will build capacity among current and aspiring leaders through a variety of professional learning opportunities and settings to support their continued development of these critical areas.

    • Leadership Development in Equity and Anti-Oppression
      Every student should have every opportunity to thrive, and every school leader they come into contact with should have the tools to help them succeed. That’s why the TDSB’s vision for leadership will work with principals, teachers, educators, superintendents – anyone who might take a leadership role – to build our understanding of privilege and power, and of human rights and oppression.

      This means, for example, mandatory anti-oppression training for principals and vice-principals, training for managers in order to ensure barriers to fair hiring are eliminated, and ongoing collaboration with Indigenous communities.

      Our goal is to build the capacity for all our staff to create school environments that reject racism and discrimination of all forms, and embrace the rich diversity of the TDSB’s staff and students.

    • School Improvement Planning: Collect Evidence and Communicate
      Student survey data shows that some students are more comfortable and engaged in our schools while barriers remain for many students to thrive and achieve their very best. In order to drive improvement, every school will set equity, well-being and achievement targets that will be reported and shared publicly.

      Progress will be measured through quantitative data, including student census data, and through qualitative data, including school visits by superintendents. Much of this effort will be focused on supporting staff to transform student learning to focus on foundational skills including critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, communication and citizenship.

    • School Improvement Planning: Shared Leadership
      Students, parents and staff must work together to drive system-wide change, and to reflect a diversity of voices in decision-making. By June of 2019, each school will have developed processes for shared leadership that ensure everyone has an opportunity to drive change and improve student learning.

      By improving consultation and collaboration, the engagement and achievement of students of all backgrounds should improve, and should be demonstrated through multiple data sources.

    • School Improvement Planning: Leadership Capacity
      The Board will support superintendents, principals, and other system leaders by ensuring they have the knowledge and skills needs to create effective learning environments in every school. These leaders will be supported by an electronic dashboard which will improve access to data and support the collaboration between leaders at the school level.

      School leaders will also be monitored and supported through regular visits and feedback from superintendents.

    • Service Excellence
      The TDSB strives to be an organization that has a culture that values service excellence. When we are able to best serve our clients, school staff can focus on meeting the needs of students. To that end, we are going to work with staff to better understand the needs, expectations and timelines of our clients in order to develop a culture that values service excellence. This means collecting data on compliments and complaints, and using them to inform training for staff, increase our responsiveness and improve our capacity to respond to school needs.

    • International Partnerships
      The TDSB has a strong reputation domestically and abroad, and we are going to work to enhance the Board’s reputation as an international leader in education. This work will include connecting to global education networks that will allow us to benchmark and compare students, and share best practices with other jurisdictions.

    • Effective Governance
      The Board of Trustees will implement new practices that support the implementation of the Multi-Year Strategic Plan. This will include developing an orientation package for new trustees, exploring self-assessment tools to measure and improve governance practices, and aligning action plans to trustees’ four-year terms.

    • Board Policy and Procedure
      The Board will review and revise all of its policies and related procedures to ensure alignment to the Multi-Year Strategic Plan. These revisions will be clearly communicated, and will enable the board to meet its commitments to students, staff and the community, human rights, accessibility, equity, inclusion, anti-oppression and anti-racism.