An unusual program that has all but eliminated high school dropouts in one of Toronto's poorest neighbourhoods appears to have helped reduce violent crime by one-third and teen pregnancies by a staggering 75 per cent – all in six short years, a new study shows.
Pathways to Education, the grass-roots mentoring and tutoring program that has cut the dropout rate in Regent Park to about one in 10 from more than one in two, now sends four times as many teens on to higher learning, while property crimes in the neighbourhood plunged by 56 per cent, said a report released yesterday by the Boston Consulting Group of Toronto, led by senior partner David Pecaut.
"Pathways to Education is one of the most successful programs we have found anywhere in North America in enabling youth from low-income neighbourhoods to graduate high school and attend college and university," said Pecaut, "and the payback to society as a whole is tremendous. "Our study calculated that every charitable dollar invested in Pathways will return $25 in future benefit to society."
Violent crime reduced by one-third, and teen pregnancies down 75% who would have thought it? But before we all get gung-ho, let me point out as one who lives in the immediate vicinity; demolishing North Regent Park and resettling those families in other housing projects scattered across the city might have had a much larger impact on teen pregnancies or reducing violent and property crimes in the neighborhood than a mentoring/tutoring program for youth. And while I think of it – didn’t the provincial McGinty government pass the compulsory stay-in-school until you reach your 18th birthday in 2006?
4 comments:
"Demolishing North Regent Park and resettling those families in other housing projects scattered across the city might have had a much larger impact on teen pregnancies or reducing violent and property crimes in the neighborhood than a mentoring/tutoring program for youth."
Maybe. Or maybe not...you might simply end up exporting dysfunction.
There are two interesting points here for those of us NOT weaned on pickles.
- it worked. These seem to be pretty good, pretty well quantified results (and consistent with the track record of similar comprehensive approaches).
- IF it worked, it may be replicable and transportable to other communities where demolition and resettlement are not options.
Damn – I hate working as I can’t respond till I get home. Okay, here is the pickle suckers response -
‘Maybe or maybe not’ is playing to my main point. What really stuck in my craw was that the Toronto Star reporter did nothing more than pimp the Pathways press release. Enrollment into the Pathways program is completely up to the individual initiative of each graduating grade 8 student to join in the area. There is no mandatory attendance per say; hence you have a program which is composed entirely of the least ‘un’motivated maybe-not-so-at-risk” teenagers signing up and completing the program. For example, out of my daughter’s graduating grade 8 class - only 4 out of 19 students decided to enroll in the Pathways program. Two dropped out of Pathways program during the first year but as far as we know no one has dropped out of high school. Is it fair to say Pathways made a significant difference in the scholastic lives of that graduating class or even give be given any kind of credit for 17 students entering their grade 12 year?
It is rather easy to claim success when your organization is dealing exclusively with the higher motivated students. Show me how it turned around the 13 year old gang-bangers - like say the ones in my middle son’s grade 8 class and convert them to semi-literacy and then I will be impressed and even give you an “aha”. My Alzheimer’s might be kicking in but I seem to recall reading that teenager pregnancy rates have generally fallen throughout the country – even in areas without the Pathways programs. Nor can discount removing roughly 500 units from a “high risk” area and not see dramatic drops in both property and violent crimes.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not faulting anyone for reaching out to give a hand-out or up to scholastically motivate children from poor families – bless’em for that - but before we call the program an outstanding success or dare I say it - open the public purse for financing or expanding this program - let’s take a realistic look at the whole picture – something the T-Star’s reporter didn’t report.
Two last thoughts – one thing that surprised me when my children entered a public secondary school with one of the highest academic standings in the city was the lack of tutorial/labs in the school. Holding a tutorial or lab the day before the exam seems rather pointless. I have no idea if this is systemic through out the public system but it is an area which should be addressed.
Secondly, the Pathways program has been financed mostly by corporate donors but is now looking for a ‘secure increased support from senior levels of government’ to expend and/or institute their mentoring program in other ‘high risk’ areas but why let the corporate/private philanthropy off the hook for the tab?
Agreed, the coverage was not a rigorous, quantifiable, results based assessment...nothing better than guarded optimism justified.
Scepticism (healthy) warranted. But not dismissal. Let's wait and keep our eyes on this.
"I hate working as I can’t respond till I get home."
And get your priorities right, dammit. If work gets in the way of blogging, it's time to cash in those massive RRSPs or kill off that really rich uncle, so you can focus on what's really important.
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