Mapping the Impacts of COVID Disruptions on Postsecondary Access in Ontario in COVID School Year 2

The report is based on data from three years of the TDSB’s Annual Student Mobility Data Set, which is based on all students who enter, exit or remain in the board from the beginning of one school year to the beginning of the next. [...] They were also more likely to progress directly to university during both of the first two years of the pandemic than they were in the baseline year; indeed, a majority of TDSB students intended to go straight to university (47.1% in 2018-19 versus 51.3% in 2020-21). [...] Four-year Graduation Rates Rose through the First Two Years of the Pandemic Over the first 18 months of the pandemic, despite considerable concerns about the learning impacts of educational disruptions, there has been a steady increase in the percentage of students who have accumulated enough credits to graduate from secondary school after four years in the TDSB (see Figure 2). [...] The years of COVID-19 disruption saw not only an increase in overall secondary school graduation, but a steady decrease in the disparities between male and female graduation outcomes: in 2020-21, 75.3% of male students and 81.5% of female students graduated after four years: a gap of 6.2%, which is considerably smaller than the baseline year difference of 9.3%, where only 67.6% of males graduated. [...] And, given the valid concerns that students may have learned less over the years of the pandemic and suffered significantly in terms of mental health, isolation and other aspects of well-being, institutions need to evaluate the need for and effectiveness of various educational supports.