Toronto’s public school board is considering a plan to open four new specialty schools — one for boys, one for girls, a choir school and a sports academy — in an attempt to stem declining enrolment and give students more choice.

The proposal is bound to revive debate about whether specialty schools, especially single-sex programs, cause social segregation when it comes before a Toronto District School Board committee Wednesday.

The move to an almost boutique option for learning, wildly popular in Edmonton, Chicago and New York, has been kick-started in Toronto by new director of education Chris Spence, who started a sports academy and two all-boy programs in Hamilton, where he was director until last July.

He has asked Toronto trustees to approve a feasibility study of the four schools by June, with the possibility of opening by September 2011, perhaps even in stand-alone buildings if enough students sign up, and maybe in high-needs neighbourhoods to make sure they are accessible to students of all backgrounds.

Spence would not say he’s taking aim at the Toronto Catholic board’s successful St. Michael’s Choir School — a joint public-private venture with the city’s Catholic archdiocese — but noted the proposed new programs would mean “offering private school options in the public system.

“And it’s no secret 68 boards in the province are struggling with declining enrolment, including ours.”

The Toronto board loses roughly 4,000 students a year to falling birth rates and migration to the 905. Eight Toronto neighborhoods are in the grip of public school closing talks right now; dozens of half-empty schools are expected to be shuttered in the coming years. Currently, about 260,000 students are enrolled at board schools.

Yet specialty schools can serve as magnets, noted board chair Bruce Davis, who expects demand could fill several schools of each of the kinds proposed; an all-boy leadership academy for kindergarten to Grade 3, an all-girl leadership academy for girls in Grades 4 to 8, and a co-ed choir school and co-ed sports academy for students in Grades 4 to 8.

“Parents love these schools and so do kids; at our four high schools for the arts, parents tell me they don’t have to fight to get their kids out of bed – their kids wake them up to go to school,” said Davis.

Spence’s original proposal of an all-boys’ academy this fall was scrapped after several trustees expressed concern about the social implications of separating children by gender, even in an alternative program for only those who want it.

Instead, a task force was created to take a more cautious, researched approach to the concept of single-sex schools, with some staff visiting all-boy schools in the United States.

However Annie Kidder of the advocacy group People for Education warns that while popular, these programs typically draw children of more affluent, school-savvy parents, “so they end up segregating kids along class lines as well as the specialty focus.

“My own daughter goes to an arts high school and to be brutally honest, I can see the division along socio-economic lines. It’s a hard balance to strike, between appealing to individual students’ interests and the overall good.”

Spence said neither the choir nor sports school would require an audition, in order to avoid some of the class barriers. That’s also why staff has proposed vocal music rather than instrumental, said Davis.

“Vocal music is not elitist; you don’t need to have a cello. And we’re proposing it be a real cross-cultural focus,” he said. The Catholic board’s choir school, which has a waiting list, focuses on sacred Christian music.

Besides, Davis argued there are too few specialty programs to fragment the board.

“We have four arts high schools (out of about 560 schools) – whoop-de-doo! And 10 per cent of our kids go to French immersion programs and 1 per cent go to alternative schools right now, so we’re not cannibalizing the system at all.”

The staff report suggests the boys’ academy start in kindergarten to catch boys right at the start of their academic careers, Spence said, considering boys lag behind girls academically by 4 to 13 per cent, are more likely to drop out or be suspended for bad behavior and are less likely to go on to higher learning.

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A single-gender school would offer the same curriculum but use some different materials - more non-fiction books and hands-on activities for boys – and a somewhat different teaching style, including more opportunities to move around.

In contrast, the girls’ academy would start in Grade 4 to address some of the pre-teen issues of body image, self-esteem and relationships, said Karen Grose, the board’s system superintendent. The schools would not seek to hire teachers of just one gender.

Already the board runs a smattering of girls-only and boys-only elementary classes where principals report improvement in many students’ performance.