A pilot collaboration between SmarterUni and Canada's largest school board. After-school cohorts, free to participating students, designed to test whether brand-led, mentor-driven AI work narrows the access gap that paid bootcamps widen.
TDSB ran the first cohort across four schools — two in priority neighborhoods, two outside — to baseline access, attendance, and shipped-artifact rates.
SmarterUni supplies the brief library, mentor pool, and Living Transcript credentialing. TDSB supplies rooms, students, supervising teachers, and rigorous data oversight under board ethics review.
Visit Toronto District School BoardHypothesisFree, transport-supported after-school AI cohorts close the participation gap between priority and non-priority schools to within 10 percentage points.
MethodMixed-methods study across 4 schools, 162 students. Tracking enrollment, attendance, completion, and self-reported confidence.
Mid-pilot: attendance gap has closed to 6 percentage points (priority 81%, non-priority 87%).
HypothesisA 1:20 supervising-teacher ratio is sufficient when mentors run the work and the teacher only owns safeguarding.
MethodTime-and-motion observation of supervising teachers across 12 sessions.
Confirmed at 1:20 with two trained mentors per room. 1:30 began to strain at week 4.
HypothesisA modest TTC transport stipend lifts attendance in priority schools by ≥15 points.
MethodDifference-in-differences across two priority schools, one with stipend, one without.
Built from anonymized patterns across cohorts. Personas are composites; brief structure, mentor moves and outcome shape are representative.
Average attendance across 4 TDSB pilot schools. Priority vs non-priority. Gap closes after transport stipend introduced in week 3.
K. Okafor · L. Nguyen · TDSB Research Office · SmarterUni Research
L. Nguyen · SmarterUni Research
SmarterUni × Toronto District School Board (2026). Partner dossier. Retrieved from https://www.smarteruni.com/collaborations/tdsb. Serial: SU·COLLAB·TDSB·MMVI.
Free for accredited K12 boards in 2026.
