Background
Preparing the world’s future leaders and innovators
An International Baccalaureate (IB) World School located in the heart of Toronto, Canada, The York School offers a progressive and highly personalized learning experience for each of its 730 students. With a mission to prepare its graduates to be engaged world citizens, The York School puts special focus on observing and nurturing the whole student, starting with the admissions process.
Challenge
Creating exceptional classrooms that accelerate each student’s growth
Wanting to build classes that provide the best possible student experience, The York School needed an application process like no other. The admission committee needed to find an efficient way to gather the most comprehensive insight and assess valued competencies, like a student’s ability to think on their feet and embrace new situations, while ensuring admission bias was limited.
“Kira Talent helps tell a student’s story beyond just a metric, and I think that helps us be more informed and confident when it comes to putting the right kids into our classrooms.”
- Praveen Muruganandan, Director of Admission and Advancement for The York SchoolSolution
Providing a 21st century human-centered admissions experience
In a fraction of the time and effort it would normally take, Kira assessments provide The York School with a more authentic view of students beyond grades and test scores. The format of video interviews also provides students with an opportunity to demonstrate their willingness to try new things and work outside their comfort zone – skills that are highly valued at The York School.
Results
Standing out from the Independent School crowd
Since integrating Kira video interviews into their admissions process in 2017, The York School has been making more effective and confident decisions when selecting students for their middle and senior schools.
Kira assessments enable the small admissions team to increase their efficiency so much so that Praveen Muruganandan, Director of Admission and Advancement for The York School, likens the hours they’ve saved to “easily being like having an additional person on the team.”
The ability to get multiple perspectives during a student’s assessment, while monitoring consistency among the reviewers against a set criteria, helps The York School proactively reduce admission bias and make more well-informed decisions about their applicants.
