Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA) testing for B.C. students in grades 4 and 7 will soon begin and with it the criticism of the test.
The test will be administered to all students in the province, as mandated by the Ministry of Education, including School District 51.
School board chair Teresa Rezansoff says that the board’s position is that it is their expectation that teachers are going to fulfill the administering of the FSA.
“It’s mandated by the Ministry of Education and it’s our responsibility to carry that out,” Rezansoff says. “The Ministry of Education expects that that will happen; that the FSAs will be administered.”
Rezansoff says that unless the Ministry of Education makes that decision the board is caught by its legal obligations.
“Our legal obligation is that the FSAs will be administered,” she says.
SD51 also stated in a press release they acknowledge that the testing process has flaws.
“We certainly do not support the ranking of schools or School Districts,” Rezansoff said in the press release.
Norm Sabourin, who is the president of the Boundary District Teachers Association, doesn’t agree with administering the FSA, especially because of the ranking that happens as a result of the test.
“These tests are a minute snapshot of what goes on in the classroom
throughout the year,” Sabourin says.
The tests results don’t affect letter grades at the end of the year either.
“The problem is the format of the test isn’t necessarily laid out the way that teachers teach,” Sabourin says.
He adds that the tests are not easy on students.
“The tests are very cumbersome, very stressful for students and ultimately they don’t help students learn anything and they don’t help teachers learn about their students,” Sabourin says.
He says that since the tests are done and sent away, teachers don’t see the results. All that teachers find out is if the students are exceeding, meeting or not meeting expectations.
He says that since teachers don’t get to see the work that the students did, there is no way for teachers to evaluate what happened and then do something about it.
“So the tests are basically useless to teachers,” he says.