Foundation Skills Assessment testing is a controversial topic among teachers, parents, and trustees, but since the tests are required by the Ministry of Education, School District 27 superintendent Diane Wright says this district is using the data collected to monitor the success of its programs.
“The Ministry of Education requires that we do FSAs and our district has decided that if we do it we should do it well and use the information at the district level,” Wright says.
“Rather than just complying we want to value any time a teacher and child spend in working together.”
Students in Grade 4 and Grade 7 are taking the FSA tests between Jan. 17 and Feb. 17 to determine competency in math, reading and writing.
She says the FSA testing data required by the Ministry of Education includes the numbers of all students in the district in the respective grades regardless of whether they have taken the tests or not.
For her own research, Wright says she has analyzed only the data collected from students who actually took the FSA tests.
Using the data in this way provides a better picture of how well the district’s programs are helping to improve success for students.
But whether the data is filtered her way or unfiltered the ministry way, Wright says the FSA results for this district indicate that student success rates are improving steadily across the board, especially in reading and writing.
The tests also show significant improvements for success among First Nations students which should be celebrated, she says.
“These are amazing results. This is a great place to move forward from and shows that we are on the right track,” Wright says.
“Our students are making steady improvement, significant improvement in some areas.”
She says the FSAs are only a snapshot in time, but they do reflect the hard work of teachers.
“I say to teachers that I know that FSAs can be controversial, but your hard work is really evident in the improved achievement of our students.”
In a recent report to the board, Wright compared FSA test results over a three year period between 2007/08 and 2009/10, complete with percentage rate breakdowns by year, grade, and test area.
The report also outlines actions taken by the district to improve reading and writing skills.
Some of these initiatives include:
• Creating school plans focused on literacy.
• District-wide kindergarten screening and monitoring by speech and language pathologists.
• Focus on assessment for learning practices.
• Reading strategies (formerly reading recovery) intervention and instructional approaches shared with elementary teachers.
• English as a second dialect programs and early learning programs.
• Early learning teacher leaders networking with early years teaching staff in all communities.
• In-school support programs as alternatives to suspensions.
• Creation of early learning Strong Start programs.
