It’s not a required part of the B.C. school curriculum and does not lead to increased supports for individual students.
That is what the Delta Teachers’ Association (DTA) is saying about the Foundation Skills Assessment tests, but parents have been informed students are expected to write the tests.
The FSA is an annual province-wide assessment of all B.C. students’ academic skills in grades 4 and 7.
Following the Delta School Board’s Sept. 27 meeting, the DTA issued a news release saying that preparing students for FSA tests does not teach them things useful for real life, nor does it contribute to students’ skills and development.
The tests take away valuable class time administering and preparing students, while the results do not translate into additional resources for students, teachers or schools, the DTA said.
“The detailed results are not available to parents or teachers who might be able to extract some meaningful or useful information. The data is something that the Ministry of Education may need, but the reality is, the FSAs are quite publicly used by the Fraser Institute - not government or educators - for purposes that are not about supporting education,” the DTA said.
The teachers’ union added it would send materials in sealed envelopes addressed to parents/guardians to teachers of grades 4 and 7 in Delta.
These will be sent home via students and will explain why teachers oppose the tests and what parents can do, the DTA said, adding that the withdrawal letter/form is agreed to by both BC Teachers’ Federation and the BC Public School Employers’ Association through a protocol agreement.
The school district, which hosted an online information session for parents last week, recently issued a notice regarding the FSA tests, saying the tests will be administered between Oct. 3 and Nov. 11.
Students write the FSA early in the year to allow teachers and schools to be responsive to student outcomes, according to the notice, adding the FSA results will be shared with families later in the fall, providing parents with some evidence of how their children are doing in literacy and numeracy.
“The Delta School District is supportive of the FSA, as we believe it provides important information on how our students are progressing on key learning outcomes. We believe the nature of the assessment benefits student learning, both in preparing for and writing the FSA. At the same time, we believe that the FSA is just one piece of information about student learning. It complements the wide range of information teachers collect through ongoing methods of assessment,” the notice stated.
The district also informed parents that they may be receiving information about excluding children from the FSA.
“However, except for very specific situations identified by the Ministry of Education, all students are expected to write the FSA. Students cannot be excluded from the FSA by submitting a form,” the notice stated.
The DTA’s news release to parents, though, states, “Parents can and should decide if their child writes or not. If you receive letters from the district or ministry indicating your child ‘is expected to 'write the exam, notice that doesn’t say ‘required.’ This is a parental choice.”
The Delta School Board in 2020 voted unanimously in favour of a motion to initiate an education partner consultation to elicit feedback about their concerns with the FSA and ask for their input on what forms of assessment they feel would better serve students in the district.
