Every year when FSA results are released, we are often asked, "What do you think of the FSAs?" To this, my response is that in the Delta school district, our mission is to enable all learners to succeed and contribute their full potential to the future.
We strive towards this objective by embracing innovative teaching and encouraging student engagement. Every year, we set achievement goals and measure our success.
These measurements are done in a variety of ways that do not include standardized test results (such as report card data, graduation rate data, and feedback from teachers, parents and students). In Delta, we have had an improvement in our overall graduation rate as well as our aboriginal student graduation rate.
This morning, I met with our board chair, Laura Dixon, and she had this to say regarding FSAs, "We need to be measuring what is quality instruction and learning, which is certainly not available from this form of standardized testing. A child's classroom teacher has the expertise to tell you how your child is doing.
"Certain types of standardized testing may actually help educators identify trends, that will in turn help them make decisions about changes to instructional practice. The FSA test does not provide that type of information to assist educators."
Here are some other questions about FSAs that we also often get from parents, students and community members, along with my answers to them:
Do you think the FSAs are valuable at all?
The Foundation Skills Assessment is an annual province-wide test and we administer it as an expectation of the Ministry of Education.
Staff across the district are engaged in teacher inquiries, many of which are examining a variety of assessment methods. The challenge of measuring student success does not rest with standardized testing.
In the Delta school district, we are focused on improving the learning experience for all students. We welcome the opportunity to provide examples of student competencies through student inquiry, project based learning, creative and critical thinking skills, and fine arts education. More than ever we have been focused on our District Vision of innovative teaching and learner success.
What do you think of the private schools in Delta placing higher in FSA results than the public schools?
We have excellent schools in Delta, both public and private, and with the various choice programs we offer at schools in the Delta school district, families in Delta have excellent options for educational opportunities for their children.
The school district mission and vision are aimed at student success, and we strive towards this objective by embracing innovative teaching and encouraging student engagement. Every year, we set achievement goals and measure our success. These measurements are done in a variety of ways that do not include standardized test results.
Measurement methods include school-based teacher assessments, report card grades, graduation rates, and feedback from teachers, parents and students. These all guide our thinking and planning on behalf of the learners in Delta.
What is the Delta board of education's perspective on FSAs?
We do not rank our schools, so the FSA results do not steer the direction of the board of education.
Decisions at the board level are directed by achievement results that are measured in a variety of ways that do not include standardized test results. We prefer to rely on information from classroom teachers that will help us focus on measures of learner success that will not be used to rank our schools.
This way we prevent unfair judgment of the needs of our learners. We do not use the FSA data to guide our decisions or work in Delta. We rely instead on the expertise of the educators in our schools.
Dianne Turner is the superintendent of schools for the Delta school district.
