Skip to main content

Skip to navigation

The access keys for this page are:

For The Record

FOUNDATION SKILLS ASSESSMENT

Jan. 6, 2009
Ministry of Education
 
Letters to the Editor
Opinion Editorials

Purpose

  • The FSA is an annual province-wide assessment of Grade 4 and 7 students’ academic skills, and provides a snapshot of how well B.C. students are learning foundation skills in reading comprehension, writing and numeracy.
  • It is an important tool for educators, administrators and parents to determine the educational needs of individual students so they can make plans for improved achievement.
  • A census approach to the FSA provides information at the provincial, district and school levels including information about aboriginal students, ESL students, students with special needs by category, children in care and other vulnerable students. This level of detail could not be provided through a sampling approach.
  • The FSA was introduced in the late 1990’s and is designed and developed by British Columbia educators. The skills assessed are linked to the provincial curriculum and provincial performance standards.
  • Experts, including B.C.’s own Representative for Children and Youth, have found it to be a useful tool.
  • The First Nations Education Steering Committee (FNESC) views the FSA as a useful tool for addressing aboriginal student achievement.  A number of boards of education and parent advisory committees have also expressed support for the FSA.

Administration

  • Teachers are required, through law, to administer all provincial assessments.
  • The FSA is not optional. Students in Grades 4 and 7 are expected to participate. Only in extenuating circumstances, parents may request principals to excuse their child from writing the FSA – for example a family emergency or lengthy illness.
  • This assessment is administered every year to Grade 4 and 7 students in public and provincially funded independent schools.
  • The FSA takes less than five hours to write and students take it twice in their first 10 years of schooling. Schools are advised to administer the assessment in sections over two or three days but schools have up to four week to complete.
  • It is not necessary for teachers to spend time preparing students for the FSA as it is based on core provincial learning outcomes which are regularly addressed through day to day teaching.
  • Students respond to multiple-choice questions online, and to written questions on paper.
  • Districts only score the written portion of the FSA. Scoring for the multiple choice segments – which make up the largest component of the reading and numeracy tests – is automated.
  • The FSA is administered in February so parents can receive the results in March.

Accountability

  • The FSA is part of government’s accountability to the public and its responsibility to parents. Parents deserve as much information as possible about how their children are doing in these key areas.
  • The FSA is conducted in February so that results are returned within the same year. Schools and parents are, therefore, able to identify and assist students who are struggling with foundation skills before the end of the school year.
  • Parents of students in grades 4 and 7 can find key facts, sample questions, tips on preparing students, and a rundown of what to expect in the FSA at http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/assessment/fsa/.
  • The Province has offered to work with the BC Teachers’ Federation to examine an Ontario initiative called Statistical Neighbours, from which we might develop a new framework that would provide additional context to our FSA data and better meet the needs of parents, teachers, trustees and administrators.
Back to topTop

Letters to the Editor

December 23, 2008
Letter to the Editor
VALUE OF FSA REINFORCED
By Shirley Bond
Minister of Education and Deputy Premier
Submitted: The Kamloops Daily News
Status: N/A
I would like to respond to a letter written by the president of the Kamloops Thompson Teachers’ Association that appeared recently in your newspaper regarding the Foundation Skills Assessment. [Read More]

Back to topTop

Opinion Editorials

December 12, 2008
Opinion Editorial
CALLING ON THE BCTF TO PUT STUDENTS FIRST
By Shirley Bond
Minister of Education
Submitted: Province-wide
Status: Published December 31, 2008 in the Houston Today and Smithers Interior News.
Every parent has a right to know how their child is doing in school. As Minister of Education, if there is one thing I have heard consistently from parents it is that they want more information about their child's progress, not less. [Read More]