A union representing teachers in Surrey is urging the provincial government to stop administering FSAs in schools, calling them a waste of resources.
The Foundational Skills Assessment (FSA) is an annual assessment of B.C. students in Grades 4 and 7. Test results do not go towards students’ official report cards, but the education ministry says the assessment helps school staff, the ministry and parents get a snapshot of how well students are performing in literacy and numeracy.
The tests are being administered right now in Surrey’s schools, continuing from Oct. 2 until Nov. 10.
“At a time when there are students without classrooms and a dearth of learning supports for students struggling to learn, it’s unconscionable that precious learning and teaching resources are taken up by standardised tests that are not included in report cards and that do not result in any direct benefits to the Grade 4 and Grade 7 students writing them,” Jatinder Bir, president of the Surrey Teachers’ Association, said in a news release Wednesday (Oct. 11).
Individual student results are available only to administration staff from the school and district, while a freedom of information (FOI) request needs to be filed for others to access them. Parents receive the results of their children’s test confidentially and the overall results for the schools and districts are posted online.
This is not the first time that education reps in Surrey have called for an end or change to the administration of the controversial tests.
In 2019, trustee Laurie Larsen drew attention to the “misuse” of the results, noting they have been used by the Fraser Institute to rank schools.
RELATED: Control ‘misuse’ of FSA marks, or get rid of the tests, says Surrey school trustee
The STA states that the lists ranking schools are often used by realtors to help them sell houses in neighbourhoods where schools have ranked higher on the list – typically these are private schools.
“As teachers, we know that brilliance does not have a postal code and that creativity and imagination are found everywhere there are children learning about the world,” Bir said.
The union president adds that many parents have tried to have their children excused from writing the exams, with little success. According to Bir, parents are met with resistance from administration staff.
In an emailed statement, the provincial education ministry states that principals at schools can only exempt students from writing the exams and under “limited circumstances including a family emergency, a lengthy illness, or other extenuating circumstances which would prevent a student from writing the assessment.”
The ministry did acknowledge that the ranking of schools can create stigma and marginalize certain schools and its students, but noted that the assessments serve a purpose.
“The intended use of FSA results is to provide feedback that allows the strengthening of learning in B.C. schools. Classroom level FSA results on literacy and numeracy are among the many tools that the Ministry and education partners use to understand learning needs and to identify students who need more support,” the ministry’s statement continues.
Surrey schools Superintendent Mark Pearmain said in a letter to parents that the testing experience for the Grades 4 and 7 students will help prepare them to write complex tests in higher grades.
- with file from Black Press Media