A province-wide vote in December concluded with an overwhelming majority of teachers opposed to preparing for, administering and marking Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA) tests.
Along with their colleagues across the province, Sunshine Coast teachers asked for testing of a random sampling of students, anon-ymity of schools' results so they cannot be ranked and the decision to allow testing to come from parents.
"FSA results are being used by the Fraser Institute to create misleading school rankings based on narrow and biased criteria that do not reflect the rich tapestry of learning in our schools," said a statement released by president Denis Fafard on behalf of the Sunshine Coast Teachers' Association (SCTA).
School District No. 46 (SD46) board of trustees also disagree with the ranking of schools and wrote education minister Shirley Bond to ask her to make the FSA results anonymous. "FSA results focus on writing, reading comprehension and numeracy, and provide only a snapshot of student achievement in these areas only; to rank schools based on FSA and exam results is to ignore a far more comprehensive, complex and variable process of student achievement and growth," said a letter from the board.
The SCTA has prepared a pamphlet to go home with students to parents that outlines why teachers voted the way they did, what they think is wrong with the current FSA and to inform parents what their rights are regarding their children.
"If the principal does not respect your decision [to withdraw a child from the FSA], we urge you to keep your child home from school during the testing periods," the pamphlet read. "Your child's achievement will not be affected because the tests do not count toward their mark."
At the Jan. 13 SD46 board meeting, superintendent Deborah Palmer said, "From an operational perspective, the School Act is clear. Student learning assessment is an order and requirement of the school district and of teachers to administer and mark it."
Fafard wrote a letter to board chair Silas White on Jan. 8 that opposes that point. In it, he said the practice of the school district to limit parents' ability to exempt their child from the FSA is out of line because the FSA is not a curriculum-based component of a child's education. He said the district's ability to compel children to take an assessment does not exist.
"There is nothing in the School Act, orders or policy that prohibits students being withdrawn from participation in the FSA," Fafard wrote.
Palmer said acceptable reasons outlined by the ministry for student exemption are very specific and each principal must pass every request by her before any child is exempted. She said no more than 10 students were excused from the FSA last year.
The justifications for exemption are for children who are on an Individual Education Plan, are English as a Second Language students and those with a family emergency, illness or extenuating circumstances.
The SCTA has offered an alternate to the FSA. They suggest the Provincial Learning Assessment Program (PLAP) that was used previously to assess learning in the province.
"PLAP tested a wide sample of students chosen at random throughout the province. Students, schools and districts were not identified, removing the opportunity for misleading manipulation of the test results," says the SCTA. "Teachers support the PLAP model of curriculum assessment. We also support classroom-based authentic assessment methods for evaluating the progress of our students."
The testing period for the FSA is between Feb. 2 and 27 and is given to students in grades 4 and 7. Palmer took part in a conference call on Jan. 16 to hear what is happening in other areas of the province. She said Bond met with the B.C. Teachers' Federation (BCTF), but no decisive action was taken, and the deputy minister will continue talks with the BCTF.
"It's a good sign that they are talking," Palmer said. On the advice of the B.C. Public School Employers' Association (BCPSEA), Palmer said her expectations remain that "teachers will prepare for and mark the FSA."
Palmer and Fafard met on Jan. 20, and Fafard said they are in agreement to handle the FSA in the least disruptive manner to teachers. Fafard also said while other administrators have issued directives to their teachers, Palmer's response "avoids confrontation, buys time and is in keeping with recent developments at the provincial level."
Palmer added she is optimistic that a resolution between the BCPSEA and BCTF will be reached before the start of the testing period next month.
