The B.C. Principals and Vice-principals Association (BCPVPA) has taken a stand against Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA), saying it's time to replace the test with another standardized measure "that does not have the political baggage or rhetoric around it."
A second look is needed, association president Jameel Aziz said in a statement issued Wednesday.
Aziz said, because three "unfortunate circumstances" have made the FSAs more trouble than they're worth: The "misuse of the data" by the Fraser Institute to rank schools, the B.C. Teachers Federation (BCTF) has "successfully undermined" the tests to the point where participation is less than half in some school districts and an "understandable lack of effort many students put into the tests."
"These three circumstances have created a problem: the FSA as the chosen standardized testing measure is no longer able to do what it was designed to do," Aziz said.
Aziz also noted there is an expectation principals will contact each parent who sends in a letter to excuse their child from the tests.
"I have heard directly from principals and vice-principals that the number and length of these conversations would be better served focusing on student instruction and achievement," he said.
Prince George school board chair Lyn Hall called the statement significant and expects trustees will review their own position on the issue in light of what the principal and vice-principal association had to say. That said, the district is continuing to require students to take the test for the time being.
Hall said he hasn't heard many stories from principals in School District #57 about spending inordinate time dealing with parents concerned about the test. The bigger issue, said Hall, is the Fraser Institute rankings.
"We've said for a number of years that's a real concern of ours," he said. "I think the comparison from district to district and school to school is misleading and certainly doesn't paint the picture of what's occurring in our district."
He also noted similar assessments are already conducted within the district.
"Those assessments range from very much what the FSA does - reading, writing and arithmetic - to social responsibility and plans are developed to meet the individual needs of each school [based on those assessments], so it's not as if it's the only assessment that takes place," Hall said.
The news came as no surprise to Prince George District Teachers Association president Linda Naess.
"We've kind of been waiting for them to give that kind of support because they're in the schools too," she said.
Naess stressed the BCTF is not against standardized testing but is in favour of using a random sample to get a picture of how students are doing while also to preventing the Fraser Institute's controversial rankings.
"It's not attached to the students and it's not attached to schools, it doesn't allow for the ranking of schools but it does give the ministry information on how students are doing in a very limited part of the curriculum, just reading, writing and math," Naess said of using random sampling.
"It doesn't talk about social skills, it doesn't talk about creativity. Those are still our criticisms, it's a very limited scope of assessment."
The District Parent Advisory Council president Don Sabo said it's an item he'll raise during the group's next executive meeting. The council has maintained a neutral stance on the issue, "but this could be a game changer," Sabo said.
The organization has always opposed the Fraser Institute's use of the FSA scores to rank schools, Sabo added, because they fail to account for social and economic factors.
"We clearly understand that there's a connection between poverty [and low test scores]," Sabo said. "The Fraser Institute will not recognize that, they simply crunch the numbers."
