Schools across the Northwest are currently involved in providing for the Foundation Skills Assessment tests mandated by the Ministry of Education. The controversial testing plan which started last week and continues into the next one, have become a lightning rod of sorts, as some teachers and parents question the validity of the tests and relevance of them to the entire year long educational experience.The Fraser Institute makes much of the FSA results for their yearly study and ranking of the province’s schools, which when released provides for a heated and controversial debate about the state of our schools, especially when based on a snapshot report and the ranking of such as the Fraser Institute provides.
This past week has provided for a challenging week for the FSA’s as reports of problems with the computerized component became known. From the Queen Charlottes to Prince Rupert, repeated troubles accessing the long distance testing system and frequent drop outs made for a frustrating situation for teachers and students.
The feedback to the tests over the last few days has not been particularly positive, with the Queen Charlottes Observer posting to their website reporting troubles with the delivery of the tests and the Daily News going with a front page story which outlines some of the concerns in Prince Rupert as well as printing a letter to the editor from a local teacher, that expresses the frustration that many seem to have with tests and the procedures in place to deliver them.
With so many questions continuing to be asked about these tests, perhaps the Ministry of Education should be giving some thought to revisiting what is they are trying to accomplish with them. If the process of taking the tests is as flawed as it seems to be from these reports, then one has to wonder if the results should not be called into question as well.
If the province is interested in receiving worthwhile results and a better snap shot of how the system is delivering the fundamentals, then surely a more comprehensive look at the progress and situations that impact on that development needs to be considered.
Extracting information from a flawed, confusing and frustrating experience, probably isn’t giving anyone a true picture of any student development.
TEACHERS HAND TRUSTEES A FAILING GRADE FOR FSA TESTS
By Leanne Ritchie
Friday, February 8, 2008
Pages one and three
The Prince Rupert District Teacher's Union is supporting those parents who do not want their children to take part in provincial standardized testing.
The Foundation Skills Assessment tests (FSAs) are being administered to students in Grades 4 and 7 during the next two weeks.
Joanna Larson, president of the Prince Rupert District Teachers' Union, said it is incredible, that even when parents have requested their child not write the test, some school boards such as Prince Rupert's are forcing the students to write the tests.
"Our school board is telling parents that it is law, their children have to write these tests, and that, unless they keep them home for the entire two weeks, they will be forced to write," said Larson.
"Why would our board take such a draconian position? It is not law that children must be forced to write a test which their parents do not believe in. Students in other districts are being exempted out of respect for parent beliefs."
However Tina Last, school board chair, said the district's understanding is that they are provincially legislated to administer the tests.
"It's a provincially legislated test and all students must participate," said Last.
"Parents can ask to have their children excused but it is being assessed on a case-by-case basis and students must meet specific criteria to be excused. It's not as simple as calling in and saying I don't want my child to write the test. Despite what we may think of the FSAs - whether they are valuable - at the end of the day, they are legislated so as a school district, from what I understand, we don't have options here."
The primary objection to the tests by the B.C. Teachers Federation is their use by the Fraser Institute to publicly rank schools in the province. The results are based on a very narrow measure and only 10 minutes is given to the marking of each booklet, said Larson.
"Teachers believe in fair, effective, and reliable assessment. They know that students learn in different ways and at different rates," said Larson.
"When a teacher assesses a child in their classroom, parents can be assured more than 10 minutes is devoted to the process," said Larson.
Nor do the test results bring any additional funding or support to students or schools.
If the goal of the tests were to assess the system overall, the tests would be administered on a random sample basis.
"Last year, the ministry claimed that the results of the FSA showed that one in five children struggle to read. The annual report into child poverty put out by Campaign 2000 showed that one in five children in B.C. lives in poverty," said Larson
"I leave it to the public to decide what FSA results really measure."
In addition, problems with the on-line testing this year have resulted in the tests taking up even more valuable class time, more than doubling the time from one hour to two and half hours in some cases as 40,000 children across the province all tried to log on to the system.
Computer problems plague testing
Queen Charlotte Islands Observer
February 8, 2008
Grade 4 and grade 7 students and teachers experienced frustrating computer network problems this week as they attempted to write a series of provincially-mandated tests.
The BC government requires grade 4 and 7 students to write the Foundation Skills Assessment tests every year. This is the first year that students are doing portions of the tests on computers.
School district superintendent Mike Woods said local computers and networks are working fine - the problem appears to be with the provincial network, and schools all over the province have had similar problems with the system crashing.
"We do have a two-week window to complete the tests so (we) do not believe this will prevent students from writing and if students are being timed out their work is being saved and will be there when they come back to it - so this shouldn't be a barrier to them doing their best," Mr. Woods said.
Queen Charlotte District Teachers Association President Norm Wagner said the FSA-related computer challenges had been a "nightmare" for teachers and students this week. They spent hours trying and re-trying to write the tests.
"The whole system was crashing," he said. "It's been a whole schmozzle."
Teachers are concerned about how valid the test results will be given the problems that students experienced attempting to write the tests, Mr. Wagner said.
The BC Teachers' Federation has been critical of the FSA tests for a long time, saying the tests don't help students learn and are a waste of money.
Queen Charlotte Islands Observer
February 8, 2008
Grade 4 and grade 7 students and teachers experienced frustrating computer network problems this week as they attempted to write a series of provincially-mandated tests.
The BC government requires grade 4 and 7 students to write the Foundation Skills Assessment tests every year. This is the first year that students are doing portions of the tests on computers.
School district superintendent Mike Woods said local computers and networks are working fine - the problem appears to be with the provincial network, and schools all over the province have had similar problems with the system crashing.
"We do have a two-week window to complete the tests so (we) do not believe this will prevent students from writing and if students are being timed out their work is being saved and will be there when they come back to it - so this shouldn't be a barrier to them doing their best," Mr. Woods said.
Queen Charlotte District Teachers Association President Norm Wagner said the FSA-related computer challenges had been a "nightmare" for teachers and students this week. They spent hours trying and re-trying to write the tests.
"The whole system was crashing," he said. "It's been a whole schmozzle."
Teachers are concerned about how valid the test results will be given the problems that students experienced attempting to write the tests, Mr. Wagner said.
The BC Teachers' Federation has been critical of the FSA tests for a long time, saying the tests don't help students learn and are a waste of money.
FSA testing was online disaster
Letter to the Editor
Prince Rupert Daily News
Friday, February 8, 2008
Page 4
To the editor,
An open letter (for action) to: Shirley Bond, B. C. Minister of Education; James Gorman, B. C. Deputy Minister of Education; Jiemei Li, FSA Coordinator- B. C, Ministry of Education also to: all Parents of school age children (for information first and hopefully action),
I am writing this letter to inform you of what transpired when my Grade 7 class wrote their first on0line FSA Reading test on Mon., Feb. 4, 2008. It should have run smoothly, with no interruptions. However, there were many interruptions, with many students being booted off the site, having to log on over and over again, some more than nine times. In short what should have taken one hour to write took two and a half hours. The same scenario continued on Feb. 5 with the FSA on-line Math test.
The conditions my students and many other students around the province encountered when writing the tests, and the fact that the government may still consider the tests valid, requires this letter to be written.
We know that these problems did not originate from our server. Since districts around the province were experiencing the same problems at the same time, they were ones which should have been worked on and ironed out before a test of this magnitude was administered to students province-wide.
A number of different personnel were involved in administering these tests. In my class, due to the special needs requirements of some of my students, the principal, three childcare workers and I were needed. That wasted five adults’ time from 9 a. m. to 11:30 a. m. Was this a good use of time? This does not include the time needed to set up each computer before the students came in, or the time needed last week to “prepare” the students for the tests.
Why were these two tests not administered on paper, as has been done every year in the past? Why computers all of a sudden, especially when it was proven Monday and Tuesday mornings that the necessary research had not been carried out to ensure that the system worked – before our students were subjected to this stressful situation?
Many schools do not have the needed number of computers to run a test of this type for all the students in one class at the same time. The proper funding had not been put into place to ensure that this was taken care of. In our school, most of the computers have been bought by parent fundraising activities, not by funds allocated by the government to ensure that the computers needed are in the school.
Funding has also not been allocated to ensure that computers are kept in optimal running condition. The decrepit condition of our computer lab calls the validity of the test into question.
What is the validity of these tests when considering the test situation my students were in, the stress endured and the length of time taken? What was really being measured on the two on0line FSA tests … patience, endurance, frustration levels, ability to maneuver from one screen to another on a computer? It was certainly not reading or math!
I would like to inform you that I support FSA tests or other standardized tests being used, if they are administered properly, and if the results are used properly. Those are two big “ifs”.
To have subjected so many students, teachers, childcare workers and principals in the province to something that went so wrong is a huge injustice. These are hours which cannot be made up. These are ours which could have been so much better spent in meaningful instruction.
I hope it is the last time all of us: teachers, principals, childcare workers and students are subjected to anything like this.
Sincerely
Laura Esposito
Grade 7 teacher
Letter to the Editor
Prince Rupert Daily News
Friday, February 8, 2008
Page 4
To the editor,
An open letter (for action) to: Shirley Bond, B. C. Minister of Education; James Gorman, B. C. Deputy Minister of Education; Jiemei Li, FSA Coordinator- B. C, Ministry of Education also to: all Parents of school age children (for information first and hopefully action),
I am writing this letter to inform you of what transpired when my Grade 7 class wrote their first on0line FSA Reading test on Mon., Feb. 4, 2008. It should have run smoothly, with no interruptions. However, there were many interruptions, with many students being booted off the site, having to log on over and over again, some more than nine times. In short what should have taken one hour to write took two and a half hours. The same scenario continued on Feb. 5 with the FSA on-line Math test.
The conditions my students and many other students around the province encountered when writing the tests, and the fact that the government may still consider the tests valid, requires this letter to be written.
We know that these problems did not originate from our server. Since districts around the province were experiencing the same problems at the same time, they were ones which should have been worked on and ironed out before a test of this magnitude was administered to students province-wide.
A number of different personnel were involved in administering these tests. In my class, due to the special needs requirements of some of my students, the principal, three childcare workers and I were needed. That wasted five adults’ time from 9 a. m. to 11:30 a. m. Was this a good use of time? This does not include the time needed to set up each computer before the students came in, or the time needed last week to “prepare” the students for the tests.
Why were these two tests not administered on paper, as has been done every year in the past? Why computers all of a sudden, especially when it was proven Monday and Tuesday mornings that the necessary research had not been carried out to ensure that the system worked – before our students were subjected to this stressful situation?
Many schools do not have the needed number of computers to run a test of this type for all the students in one class at the same time. The proper funding had not been put into place to ensure that this was taken care of. In our school, most of the computers have been bought by parent fundraising activities, not by funds allocated by the government to ensure that the computers needed are in the school.
Funding has also not been allocated to ensure that computers are kept in optimal running condition. The decrepit condition of our computer lab calls the validity of the test into question.
What is the validity of these tests when considering the test situation my students were in, the stress endured and the length of time taken? What was really being measured on the two on0line FSA tests … patience, endurance, frustration levels, ability to maneuver from one screen to another on a computer? It was certainly not reading or math!
I would like to inform you that I support FSA tests or other standardized tests being used, if they are administered properly, and if the results are used properly. Those are two big “ifs”.
To have subjected so many students, teachers, childcare workers and principals in the province to something that went so wrong is a huge injustice. These are hours which cannot be made up. These are ours which could have been so much better spent in meaningful instruction.
I hope it is the last time all of us: teachers, principals, childcare workers and students are subjected to anything like this.
Sincerely
Laura Esposito
Grade 7 teacher
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