No more rulers, No more books. No more Fraser Institute dirty looks...

"The money spent administering these useless tests would be better spent on improving the student-to-teacher ratio in the classrooms, or in providing more funding to support staff."-- Gary Coons current North Coast MLA and a former Prince Rupert teacher expressing his take on the usefulness of the Fraser Institute's number crunching.

As the school year rushes towards its closure for another season of educational pursuit, the Fraser Institute has crashed the year end parties with a synopsis of their always controversial Foundation Skills Assessment analysis.

This years findings from the Institute have our students below the normal rate of achievement in math, reading and writing skills that the folks at the Institute track. Grade four students in particular had a rather sizable drop in performance, while those in Grade seven also had reduced results, though not quite as drastic a finding as the earlier grade.

Controversial as always, the findings may be a little inaccurate, with even Minister of Education Shirley Bond pointing out that changes made to the testing process may make comparisons between this year and last not truly reflective of the current situation in the schools. Though she did add that their study does provide an indication of where attention should be addressed.

Needless to say the union representing teachers in the province isn't impressed with the annual competition that pits school against school, student against student without taking into account the individual circumstances of each school district, school or student.

With school about to end in a few short days, the Fraser Institute report could make for some interesting reading over the summer, maybe providing a spark for continuing debate.

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Or depending on who you're talking to, some fine kindling for the summer campfires.

The Daily News featured the report and its fall out as the front page story in Tuesday's paper.

FSA TEST RESULTS RELEASED TO DERISION FROM CRITICS
But results welcomed by other agencies including the Fraser Institute and province
BY KRIS SCHUMACHER
The Daily News
Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Pages one and three

According to the results of the most recent Foundation Skills Assessment released by the Fraser Institute, the percentage of students in British Columbia meeting expectations in writing, reading and math is lower than the previous year.

The highly controversial tests that measure student achievement in Grades 4 and 7 found that the percentage of Grade 4 students meeting or exceeding expectations in 2008 was between 70 and 74, compared to between 77 and 90 per cent last year.

The overall percentage of Grade 7 students in B.C. also fell substantially, from between 72 and 86 per cent last year to between 69 and 71 in 2008.

The FSA tests have been widely opposed by teachers in the province, and the British Columbia Teacher's Federation President Irene Lanzigner maintains that the tests aren't useful because they waste time in the classroom and have the negative result of pitting schools against one another.

The BCTF also maintains that the test results vary between schools across the province based on socio-economics and other factors, none of which are taken into account when schools are ranked according to student performance.

Minister of Education Shirley Bond said the changes made to the testing process mean that the 2008 results cannot be compared to last year's, but she said the data still provides clear indications on "where we need to focus some attention."

However teachers' unions and government critics including North Coast MLA Gary Coons scoff when Bond alludes to the government giving extra attention to schools that perform poorly, because no additional funding is given to those schools or districts to help improve student performance.

"If these tests were used to direct resources to districts and schools that have many children facing multiple barriers, it might be different," said Coons.

"As it is now, these tests serve absolutely no purpose except to shame students, teachers and schools through the Fraser Institute's ranking system."

Coons said the tests are not accurate indicators of achievement.

Coons said the fact that the ministry attributed declines in this year's test scores to the differences in the way they were administered proves that the tests are a flawed tool, especially since they don't use the results to help struggling schools and students.

The Prince Rupert District Teachers' Union and other unions across the province say there is pressure to teach students to perform well on the test simply to improve their student rankings, resulting in less instruction to help students master basic skills.

"There is a difference between teaching a child math, and teaching a child to pass an unusual, stressful government mandated math test," said Coons, a former math teacher.

"Tests are certainly useful in the context of the classroom, but large-scale standardized testing like FSA testing is only as useful as what is done with the results."

The BCTF passed a motion brought forward by the PRDTU at their annual general meeting this year, which would mean teachers across the province will abstain from participation in the 2008-09 school year unless the ministry changes the process to random sampling with neither schools nor students identified.

"The experience here in Prince Rupert with FSA testing has been very negative. We've had the Fraser Institute point at one of our schools and say it was the worst school in the province, yet the ministry hasn't looked at the scores and seen fit to allocate funding to enhance support for students who are struggling," said Coons. "The money spent administering these useless tests would be better spent on improving the student-to-teacher ratio in the classrooms, or in providing more funding to support staff."

And with Prince Rupert School District 52 being forced to operate with drastic cuts to teacher, support staff and administration in the 2008-09 school year, it would be a real challenge for the district to improve any of their school scores if the tests are in fact administered next year, he said.