AT ARTE War otf |. Words The Foundation Skills Assessment is a _ test taken by B.C. students in Grades 4, 7 and 10. The Ministry of Education says they allow teachers to “evaluate how well stu- dents are achieving basic skills, and make plans to improve student achieve- ment,” but the B.C. Teach- ers Federation says the FSAs are “misused by a private organization to rank schools based on a very narrow measure.” So who’s right about these controversial tests? Standardized testing is not the way. to go. By Wendy A. Case he sinivdiidicad testing that is é mandatory for students in grades four, seven, and ten is a shame. The tests do not take different leartiing styles into consideration, giving students ‘who learn best from reading and writing an advantage. Similarly, those who excel in math, as well, are given an advantage over their peers. The tests are designed to suit those who excel in these subjects. Creativity is not valued, nor is anything above mere technical writing. Some might argue that the » tests provide a way to hold teachers accountable to the public. However, accountability reports go out three times » yearly in all grades. After all, a child comes home three times a year with a report card, meaning this in-depth analysis of a child’s progress shows more than any standardized test. They cover both the child’s strengths and weaknesses over the period of a year. One test cannot do that. It is a mere snapshot of a child’s development at a certain moment in time. of / 1G om <@8 ay oe og 78 a ’ c ER 72 tig: & ? eng Goede ea © It’s not even done at the end of the year . when a child has had the opportunity to catch up. Instead it’s done only part of the way through the year when those on | the lower end of the learning curve are at adisadvantage. \ While I know that there are lazy teachers out there, one test administered every three years just doesn’t cut it if - you’re going to measure development. Such a test, if it’s to be administered at all, should be administered in all grades at regular intervals throughout the - school year. This would make teachers ‘accountable, the measured factors are - what the child is learning and how much they have improved while being taught by their particular teacher. The way that it stands now, the test might only show Sars ~~ ci what a child already knew rather than acting as an accountability measure for teachers. , Children can go through some pretty rotten times. While teachers can take this into account when assigning a grade, a standardized test does not. It doesn’t care if Billy’s dad died last month or if Suzy’s parents are going through a divorce. In light of these kinds of upheavals a test cannot measure what might be phenomenal growth or achievement. It doesn’t have a starting point to measure against. A teacher_does. The most important part of learning is the growth from the start point to the end point. After all, isn’t that the point of education? By Garth McLennan ne of the most leftist, militant () enon in the country, the British Columbia Teachers Federation (BCTF), is currently involved in yet another messy, public dispute. The ongoing issue this time for B.C. teachers is the Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA) tests that are administered to students in Grades 4, 7 and 10. Before being faced with the prospect of launching an illegal strike, 85 per cent of B.C. teachers had voted outright to refuse to give out the FSA tests to their students. Along with showing heart- wrenching ads of sad and forlorn looking children, the BCTF has said that the FSAs are unfairly used to rank schools in terms of academic performance and that they are biased in favour of kids in wealthier districts while negatively reflecting on teachers. Well, at least one of those is true. The fact is that the FSA tests are basic, simple indications of a student’s reading, writing and math skills. That’s all. Of course, the BCTF is saying that they are a waste of time and money and that they are simply too hard on young students. That’s a bunch of crap. The tests do not count towards student’s grades and they are a good measure for parents as to where their kids are at, and despite the kicking and screaming from the BCTF, it isn’t a bad thing for parents to know which teachers are doing their jobs and which aren’t. There are a lot of dedicated, hard working teachers out there who really do make a difference, but let’s face it, there are almost as many teachers who look forward to the three o’clock bell more than the kids do. I find it absolutely ridiculous that teachers feel they have a sense of entitlement that means they are exempt from any sort of scrutiny about their performance. In virtually every other profession in life, you have to be accountable to someone (well, maybe not the RCMP, but that’s another story), so why do teachers feel that they should Teachers need to act like professionals be exempt? There are no repercussions for teachers who do a perennially poor job, and it is nearly impossible to have them fired or reprimanded at all for job performance. Can you name another profession where that’s true as well? It is true that teachers have to put up with a lot, but not many other people can boast about getting off at 3 p.m., having weekends and holidays off, getting a lengthy break over winter, at least one, and often two, full weeks off at the beginning of spring and a two month break with no work over the summer? It is true that the FSA tests are not perfect, but they are not the evil that the BCTF is making them out to be. This is just another painful example of the BCTF wanting everything. They defend the worst teachers until the very end, regardless of job performance or behaviour and they seem to feel that they have the right to be immune to the type of job pressure that everybody else goes through. Again, this is not meant to be a hate- on against all teachers. I feel bad for the truly good and dedicated teachers out there that are a model of professionalism, because there are many of them. The problem is that they get repeatedly caught in the middle of the arrogant and infuriating ravings of the BCTF.