It may not be proceeding at a lightning-quick pace, but School District 53’s elementary and secondary schools have been showing noticeable improvements over the past five years.
That was one of the observations made recently by assistant superintendent of schools Jim Insley in response to the latest results of the Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA) report. While Insley reported at the June board meeting that there has been significant progress in the district, he admitted there is still room for improvement in a variety of areas.
According to the Ministry of Education’s report, which measures student performance in reading, writing and numeracy annually, more than 50 per cent of Grades 4 and 7 students in the district met expectations in this year’s FSA test.
As a group, more than half of the district’s Grade 4 students are meeting the provincial averages in all three key areas, with 17 per cent exceeding expectations in numeracy this year. Insley said he attributes this progress to the board’s implementation of the Powers of Ten, a progressive learning tool that focuses on “number sense”, introduced to local schools in 2010. For Grade 7 students, things are slightly grimmer.
Eighteen per cent of the students are not yet writing at expectation. On the bright side however, 73 per cent are meeting expectations in numeracy.
This year’s tests also reveal that overall, girls are finding more success in school than boys, and aboriginal students’ results have improved perhaps most dramatically. “Our aboriginal students are getting stronger and our schools are headed in the right direction,” Insley said.“We know as long as we keep engaging our students we will continue to see improvements.”
In terms of strategic planning to improve student literacy, Insley said the schools will continue to implement “holistic” programs including Smart Reading, One to One and Six + One Writing Traits. “We’re a small district so we can’t work on everything at once. We had a real focus on improving our math scores a few years ago and now we are shifting our focus to literacy. We have a strong teaching staff, many of whom have taken on a leadership role and we’re pleased with what’s happening so far.”
The Fraser Institute’s use of the test scores has also drawn considerable fire from teachers and parents, who claim the testing does not properly reflect the learning styles of many students, particularly First Nations children.
Insley said he considers the tests a tool to help teachers and the school board troubleshoot weak areas in the curriculum to help build the students’ skill levels.
“Our goal is to help the students succeed. The FSA is an important tool for us because it determines how well students are meeting core provincial learning outcomes so parents and teachers can work together to develop strategies for students that require extra support.”
Insley noted that he is aware the Fraser Institute has used the tests on a comparative basis, but said that is definitely not the board’s intention.
“We can only compare ourselves to ourselves,” he said. “We’re improving. And the way I see it, as long as we’re improving we’re doing okay.”
Erin Christie
Oliver Chronicle
