testing & fsa

The scores on the FSA report do NOT count towards student’s report card marks. The FSA scores are based on raw scores on a single test of reading, writing, and numeracy. Report card marks are based on teachers’ professional judgment of a child’s overall progress with evidence drawn from many diverse assessments over the course of the term. Report card marks are a more reliable measure of a child’s progress relative to prescribed curriculum. A child’s FSA score for writing is based on the two pieces of writing in the child’s FSA booklet. Please bear in mind that this was first draft writing only and may not represent the quality of writing a child is able to produce when she or he engages in the whole writing process in the classroom.

The ministry requires that schools send home a child’s FSA scores plus the child’s FSA booklet. However, in the case of the reading and numeracy portions of the test, the booklet does not contain most of the work that the child did to achieve these scores.

For example, in reading, a child would answer 39 multiple-choice questions on the computer and one long-answer question in the booklet. A parent is only able to see the child’s answer to one of 40 questions. Similarly, the numeracy test would consist of 42 questions, 40 multiple choices, and the two written response questions that appear in the booklet. Without seeing the other 40 questions that were machine-scored, it may be difficult to see how a child attained the score reported.

The Ministry of Education told school districts that it would take only about 10 minutes to mark each FSA booklet including one open-ended reading question, two pieces of writing, and two open-ended numeracy questions. If markers were required to work that quickly, they may not have read everything a child wrote. They also did not have time to put comments on the child’s work that would help her or him progress in their learning.

If a child does not write the FSA test, parents receive a blank booklet as required by the ministry. It does not affect the child’s report card and the teacher will have comprehensive assessment information with which to evaluate any child’s progress. If you would like more comprehensive information about your child’s progress in reading, writing, numeracy, or any of the other equally important subject areas, please do not hesitate to contact the teacher. FSA tests, if administered to a random sample of the student population, can be used to broadly identify areas of the curriculum that require revision. However, they are not a reliable measure of an individual student.