Sea to Sky School District parents were placed on the front lines of a long held debate over standardized testing last week.
On Wednesday (Jan. 13), the Sea to Sky Teachers' Association (SSTA) and the B.C. Ministry of Education sent out dueling letters to parents urging support for opposing sides of the heated issue.
"We are putting parents on the front line in this discussion and we hesitate to do that, but we just felt we needed to step up our case on this issue," said Beth Miller, SSTA president, on Friday (Jan. 15). "We would just like parents to be able to take a principled stand and say they disagree with standardized testing."
As some district elementary schools plan to administer Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA) this week, the local teachers' union urged parents to request that their children be exempt on philosophical grounds in a letter to parents of Grade 4 through 7 students last week.
And in an opposing letter from the B.C. Education Ministry, Minister Margaret MacDiarmid stated the FSA is an important tool and appealed for parents' support.
"FSA is part of the provincial government's accountability and responsibility to parents. It is an important building block for your child's future success as a student. Contrary to misinformation, the FSA is not optional," MacDiarmid's letter states.
The SSTA informed parents that many B.C. teachers see as significant shortcomings of the test. Among the perceived drawbacks, the SSTA opposes time dedicated to non-learning activities. Valuable classroom time and resources are being used to administer it, said Miller, beyond the four and a half hours it takes for students to write the test.
"There's some preparation time, as teachers don't want their students, naturally, to go into the tests completely unprepared. So they do teach to the test, to varying degrees."
Teachers also oppose the use of the results by groups like the Fraser Institute to promote private schools at the expense of the public system.
Unlike public schools, private schools don't have to accept all students and those students normally perform better on the FSA, a fact that's reflected in the Fraser Institute rankings, she said, which can be misleading and demoralizing for students and educators.
"The Fraser Institute is a right-wing think tank and part of their agenda is to see an increase in private schools, and we're firmly against that. We want to see the best public education system in the world," Miller said.
The SSTA letter urges parents to consider taking a stand by sending a letter to the District 48 board of trustees seeking exemption for their children.
"You should be aware that, in past years, SD 48 has not honoured these requests," states the letter. "Upon being contacted by the school, you have the right to change your position and allow your child to write the test, or to simply restate that you do not want your child writing the FSA. You also have the right to appeal any decision taken by the board."
Miller said she thinks the District 48 board and administration have a healthy attitude about the proper use of the exam results.
"They use the data to get a sense for how we are relative to the rest of the province, and whether we are improving," she said.
Miller has appealed to school board trustees to allow students to be exempted from taking the exams for "philosophical reasons" at the request of parents. In the past the board has accepted long-term illness and documented cases of "test anxiety" as legitimate reasons to exemption, but District 48 superintendent Dr. Rick Erickson on Friday said the board has so far indicated no desire to allow expanding exemption for philosophical reason.
"The criteria is established by the Ministry of Education and we follow their directive on this," he said.
Erickson did agree that far too much credence is placed on the Fraser Institute rankings, but added since the exam results are public information, no one can control how they are distributed or interpreted.
"You can't really direct how the results are used," Erickson said, adding he thinks even those at the institute understands that the exam results are one of many assessment tools.
"The challenge is that it creates misunderstandings."
