Grade 7 reading scores lowest in 5 years

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Grade 7 reading scores lowest in 5 years
Education minister acknowledges test results not encouraging
Janet SteffenhagenVancouver Sun

Friday, November 10, 2006

Test results suggest the reading skills of B.C.'s public school children are no better today than they were five years ago, despite an intensive, government-driven focus on literacy provincewide.

The reading scores of Grade 7 students were lower in the 2005-06 Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA) than they have been in the past five years, with only 73 per cent of students meeting expectations, down from 77 per cent in 2004-05 and 76 per cent in 2001-02.

The Grade 4 reading scores rose to 80 per cent from 79 the year before, but they were also at 80 per cent in 2001-02 and 2003-04. Writing scores fell by three percentage points in both grades, to 90 per cent of Grade 4s and 87 per cent of Grade 7s meeting expectations.

The FSA is a provincewide test of reading, writing and numeracy delivered each spring to Grades 4 and 7. The results from tests written in May were released Thursday.
Education Minister Shirley Bond acknowledged the results were not encouraging, but said they should be viewed within a larger context that shows B.C. students generally do well in national and international tests of reading and math.

She also noted the results contain pockets of good news -- such as numeracy scores that indicate 66 per cent of aboriginal students are meeting expectations, up three percentage points from last year and eight percentage points from 2001.

As well, Grade 4 girls showed a two-percentage-point improvement in reading, she added.

But overall, the scores show there is still work to be done, Bond said, noting the purpose of the tests is to help educators determine how they can better serve their students. "We have to ask ourselves, which [initiatives] are working and which ones are not ... what are we going to do to actually see those scores moving up."
Jinny Sims, president of the B.C. Teachers' Federation, said the flat-line results support her union's position that the FSA is a waste of time and money. If the government is serious about improving literacy, it should direct funds to teacher-librarians and support for special-needs children, she said.

"Just testing children doesn't improve their learning," Sims added.

The fact that fewer students participated in the FSA last year suggests parents are also questioning the value of standardized tests, she said. But Bond blamed the two-percentage-point drop in participation rates on a union campaign last spring that urged parents to pull their children from the tests.

That campaign worked against a growing demand from parents around the province for more accountability from the school system, Bond said.

West Vancouver students continued to score top marks in all three basic skills, while Surrey had the lowest score in the Lower Mainland in five of six categories. Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows had the lowest writing score for Grade 7s.

A ministry release says B.C. has spent more than $55 million promoting literacy since 2001, including $12 million for public libraries and $10 million for school textbooks.