Vancouver, B.C. – (January 30, 2009) – The Vancouver Board of Education is opposed to the misuse of the data collected from the Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA) tests to rank schools in British Columbia.
The testing of reading, writing and numeracy through the FSA produces data that represent a snapshot of student achievement in relation to particular areas of the provincial curriculum.
The basis for the ranking is limited to two curriculum areas—Language Arts and Mathematics—in two grade levels. Any valid ranking that proposes to assess schools against one another would have to take into account a much broader range of curriculum areas, as well as many other factors that contribute to the meaningful aspects of schools.