By Gagandeep Ghuman
Published: July 28, 2012
SD 48 ranked sixth among 60 school divisions in the provincial Foundational Skills Assessment overall, the results for which were declared on July 16.
As many as 78 per cent of SD 48 students who wrote the FSA met or exceeded expectations, according to data released by the ministry of education.
Fort Nelson, West Vancouver, and Oknagan Skaha, Revelstoke, and Abbotsford were first five school districts.
FSA is an annual assessment of student achievement in the foundation skills of reading, writing and numeracy.
The purpose of FSA is to help the Ministry of Education, school districts and parents evaluate student achievement in these core skills and to plan for improvement.
More than two-thirds of Grade 4 and Grade 7 students met or exceeded expectations in this year’s Foundational Skills Assessment (FSA).
In the local school district, 1,748 elementary students wrote the exam.
For Grade 4 reading, at least 67 per cent of students met and 11 per cent exceeded expectations.
For Grade 4 writing, students did even better: 77 per cent of students met the expectations.
In Grade 4 numeracy, 65 per cent met and 13 per cent exceeded expectations.
SD 48 performed well on Grade 7 writing and reading.
For Grade 7 writing, 64 per cent met, and 7 per cent exceeded expectations.
For Grade 7 numeracy, the students didn’t perform as well: Only 51 per cent met expectation.
Students performed better on last year’s FSA, records made available by the ministry shows.
Ian Kent, Assistant Superintendent for SD 48, said this year’s FSA results show a generally improving trend line for Grade 4 and 7 students.
But the school board has concerns around the achievement gap between certain specific groups and all of our students.
“Like a lot of other districts, we need to focus on aboriginal student success and success for male students,” he said.
Some school boards have said FSA results shouldn’t be seen as the final arbiter of student performance.
Kent also said the FSA can merely provide just one snapshot of student performance.
“It is irresponsible to just use any one single source of information,” he added.
