On the first Friday of summer break, the Government of Alberta quietly released changes to provincial testing for the upcoming school year, according to the Alberta Teachers’ Association.
In an e-mail to school boards, the government announced all schools will be required to administer provincially mandated numeracy and literacy tests to students in Grades 1 to 3 up to three times each school year. For the first time in Alberta, Kindergarten students will also now be subjected to standardized testing.
Students need more supports not more tests, says ATA President Jason Schilling.
“When so many kids are falling through the cracks, we need to be giving them a safety net instead of measuring how fast they’re falling. Teachers don’t need a test to identify which students are struggling; they need smaller classes and more supports to get those kids additional help,” notes Schilling.
New provincial assessments are also being added in Grades 4 and 5, meaning the students who struggle the most could be subjected to as many as 32 standardized tests by the time they leave elementary school. The previous total was 10.
Schilling adds the time and energy required by teachers to administer tests takes away from time teachers could actually be helping kids.
“While the government claims to have listened to experts, it’s clear they did not hear what actual teachers had to say. Politicians and bureaucrats who have little knowledge and experience of the realities of Alberta’s classrooms might think this is a great idea, but teachers, who will end up spending hours administering tests and preparing students for them in September, January and June, do not,” says Schilling. “All this is being foisted on the same teachers who are still trying to implement new curriculum across multiple grades and subject areas.”
A better approach, Schilling adds, is to respect teachers’ professional judgment and allow them to determine which students could benefit from an assessment and when, rather than repeatedly testing every student.
According to the ATA, more fundamentally, the province needs to stop what they call distractions and deal with the real issue in public education — “the gross lack of appropriate funding.”
“Alberta spends the least per student on public education in Canada. That’s why we have large and growing class sizes, inadequate supports for students with special needs, shortages of aides and substitutes and good teachers leaving the profession. Alberta is not going to test its way out of underfunding. It’s time our provincial leaders got their priorities right,” says Schilling.
