Although a statement credited to Education Minister Don McRae that standardized testing is optional was quickly retracted, we wonder if it was a Freudian slip. Are the B.C. Liberals considering a policy change in the face of opposition to the Foundation Skills Assessment that sees Grade 4 and 7 students tested annually in math, reading and writing?
In a statement posted on the Liberal caucus website in response to the NDP鈥檚 stance against the tests, McRae was quoted as saying the B.C. Liberal government supports FSAs 鈥渂ecause parents have a right to know how their children are doing in school.鈥� The 鈥渙ops鈥� part of the statement followed: 鈥淚f they don鈥檛 want their kids to participate, they can opt out by completing a form.鈥�
An Education Ministry spokesman later said that was a mistake. The government still expects every Grade 4 and Grade 7 student to write the yearly tests.
The FSA has its drawbacks, but a provincewide education system needs a way to measure how students and schools are meeting standards. Don鈥檛 ditch it or dilute it unless it can be replaced with something better.
One way to determine the effectiveness of a school or a system is to see how many students finish high school, go on to post-secondary education and embark on careers. But that鈥檚 of little use to those students who fall by the wayside 鈥� problems should be addressed as they occur.
The main flaws are not in the FSA itself, but in how the results are used and interpreted. The Fraser Institute uses the results to publish an annual scorecard of B.C. schools. Many school trustees don鈥檛 like that, and for good reason. The rankings make the results seem like a competition, with some schools looking like winners and others like losers. That鈥檚 potentially harmful 鈥� the goal should not be to determine who are the winners, but to help every student be successful. The FSA should be just one of many tools used in the pursuit of that goal.
The NDP favours randomizing the tests by having them administered to a sample of the students and says that would eliminate school rankings.
Teachers are leery of standardized tests because they can be perceived as performance reviews for individual teachers. The tests are not an accurate gauge of teacher performance. Too many variables are at play. It鈥檚 the job of the principal and other front-line educators to determine a teacher鈥檚 effectiveness and progress.
What sometimes gets lost in the controversy is the largest determining factor in a child鈥檚 educational progress 鈥� the home.
It would be too harsh to say that if your child is doing poorly in school, it鈥檚 because of poor parenting, but there鈥檚 some truth to the statement. Parents have a vital role in education and when they abdicate that responsibility, their children suffer. Caring teachers regularly perform miracles in helping students meet challenges, but no classroom technique or teaching method can compensate for deficiencies in the home.
Parents must see themselves as partners in education. It鈥檚 the parent鈥檚 responsibility, not the teacher鈥檚, to ensure that homework gets done.
Take away the smartphones and give them library cards. Turn off the TV and turn your children on to books. Children who are taught a love for reading fare much, much better in school than those who aren鈥檛.
Be interested in your child鈥檚 education. Have conversations of substance; talk about ideas. Help apply what is taught in school to real-life situations. Your enthusiasm for their education will prevent them from being bored with school.
You don鈥檛 need to wait for standardized tests to ensure your child is succeeding in school.
