January 5, 2020
School District No. 43 (Coquitlam) will be conducting the Foundation Skills Assessment in January and February, in accordance with the School Act.
The Foundation Skills Assessment measures literacy and numeracy skills set out in provincial curricula and is only one source of the data that teachers and the district use to establish comprehensive evidence of student achievement in the Coquitlam School District.
The FSA continues to:
• assess reading, writing and numeracy
• contain both written and on-line components
It includes:
• a classroom collaboration activity which helps students choose between two reading themes
• an updated on-line portion which includes clicking and dragging, highlighting, selecting from a drop-down menu or entering a numerical response
• two self-reflection components, one at the end of the booklet and one at the end of the on-line portion.
The Foundation Skills assessment does NOT measure any outcomes from the Grades 4 or 7 curriculum. It is a cumulative review of outcomes taught in K - 3 or K - 6.
As a provincially prescribed assessment, all Grade 4 and Grade 7 students are expected to participate in the FSA. There are specific exemptions identified by the Ministry regarding students who have previously written the FSAs at that grade level, some students with IEPs and some students receiving EAL support.
A parent/guardian wishing to request that a student be excused from participating in the 2021 FSA can do so under the following exemptions as set out by the Ministry of Education:
• Extenuating circumstances
