ZWAAGSTRA: Early student screening good first step but it’s not enough

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The Alberta government plans to require all schools in the province to administer screening tests annually to Kindergarten-to-Grade 3 students. While screening tools are often used by Alberta teachers, Bill 6 would codify this practice into law.

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Screening tools are diagnostic tests to assess the reading and math skills of students. To ensure results are reliable, the same tests are administered to all students in the same grade. This is a sensible move because it’s important to diagnose learning disabilities early so teachers can design appropriate programming. When disabilities go undiagnosed, students slip through the cracks.

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Foundational skills

Beyond that, however, it’s helpful to have a clear assessment of foundational skills such as reading, writing and math. By testing all Kindergarten-to-Grade 3 students, the province can identify which schools are seeing academic growth among students on a yearly basis and which ones are struggling. This makes it possible to target additional resources to schools that need support.

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Unfortunately, critics were quick to denounce the government’s plan. The Alberta Teachers’ Association argues that since teachers already know how their students are doing, screening tests are redundant. Other critics say the provincial government should open the spending taps.

The problem with these arguments is they overlook the important role of standardized testing in student learning. While it’s true most teachers develop a good understanding of their students once they get to know them, it’s unrealistic to assume every teacher is equally skilled at designing accurate assessments. And in Canada, there’s no correlation between per-student spending and the academic achievement of students.

For example, even though per-student spending is lower in Alberta than in other provinces, according to the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results, Alberta ranks first among the provinces in reading and science and second in math. Thus, there’s no reason to assume opening the spending taps will help improve academic achievement.

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Interestingly, Alberta used to have a rigorous standardized test at the Grade 3 level. Back in 2013, the Redford government abolished the Grade 3 provincial achievement tests and set the province’s education system back by removing an important accountability tool that measured student achievement. While the Smith government’s plan for mandatory screening tools for K-3 schools is a welcome development, it would have been better if the Grade 3 tests had never been cancelled in the first place.

Screening is non-partisan

This is also not a partisan issue. B.C. and Manitoba, which both have NDP governments, recently announced they plan to administer screening tests to all early-year students.

But again, mandatory screening is a good first step but it isn’t enough. The government should get serious about promoting evidenced-based instructional methods, which means mandating structured literacy instruction (also known as phonics) as the primary reading instruction method in the province. And it should ensure all students experience a knowledge-rich learning environment. Research shows a strong correlation between reading comprehension and background knowledge about a topic. The more you know about a topic, the more easily you can read and understand an article about that topic. Rewriting curriculum guides, so they focus more on knowledge, is a key long-term reform.

Thus, while it’s good that the Smith government plans to mandate annual screening tests, there’s no reason to stop improving Alberta’s education system.

Michael Zwaagstra is a senior fellow with the Fraser Institute.

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