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For the record ...

Statements about teacher situation need to have some clarification

In the Feb. 21 issue of The NEWS, Debbie Morran, president of the Mount Arrowsmith Teachers’ Association, provided the teachers’ perspective of the Foundation Skills Assessment.

She also spoke for the B.C. Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils by saying this organization has “called for the removal of the FSA because these tests simply do not support student learning.”

This is actually not the position or the belief of the BCCPAC. BCCPAC is an organization guided by the resolutions of our members who represent parents across this province.

Resolutions that have come before the members and been passed at their Annual General Meetings support the value to parents of the information that the FSAs provide; this includes the snapshot about each of our own students in relation to their peers across the province, and a portrait of the entire B.C. public education system.

BCCPAC does not endorse use of standardized test scores to rank schools, but recognizes that parents across this province have a right to feel secure in the knowledge that whether they live in Qualicum, Vancouver or Fort St. John, their children are receiving a quality education that is of the same content and caliber across this province.

We encourage anyone who has questions about the role of the FSAs in B.C.’s public education system to check out the FSA information tool kit on the BCCPAC website at http://www.bccpac.bc.ca/sites/default/files/resources/fsa_information_kit_for_parents_revised_jan2013.pdf.

Angie Carlyle, Director, BCCPAC

Qualicum Beach

Renate Child, Chair, SD69 DPAC

 

Parksville