Teachers in Alberta are asking for more support instead of more testing following a provincial decision to increase the level of testing in the 2024/25 school.
Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) president, Jason Schilling said the decision was quietly made without a press release or press conference on July 5.
In an email 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 ever, students as young as five will now be subjected to provincial standardized testing,” said Schilling in a news conference on July 11. “These are students who are in Kindergarten.”
New provincial assessments are also being added in Grades 4 and 5. According to ATA, this means 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.
Six-year old students will be subjected to six standardized tests in one school year, Schilling noted.
“Most provinces have standardized testing in one grade of elementary school and a number of provinces have none at all,” Schilling said. “Alberta is the least funded school jurisdiction in all of Canada, yet the Alberta government refuses to give schools the resources and support they actually need to support students' learning.”
Instead, the province wants to test them, he added, something that takes away time and energy from teachers who could instead be helping kids.
“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,” said Schilling.
Teachers already know how students are progressing and who might need additional help, he said. They don’t need testing to identify what they already know.
Instead, they’re asking for smaller class sizes and more support for the students who require additional help. A reduction in class sizes would allow for more individual attention to students.
Schilling questioned how much time is left for teaching and learning when so much time is being taken away for testing. Substitute teachers have been provided to help during testing but Alberta has a shortage of substitute teachers, he said.
Schilling said Alberta spends the least per student on public education, resulting in large and growing class sizes, inadequate support for students with special needs, shortages of aides and substitutes, and good teachers leaving the profession.
“While the government claims to have listened to experts, it’s clear they did not hear what actual teachers had to say,” Schilling said. “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.”
