INNISAIL - The 11,700-student Chinook’s Edge School Division (CESD) will be asking Alberta Education to make changes to the timelines for literacy and numeracy assessments of Grade 1, 2 and 3 students, says associate superintendent Jason Drent.
During the Nov. 5 board meeting, trustees approved a plan to advocate with the province to eliminate one of three assessments (the one in January) and move the September assessment to October.
“We believe that identifying our at-risk students in October, and we understand the reasons behind that, and reassessing our students again at the end of the year, and in particular the ones that are at risk and who still need additional help, makes sense,” Drent told the Albertan.
“The January assessment causes a significant work load on our people and it is significant for our students as well, so we are advocating for the ministry to re-look at the January timeline. We think we can accomplish the same outcome by not necessarily assessing in January.”
The assessments involve both verbal and written testing of the students, with the Grade 1 assessment mostly verbal, he said.
Changing the September assessment to October would allow teachers to get through the busy early weeks of the school year, he said.
“Our teachers spend a lot of time (in September) building structure and routine and community relationships in our classrooms,” he said.
CESD will also be asking the province to provide additional professional development for teachers, and that in the future Alberta Education consult with the College of Albert School Superintendents before implementing changes to the assessment timelines, he noted.
The CESD is headquartered in Innisfail and has schools across the district.
