Alberta Teachers' Association questions benefit of mandatory screening tests for young students

Teachers delivering new mandatory screening tests to young students said the exercise took a lot of time and effort with questionable benefits, says a new University of Lethbridge study completed for the Alberta Teachers' Association.

Association president Jason Schilling said government-required early years assessments provide minimal value to teachers and cause stress and anxiety to young students — especially those who don't understand the screening questions. 

"The timed nature of these tests creates undue pressure, leading many students to feel like they've failed, which is not something we want students in kindergarten to feel," Schilling said at a news conference in Edmonton Wednesday.

In his 2019 bid to become premier, Jason Kenney and his United Conservative Party campaigned on introducing literacy and numeracy screening in Grades 1, 2 and 3.

Worry about the COVID-19 pandemic interfering with students' learning motivated the government to get a program in place. Beginning in fall 2022, Alberta teachers in Grade 1, 2 and 3 were expected to screen their pupils two to three times a year to identify any struggling kids and track their progress.

Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides announced late last year kindergarten teachers will now be required to screen students, starting this month. In September 2026, screening will expand to Grades 4 and 5.

The province tapped University of Alberta education professor George Georgiou to find appropriate screening tools that could be used province-wide. He also developed guides on how to interpret the results.

While many teachers who participated in the ATA study said the screening results didn't yield any surprises, Georgiou said early tests on letter identification, vocabulary, and knowing what sounds letter groups make can identify 95 per cent of children who will later struggle with reading.

"If you have that information early on, wouldn't you take advantage of it to provide support for the kids so that they don't develop reading difficulties?" he said.

Schilling said another problem is that even once a student's deficits are identified, tight school budgets mean they may not get the targeted help they need.

The ATA-funded study, led by University of Lethbridge education professor Richelle Marynowski, found many teachers frustrated by the tests.

Teachers say tests unfair to English language learners

Marynowski said in an interview that teachers were not being given enough work hours to prepare for, administer, score and submit the test results by the government's deadlines.

The majority of teachers received no training on how to interpret the results, and many said they didn't know how to use the information, the study found. Some said it was disruptive to spend hours administering the one-on-one tests in September, when they were trying to establish class routines.

The study found teachers felt overwhelmed by how many standardized assessments they were required to administer, including tests mandated by the province, school division, and sometimes, their school.

The report also includes anecdotes from teachers describing the tests as unfair to English language learners, and in math, testing students on concepts they had not yet been taught, such as number lines orders of magnitude larger than those they'd seen in class.

Marynowski said there were an "overwhelming" number of stories about young students who cried or got upset when they felt lost during the test, or noticed the teacher was ending it early.

Teachers reported that students with behavioural problems sometimes regressed after the tests.

"I would call it harm," Marynowski said. "Experiencing some emotional harm from writing these assessments – I don't think it's worth it."

Marynowski says it would be more efficient to train teachers to identify the signs of possible learning disabilities, than screen just the students who appear high risk.

Minister Nicolaides defended the screening tests Wednesday, saying he's confident parents and teachers benefit from knowing quickly which students need more help in school.

"I'm really unsure why anyone would object to giving our teachers every possible tool to help their students," he said in a statement.

Nicolaides' statement said global studies show students who begin school with weaker reading skills risk falling behind their peers, and that's what he wants to avoid.

Georgiou, who sourced the tests and created standards to interpret the results, said the screeners are supposed to be quick to administer, and not overwhelming to teachers.

Researchers field tested the new kindergarten test on 560 children and just one became upset during the test, he said.

He said many school divisions are requiring teachers to perform other screening tests, and they should abandon them to avoid duplicating work.

Georgiou said since Alberta adopted the provincial screening tools, B.C. is trying to develop a provincial early screening program, and Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario have obtained permission to use the Australian-developed literacy test now delivered to young Albertan students.