Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA)

Last updated on March 13, 2026

2026-2027 Administration dates

  • Assessment administration in schools runs from: September 28 – November 6, 2026
  • Scoring and score entry deadline: December 4, 2026
  • Identifying score entry errors and students no longer enrolled: December 4, 2026

The Foundation Skills Assessment is an annual provincewide assessment of all B.C. students’ academic skills in Grades 4 and 7. It provides parents, teachers, schools, school districts and the ministry with important information on students' progress in the foundation skills of literacy and numeracy.

On this page

Important resources

FSA parent brochure

Specifications and samples

  • FSA Specifications: Information on how the FSA will be assessed
  • FSA Samples: Sample collaboration activity and sample questions, for teacher and student review 

Updates for 2025-2026 FSA

  • FSA 2025-2026 live online administration will be available from September 28 – November 6, 2026
  • The scoring and score entry deadline is December 4, 2026
  • Students will respond to online questions and questions in paper student booklet
  • In order for students to demonstrate problem solving skills in numeracy, the numeracy written response questions may require students to solve problems in multiple parts and steps
  • The FSA reports for individual students will be ready for use by teachers and students and to share with parents, along with the students’ writing response booklets, once score entry is complete. This report will include student performance on proficiency levels with descriptive, strength-based language 

Scoring

  • All written response questions for the FSA will be scored at the school or district level. Funding will be provided to support scoring activities
  • The ministry provides support for scoring/training that includes:

  • The ministry monitors district and school based scoring of the written-response sections of the FSA by re-scoring a sample of student response booklets from each district and a number of independent schools. The FSA Provincial Marking Monitoring Report 2025 (PDF, 913KB) provides evidence for the reliability, validity, and fairness of the FSA marking process

Past reports:

Contact information

Email
Educ.FsaScore@gov.bc.ca