Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA)

The Foundation Skills Assessment is an annual province-wide assessment of all B.C. students’ academic skills in grades 4 and 7, and provides parents, teachers, schools, school districts and the ministry with important information on how well students are progressing in the foundation skills of Literacy and Numeracy.

On this page:

• FSA parent brochures
• Specifications and samples
• Updates for 2023-24 FSA
• Scoring

FSA parent brochure

• English – FSA Parent Brochure (PDF)
• Français – ÉHB-Évaluation des habiletés de base (PDF)

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 2023-24 FSA

• FSA 2023-24 live online administration will be available from October 2 – November 10, 2023
• The Scoring and Score Entry deadline is November 24, 2023
• 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 2023-24 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:
  • A set of provincial exemplars using the 2023-24 student responses for the written response questions in literacy and numeracy made available in late October 2023
  • Information for Organizing Scoring (PDF)
  • Scoring Guides
  •  Scoring support via email
• 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 2023 (PDF, 1MB) provides evidence for the reliability, validity, and fairness of the FSA marking process
  
  Past Reports:
  • FSA Provincial Marking Monitoring Report 2022 (PDF)
  • FSA Provincial Marking Monitoring Report 2021 (PDF)
  • FSA Provincial Marking Monitoring Report 2020 (PDF)
  • FSA Provincial Marking Monitoring Report 2019 (PDF)