Parents Get Information on Literacy Assessment

Grade 6 students in Nova Scotia will write the province's first elementary literacy assessment next week. Parents are getting information in advance to help them understand the importance of the assessment.

"Keeping parents informed and involved in their children's education is part of our Learning for Life plan," said Education Minister Jamie Muir. "We're sending pamphlets home with Grade 6 students so their parents understand the purpose and nature of the literacy assessment."

For the first time, every parent will receive his or her child's results. The results will be sent home in February.

The assessment will measure reading and writing skills that Grade 6 students have developed. It will also identify struggling students so they can be given more support.

All students across the province will write the assessment in English from Tuesday, Oct. 14 to Friday, Oct. 17. They will spend an hour to an hour and a half working on sections of the assessment on each of the four days.

Students in the Acadian school board will also write the assessment in French from Monday Oct. 20 to Thursday, Oct. 23. The board requested that its students write the assessment in both languages.

During the assessment, students will read a variety of materials and answer questions based on those readings. The materials include a short story, a poem, visual media texts such as an advertisement, and information texts such as a brochure. Students will also write a letter and a story.

"Assessments like this one give us information so we can invest in the right areas and continuously improve our ability to teach our students," said Mr. Muir. "They also make our entire system accountable to students and their parents."

Nova Scotia teachers helped develop the assessment and it was field-tested with students across the province. Training for every teacher in the province who will administer the assessment began in May and will be complete by the end of this week. More than 100 teachers will help mark the assessments in late November.

The department also used feedback from the Nova Scotia Teachers Union, Black Educators Association, Nova Scotia Federation of Home and School Associations, a Reading Recovery specialist, numerous elementary teachers and several parents and students who reviewed the assessment in April.

Distribution of the pamphlets began last week in schools unaffected by Hurricane Juan. It will continue as students return to school in affected areas. The pamphlet for parents is also available at http://plans.ednet.ns.ca .