2008 FSA Changes and Revisions

Effective September 2007.

Changes and Revisions

  • FSA will be administered from February 4 to 15, 2008.
  • Students will respond to multiple-choice sections of 2008 FSA online, and will continue to respond to written questions on paper.
  • Revisions have been made to the FSA Table of Specifications, Sample Questions and Scoring Guides to reflect the earlier administration dates.
  • Content of the 2008 FSA has been adjusted to accommodate the February administration dates. In Reading and Writing, adjustment has been made to ensure that the reading materials and the questions are appropriate. The Grade 4 Numeracy will continue to assess learning outcomes from K-4; the Grade 7 Numeracy will continue to address learning outcomes from Grade 7 and from previous years. Generally, if a concept has been introduced in Grades 2/3 or 5/6 and is expanded upon in Grades 4 or 7, the concept is considered to be valid for inclusion on the 2008 assessment.
  • All written questions for the 2008 FSA will be scored at the district level. Funding will be allocated to support scorer training. The Ministry will offer nine regional training sessions throughout the province. Training materials will be posted on the web.
  • New baseline for student performance will be established for 2008 FSA. Reports for individual students will be ready to send home, along with the students' written response booklets, by the end of March. School reports will be ready before the end of the school year.
  • A sample of FSA papers from public and independent schools will be rescored in a summer monitoring marking session.