Foundation Skills Assessment - FSA

The Foundation Skills Assessment is an annual, province-wide assessment of British Columbia students’ academic skills, and provides a snapshot of how well BC students are learning foundation skills in Literacy and Numeracy. These are assessments for students in Grades 4 and 7. 

The FSA is not optional unless students meet a very narrow set of requirements for exemption.

HCOS will be administering the assessments and families receive a package in order to carry them out at home. Here is some information to help you and your child prepare for the tests.

There are two categories of assessment; the assessments in total take about four hours. Here are the categories:

• Literacy
• Numeracy

The FSA will take your child about 4 hours to complete over a few days during a four week writing period. The assessments include online and written questions and a reflection activity.

The written parts of the assessment will be marked by teachers from HCOS and the results sent to your support teacher.

The results will be based on the following proficiencies:

• Extending – Sophisticated understanding of the concepts and competencies in relation to expected learning.
• Proficient – Complete understanding of the concepts and competencies in relation to expected learning.
• Developing - Partial understanding of the concepts and competencies in relation to expected learning.
• Emerging –Initial understanding of the concepts and competencies in relation to expected learning. 

FSA Questions and Answers