The Government of Yukon and BC Ministry of Education recently identified errors in Foundation Skills Assessment data provided by BC. These assessments are written at grades four and seven level and measure student progress in reading, writing and numeracy.
The Department of Education identified an error in the 2017–18 Foundation Skills Assessment data, which did not include the number of Yukon students identified as “Unknown”, indicating they did not take the exam. The BC Ministry of Education was immediately notified and confirmed this error in the results for the 2017–18 and 2018–19 school years. Yukon and BC have been working jointly since June 2019 to verify as well as correct the data. Updated results are now available and confirmed.
The incorrect results for 2017–18 were previously published on the Government of Yukon Education webpage. Results were also provided to the Council of Yukon First Nations and the Office of the Auditor General of Canada for inclusion in the recent audit report titled Kindergarten Through Grade 12 Education in Yukon. The Government of Yukon has since shared the corrected results for 2017–18 online and with the Council of Yukon First Nations, and has advised the Office of the Auditor General of Canada.
It is important that all students, parents, Yukon First Nations and partners in education are confident in our data on how students are performing. We worked quickly with the BC Ministry of Education to resolve the issue and correct the results. We have notified those that have received this data, and we will continue to work closely with BC to improve our data sharing and reporting processes going forward.
Minister of Education Tracy-Anne McPhee
The Foundation Skills Assessments are issued by the BC Ministry of Education and written by students in Yukon.
When students complete the assessments, all results are collected by the BC Ministry of Education and then provided to the Government of Yukon.
“Unknown” refers to students who did not take the exam. This includes students who are unavailable and those who are exempted from participating; for example, if they have different learning needs and are unable to complete the tests. This was about nine per cent of grade four and grade seven students in 2017–18 and 2018–19.
The BC Ministry of Education has also provided the corrected 2018–19 data and the Government of Yukon is taking steps to review the data and will be sharing it publicly and with partners.
Matthew Cameron
Cabinet Communications
867-393-7136
matthew.cameron@gov.yk.ca
Kyle Nightingale
Communications, Education
867-336-0653
kyle.nightingale@gov.yk.ca