Foundation Skills Assessment

The Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA) is an annual assessment of students' literacy and numeracy skills. FSA is B.C.’s earliest provincial indicator of student performance and provides strong evidence of future student achievement. The FSA is the first time a student writes a provincial assessment.

The purpose of the FSA is to:

  • Provide system level information on student performance
  • Provide districts and schools with information on student performance.
  • Support decision making (interventions, planning, resource allocation, curriculum, policy, research)

Read more about FSA administration

The Ministry of Education and Child Care has developed a short overview for parents and caregivers about the purpose and value of the Foundation Skills Assessment. These resources are available in English, French, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Punjabi, Tagalog, Farsi, and Urdu to make this information as accessible as possible for all parents and caregivers in British Columbia.

A short video has been created for educators to show their students as they prepare to write the FSA. The video answers students' common questions about the FSA and invites them to ask further questions. After watching the video, classes should engage in a collaboration activity that activates their thinking and gets them ready for the Student Response literacy component of the FSA. The collaboration activity materials have been sent to each school in hardcopy but administrators can also access the materials electronically in the e-assessment system (see login information on page 30 of the  Administration Manual). Below you will find sample collaboration activities.

Sample Collaboration Activities

You can find more information about FSA administration, scoring, and marking on the Foundational Skills Assessment (FSA) webpage.