Secondary Literacy Assessment

The Department of Education, Early Learning and Culture passed along news of this opportunity for parents and guardians to learn more about the upcoming pilot of the Secondary Literacy Assessment:

The Secondary Literacy Assessment (SLA) is a cross-curricular literacy assessment that measures reading and writing outcomes completed by the end of Grade 9 and is administered to students in Grade 10.  It is an online, web-based assessment.

The SLA will continue in the pilot phase in 2015-2016 and all high schools have been invited to participate.  Administration of the assessment will occur on March 31, 2016.  The first cohort of students to participate in a full administration will be in 2017.  Students who are unsuccessful in Grade 10 will have an opportunity to retake the assessment the following year. Should a student be unsuccessful after two attempts, he/she will be required to successfully complete a replacement course that targets the cross-curricular literacy skills assessed in the SLA. Successful completion of the SLA or the replacement course is a requirement for the 2019 graduation cohort (graduation class of 2019).

Information on what skills are being assessed, sample assessments and sample answer booklets can be found by visiting the Department of Education, Early Learning and Culture website.

The MISTEST link on that page is particularly interesting, as it allows one to take an online sample assessment.