| September 19, 2022 Dear parents of students in Grades 2, 3 & 4 In May of 2022, the provincial government announced that school authorities will be required to administer approved literacy and numeracy screening assessments to all Grade 2 and 3 students in September 2022. Grade 4 students will also be assessed using the same instruments as an extension of the Learning Disruption Grant application, announced in June. Alberta Education will gather aggregate data for norming and to guide school-based intervention programs for identified students. The below are the approved assessments Holy Spirit will be using with students this year: Literacy Assessments | LeNS & CC3 The Letter Name-Sound Assessment (LeNS) assesses a student’s ability to sound out single letters and letter combinations (e.g., n, d, e, ch, ay, oa, oy). The LeNS assessment will be administered to children in Grade 2. The Castles and Coltheart 3 Assessment (CC3) assesses a student’s ability to recall familiar and irregular words (e.g., take, hand, island, cough), and their ability to sound out non-words (e.g., norf, framp, gurve) that were created specially for this assessment and are meant to be fictitious and without meaning. The CC3 assessment will be administered to students in Grades 2, 3 & 4. Please see the “Provincial Literacy Screening Assessments: Parent/Guardian Information Sheet” for more information. Numeracy Assessments The Numeracy Screening Assessments were designed at the Carleton University Centre for Applied Cognitive Research and are rooted in current theory on mathematical cognition and development. The assessment results can be used to help teachers identify and address gaps in their students’ foundational understanding of numbers. The numeracy assessment will be administered to students in Grades 2, 3 & 4. Please see the “Provincial Numeracy Screening Assessments: Parent/Guardian Information Sheet” for more information. Teachers use a variety of assessments at the beginning of every school year to determine their students’ strengths and areas for growth. In addition to some of the assessments our teachers always use, the LeNS, CC3 and numeracy assessments will be used across the division this year. The information provided by all beginning-of-the-year assessments give a detailed understanding of each student’s individual strengths, skills, and areas for growth. As always, teachers will continue to partner with you as parents in your child’s education. We look forward to working with you throughout the year as we continue to support your child in their learning. If you should have any questions about these assessments, or would like any more information, feel free to reach out to your child’s teacher or school administrator(s). Carmen Larsen, Director of Learning Holy Spirit Catholic School Division |
Greg Kostiuk 