Supporting using data for instructional decision-making in British Columbia middle schools
Subject
Abstract
This project focuses on supporting teachers in the middle years to adopt the practice of using standardized oral reading fluency assessments and planning reading interventions in British Columbia. By examining the historical context of literacy assessment and initial teacher training, we see why this is currently not a common practice. However, recent developments of the three provincial human rights commissions’ reports on the injustice of reading failure across Canada, and the British Columbia Ministry of Education and Child Care’s 2025 kindergarten screening mandate, there is a fresh interest in the practice. This project hopes to seize the moment of this public conversation by outlining the benefits to screening for reading difficulties in Grades 6,7, and 8. Informed by considerations of effective professional development, the project provides evidence-based strategies to implement screeners, data-mobilization, and interventions in middle years classrooms across British Columbia.