A new education bill would make provincially mandated screening tests in literacy and numeracy codified in law -- a first for Alberta government assessments.
Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides says the early years screening tests, which were first introduced in 2022, help teachers identify students with deficits early on.
"Teachers can then give targeted support before the problem becomes bigger," Nicolaides said at a news conference at the legislature on Monday afternoon. "This means small issues don't turn into big ones, and students can get the help when they need it most in those early formative years."
However, critics of the government's blanket testing approach say the screening tests are a waste of teachers' time, and tell them little they don't already know about children struggling with literacy and numeracy.
"This to me is ... almost a slap in the face to teachers, saying, 'We don't trust you to make good decisions for your students,'" said University of Lethbridge education professor Richelle Marynowski, who has studied teacher perceptions of the screening tests. "And my comeback might be, 'Well, if I only had a class of 17 instead of 32, I would be able to do this very well.'"
Bill 6, the Education (Prioritizing Literacy and Numeracy) Amendment Act 2025, No. 2, would legally obligate public, Catholic, francophone, charter and independent schools to administer screening tests annually to all students in kindergarten to Grade 3. The government plans to expand testing to Grade 4 and Grade 5 students next school year, but that wouldn't be part of the Education Act yet.
Government officials said other long-running standardized tests in the province, such as diploma exams and provincial achievement tests, are required by provincial policy, but not written into law.
If passed, Bill 6 would also require schools and school divisions to report screening test results to parents, and to the education minister. The screening takes place at the beginning of the school year, or midyear, or at both times, depending on the grade and the student.
The College of Alberta School Superintendents and Dyslexia Canada have voiced support for the bill.
"Legislating this practice is an important step toward making sure that early screening becomes a lasting part of how we support every child's right to learn to read," read a statement from Dyslexia Canada executive director Alicia Smith in the government news release.
The text of Bill 6 says the minister may request personal information about the students being screened from school boards.
Nicolaides said that measure is to ensure students identified as struggling are receiving targeted help from school staff.
Results from provincial exams are reported to the government in aggregate.
The legislation comes on the heels of a contract dispute between 51,000 public, Catholic and francophone teachers and their employers. Teachers went on strike Oct. 6 over pay that they said did not keep pace with inflation, and because of inadequate support for students in sometimes overflowing classrooms.
Last week, the government introduced and passed Bill 2, which ordered teachers back to work, imposed a contract on them that 90 per cent of Alberta Teachers' Association (ATA) members had rejected, and used the notwithstanding clause to limit the association's power to try and fight the bill in court.
There was $11 million in this year's provincial budget to pay for school staff to work with students identified as having deficits, and the government says that amount will rise to $15 million per year by 2027-28.
More than 2,400 schools in Alberta receive provincial funding, which was budgeted for $9.9 billion this year.
NDP education critic Amanda Chapman says the money provided to help children with learning deficits is nowhere near what schools need to hire enough staff.
"The assessments don't do anything to help the kids who need help," she said. "What we need is more resources in the classroom. We need to bring class sizes down so that teachers have more time to spend with their students."
In a statement, ATA president Jason Schilling said teachers believe the screening tests, many of which require one-on-one time with each student, take too much time away from student learning.
"Without support for students afterwards, these screeners are nothing more than government bureaucracy," he said.
Schilling also questioned the timing of the legislation.
Marynowski, who surveyed and interviewed teachers about the screening tools for the ATA, said teachers found that the tests added little new information about students' struggles to their in-class observations, yet consumed up to a week of school to administer.
One of the math instruments identifies where students are struggling, but doesn't help teachers understand how best to address the problems, she said.
Marynowski compared the bill to a health minister ordering CT and MRI scans and bloodwork for every Albertan annually, just in case something might be wrong.
She said she also found that young students often became distressed when they didn't know how to answer the screening questions, particularly if the teacher stopped the test early.
"There is actually legitimate emotional and psychological damage that is happening to students because of these assessments," Marynowski said. "And I think those consequences mean that we should not have these at all."
Although teachers have said the tests are unfair to English language learners, Nicolaides said schools can opt children out when screening isn't appropriate.
Should the bill pass, the law would take effect during the 2026-27 school year.