New Grade 12 Literacy Assessment

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The Grade 12 Literacy Assessment is a new, BC wide, graduation requirement that will be first administered in the 2021-2022 school year. It will be written in November, January, April, or June, as chosen by the school. The assessment is not based on course material or curriculum; students are required to demonstrate their ability to think critically and communicate their own ideas about given texts.

The assessment contains three parts, all completed online. Part A requires thinking critically about texts. Students must answer select-response questions, such as multiple choice or matching. Part A also includes longer written responses in the form of a graphic organizer and multi-paragraph composition. In Part B, students must go beyond the texts, which focus on a different topic from Part A. As well as selected-response questions, students choose between two prompts and answer with their own personal interpretation and thoughts in the form of a long piece of writing. The final part is an optional but encouraged self reflection.

To prepare for the assessment, students may watch a series of videos available on BC’s course curriculum website. The videos explain the structure and types of responses in the assessment. Sample assessments are available both online and in print for students’ practice. High quality responses are expected to show deep insights and understanding of the texts and prompt. Students must be able to effectively communicate their thoughts, although their writing is not required to be error-free.

The assessment was designed with input from the Advisory Group on Provincial Assessment (AGPA). It is intended to be neither formative nor summative. The purpose of formative assessments are to reveal students’ strengths and weaknesses so that their learning can be adjusted, while summative assessment measures the results of learning.

Students graduating from British Columbia’s education system should, among other qualities, be literate and able to contribute to society. Assessments are a way to measure whether the system is performing as it should be, as well as find where improvements are needed. External groups, such as employers or post-secondary institutions, have used graduation assessments in the past to select students. AGPA has found that these external needs should not be a large influence on the system, and that its primary focus should be meeting needs from kindergarten to grade 12.