Province legislates reading, math assessments of young Alberta students

Alberta Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides speaks to media on Nov. 3, 2025, at the Alberta Legislature in Edmonton.

The provincial government announced Monday it plans to legislate the requirement of assessments of the reading and math skills of young Alberta students.

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Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides introduced legislation to amend the Education Act to require school boards and the operators of early childhood services to screen students from Kindergarten to Grade 3 to assess their reading and math levels.

The province describes the screenings as short, simple activities that determine where a student is at in their development that would help schools identify additional support for them if needed. It said school authorities will be required to give results of the assessments to parents and to the education ministry.

Previously, such assessments were required in policy, while reports about them to parents was encouraged in policy. The education minister will now provide an annual report on the screenings.

When asked why the assessments needed to be codified, Nicolaides said legislating them would establish standardization across the province and would “help ensure this is a matter of significant priority.”

“I think we can all agree that getting the foundations right in those early, formative years should be one of the most significant objectives of our entire education system,” he said Monday afternoon at the legislature, calling it “critical and essential that it be established in law so that we retain our focus and all successive future governments retain that focus on ensuring success in literacy and numeracy.”

Nicolaides said the changes to the act will help schools “find and support students who need extra help.”

“If a student is struggling with reading or math, the screener will show it and identify it early,” he said during his address to media before taking questions. “Teachers can then give targeted support before the problem becomes bigger. 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.”

When passed, the changes to the act will come into effect next school year.

The assessments will be required by all school authorities, be they public, separate, francophone, charter or independent.

The legislation comes less than a week after the government used the notwithstanding clause to pass back-to-work legislation to end a three-week strike by the province’s 50,000-plus teachers.