Literacy and numeracy screening

In 2022/23, literacy and numeracy screenings became mandatory for students in grades 1 to 3, to ensure that students receive essential foundational learning in the critical early years of their education. School authorities use screening tools provided or approved by Alberta Education and Childcare. 

Starting in the 2024/25 school year, enhancements to the early years literacy and numeracy screening requirement were made: 

• Mandatory screenings in fall and winter for all students in grades 1 to 3, with a follow-up screening in spring for those students requiring additional supports based on results of the winter assessment.
• Mandatory screenings in winter for all children in Kindergarten.

Beginning in the 2026/27 school year, screenings for all students in grades 4 and 5 are required.

• Mandatory screenings in the fall for all students in grades 4 and 5, with a follow-up screening in the spring for those students requiring additional supports based on the results of the fall assessment
• While not required, additional screening in the winter is recommended

School authorities will decide which literacy and numeracy interventions to provide for students identified by screening as needing extra support.

Literacy and numeracy screening requirements and a complete list of the government provided or approved screeners for Kindergarten to Grade 5:

• General Information Bulletin - Literacy and Numeracy Screening Assessments
• New LearnAlberta

School authorities are required to share students’ literacy and numeracy results at the school authority level in their Annual Education Results Report and engage with stakeholders to set priorities and build their education plan. This approach helps the province, school authorities and schools track successes and continuously improve the quality of education for students. It also supports a transparent, accountable and responsive education system.

Required administration: Winter – dates available in the General Information Bulletin.

Literacy screenings are required in the winter administration each year for all Kindergarten children.

All school authorities must use government-provided or -approved screeners in English or French to screen the foundational literacy skills of Kindergarten children. A list of these screeners is available in the General Information Bulletin.

Since each literacy screener is focused on a different skill, more than one screener is required to help determine whether children need extra assistance with foundational literacy skills. The government-provided literacy screeners for Kindergarten are available free of charge and consist of the following:

• English Letter Name-Sound (LeNS) Test – designed to ensure a student has the foundational phonics skills to develop into an independent reader. In Kindergarten, children are screened on letter names and sounds only.
• Phonological Awareness Screening Test (PAST) is intended to measure children’s letter sound awareness in spoken words (for example children may be asked to tell what the first sound in a word is, such as in the word cat).
• Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) Test, screens for fluency and speed by asking the child to name a set of items as quickly as they can.
• Test Nom et son des lettres (NSLe) is the French equivalent of the English LeNS Test. It screens a child’s ability to name letters and to sound out single letters in French (for example, a, s, r).
• Test de dépistage de la conscience phonologique (TDCP) is the French equivalent of the English PAST Test. It measures children’s phonemic awareness in French spoken words.
• Dénomination rapide sérielle (DRS) des chiffres is the French equivalent of the English RAN Test.

Required administration: Fall, Winter and Spring - dates available in the General Information Bulletin.

Literacy screenings are required for all grade 1 to 3 students in the fall and winter, with an additional screening in the spring for students who required additional supports at the winter screening.

All school authorities must use the government-provided or -approved English or French literacy screeners.  A list of these screeners is available in the General Information Bulletin.

Since each literacy screener is focused on a different skill, more than one screener is required to help determine whether children need extra assistance with foundational literacy skills. The government-provided screeners for literacy are available free of charge and consist of the following:

• Kindergarten literacy screeners are used for the fall administration in Grade 1, which are different compared to the screeners used later in Grade 1:
  • Letter Name-Sound (LeNS) Test/Test Nom et son des lettres (NSLe) screener – for letter names and sounds only.
  • Phonological Awareness Screening Test (PAST)/Test de dépistage de la conscience phonologique (TDCP).
  • Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) Test/Dénomination rapide sérielle (DRS) des chiffres.
• Letter Name-Sound (LeNS) Test – designed to ensure a student has the foundational phonics skills to develop into an independent reader. LeNS screens a student’s ability to sound out single letters and letter combinations (for example, n, d, e, ch, ay, oa, oy).
• Test Nom et son des lettres (NSLe) – the French equivalent of the English LeNS Test. It screens a student’s ability to name letters, sound out single letters and French letter combinations (for example, a, s, r, ou, ch, ain).
• Castles and Coltheart 3 (CC3) Test – an English word-reading screener designed to identify the nature of a student’s reading difficulties. CC3 measures a student’s ability to:
  • recall familiar and irregular words (for example, take, hand, island, cough)
  • sound out non-words (for example, norf, framp, gurve) that were created especially for this assessment and have no meaning
• Test Castle et Coltheart 3 (CC3) – the French equivalent of the English CC3 assessment.

Required administration: fall and spring - dates available in the General Information Bulletin.

Literacy screenings are required for all grade 4 and 5 students in the fall, with an additional screening in the spring for students who required additional supports at the winter screening. While a winter screening is not required, it is encouraged. 

All school authorities must use the government provided or approved English or French literacy screeners.  A list of these screeners is available in the General Information Bulletin.

The government-provided Maze Screeners/ Dépistage par dédale are available free of charge and can be administered in a whole-class setting. Maze/ dédale passages screen for possible reading difficulties and can be used to monitor progress in reading. 

In a maze/ dédale passage, students read a passage silently for 3 minutes. Some words are replaced by a choice of three words (the correct word and two other words that don’t make sense in the sentence). Students are asked to read the passage as fast as they can and to select the words that best fit the sentences.

Required administration: Winter – dates available in the General Information Bulletin.

Numeracy screenings are required in the winter administration each year for all Kindergarten children.

All school authorities must use government-provided or -approved screeners in English or French to screen the foundational numeracy skills of Kindergarten children. A list of these screeners is available in the General Information Bulletin.

The Kindergarten Provincial Numeracy Screener is the government-provided numeracy screener. This tool is available for use free of charge.

The screener is a collection of tasks designed to help teachers understand the child’s foundational knowledge of the number system. The screener consists of tasks that measure core number knowledge, including:

• counting (for example, reciting a number sequence, counting sets of items)
• naming numbers (for example, the child tells the name of the number on a card)
• comparing numbers (for example, the child may be asked to cross out the larger of 2 numbers)

The Kindergarten numeracy screener is available in French and English.

Required administration: fall, winter and spring – dates available in the General Information Bulletin.

Numeracy screenings are required for all grade 1 to 3 students in the fall and winter, with an additional screening in the spring for students who required additional supports at the winter screening.

Numeracy screenings for all grade 4 and 5 students are required in the fall, with an additional screening in the spring for students who required additional supports at the fall screening. While not required, a winter screening is encouraged.

School authorities must use the government-provided or -approved numeracy screeners, available in English and French. A list of these screeners is available in the General Information Bulletin.

The government-provided numeracy screeners are available free of charge and are a collection of tasks designed to help teachers understand their students’ underlying knowledge of the number system, basic number operations and proportional reasoning skills. The screening results can be used to help teachers identify and address gaps in their students’ foundational understanding of numbers.

These tasks identify and focus on core number knowledge:

• counting (for example, counting sets of items, naming the next number in a sequence)
• number identification (for example, writing the numbers after hearing them)
• number patterns (for example, identifying if the numbers presented are in the correct order)
• the order of numbers and the ways numbers are related to each other (for example, placing numbers on a number line)
• number facts (for example, addition and subtraction, multiplication and division)
• fractions (for example, selecting an image that shows ½) 
• number symbols (for example, identifying a dollar sign as $)