Alberta’s mandatory early reading screeners are showing strong results, but the expansion continues to clash with the longstanding use of the Fountas and Pinnell system and concerns over workload and support for teachers.
The initiative began during the pandemic, when University of Alberta professor George K. Georgiou was among a group of professionals tasked by Alberta Education to help update the English language arts curriculum and standardize assessments.
“In 2020, I was seconded to Alberta Education to create a new English language arts curriculum for the province when COVID-19 started,” Georgiou said. “We were the only ones at that point who had any kind of data to estimate the impact of COVID-19 on student achievement.”
He said divisions needed assessments that were quick, valid and free, since commercial systems would have cost millions. Georgiou and several international researchers secured permission for Alberta schools to use CASTLES, CC3, Letrasound and phonological awareness tasks, along with new Alberta-specific norms.
Those tools now form the bones of the province’s screening package for kindergarten to Grade 3. Grades 1 through 3 are screened in fall, winter and spring, while kindergarten is screened in winter.
With that said, some divisions are still dealing with change. Even though the province removed Fountas and Pinnell — a popular guided‑reading program that assesses students using levelled books instead of testing phonics or decoding — from its approved list, many divisions continue to use it.
Holy Spirit Catholic’s St. Francis Junior High in Lethbridge says it “relies heavily on the Fountas and Pinnell Levelled Literacy Program.” St. Paul Education, Horizon School Division, Peace River School Division, Prairie Land, Foothills, and Northern Gateway also reference Fountas and Pinnell, or Levelled Literacy Intervention, in their literacy plans.
Alberta Education warns the tool misidentifies struggling readers because it measures performance on levelled books rather than decoding skills. Georgiou said resistance often stems from previous investment, not research.
“Some divisions protested when Fountas and Pinnell was removed because they had invested heavily in it and didn’t want to admit it was ineffective,” he said.
Divisions that replaced Fountas and Pinnell and fully adopted screening have seen sharp gains. Georgiou said he found that the Calgary Board of Education reduced the number of struggling readers from about 32 per cent in 2023 to about 10 per cent two years later. He added Fort Vermilion School Division dropped from “more than 50 per cent” to “less than 20 per cent.”
A provincial survey found 73.6 per cent of 3,100 teachers believed the mandatory screeners did not provide meaningful instructional value without additional supports. ATA president Jason Schilling said the province’s model limits teacher autonomy and does not reflect the realities of classroom practice.
“Teachers should be allowed to use their professional judgment to choose diagnostic tools that best suit the needs of their students,” he said.
Georgiou said standardized screening is necessary to ensure students are not overlooked. He said research shows teachers reliably recognize only the strongest and weakest readers, while many at‑risk students fall in the middle.
“The in-between group is where their estimations are not accurate,” he said.
He said that early identification is essential because evidence-based interventions work consistently across regions.
“Ninety-five per cent of kids can learn to read,” Georgiou said. “The question is: why aren’t we doing the right things?”
This report was first published Jan. 17, 2026.