Province’s ninth-grade math scores take a tumble with calculator-free testing
Newly released provincial exam scores show Grade 9 students struggled with a new mental math portion of the test.
Just half of ninth-graders who wrote the math provincial achievement test last spring passed a new calculator-free segment that requires students to plow through 20 questions in 20 minutes, according to a report released by Alberta Education Thursday.
Three-quarters of the Grade 9 students passed the second part of the test, in which calculators are permitted.
“I fully expected this to happen,” Education Minister David Eggen said in a Thursday interview.
“We saw the same phenomenon take place in the Grade 6 results after the no-calculator portion was introduced and, lo and behold, this year, the Grade 6 results ... have gone up a lot.”
The number of students who passed a 15-question, no-calculator part of the Grade 6 provincial achievement test administered last spring was 72 per cent — up seven percentage points from the 2016-17 school year.
Like the Grade 6 results, Eggen expects the Grade 9 scores to recover in time.
Across the province, 59 per cent of Grade 9 students passed the math provincial achievement test, which is an eight percentage point drop from the number of students who passed the previous year.
In the government’s data, students who do not write provincial exams because they are absent or have a disability are counted among those who did not pass the exam.
Eggen introduced new mental math components to the Grade 6 and Grade 9 provincial achievement tests to address some parent and educator concerns that children weren’t learning enough basic mathematics.
The proposed new K-4 math curriculum includes changes such as introducing fractions earlier and explicitly requiring elementary students to memorize multiplication tables.
Provincial achievement test results were released Thursday by the ministry of education.
MATH EXAM CHANGING
This year, students writing math diploma exams will complete a new written portion in addition to multiple-choice questions.
Eggen said the addition should help students improve their results by earning partial marks if they show their work but end up with the wrong answer.
The reports released Thursday show high school students who wrote the Math 30-1 diploma exam had an average score of 67 per cent, the highest result in five years. Likewise, 77.8 per cent of students passed the exam, which was also a five-year high.
Students must write diploma exams to pass academic Grade 12 level classes. The exams count for 30 per cent of their final grade.
Across all subjects, the proportion of students who passed provincial achievement tests and diploma exams rose compared to the previous year, as did the proportion of students who achieved “excellence,” which is a grade of 80 per cent or higher.
The provincial three-year high school graduation rate stayed flat at 78 per cent, but the dropout rate fell to 2.3 per cent from three per cent.
Grade 6 students also excelled in English language arts, science, social studies and French, achieving five-year highs in those subjects.
The exam results come with the caveat that comparisons between years should be made with caution because exam formats and curriculum can change, and students displaced by natural disasters are often exempt.
EDMONTON RESULTS
Students in Edmonton’s public and Catholic schools also had dipping Grade 9 math exam marks and rebounding Grade 6 results.
Although Edmonton public’s English 30-1 diploma exam results improved, they lagged provincial averages and Grade 9 English pass rates hit a five-year low. That may be because more than one quarter of students are designated as English language learners, superintendent Darrel Robertson said.
Robertson called on the provincial government to restore seven years of extra funding for students learning English, up from the current five years.
Edmonton public students posted strong results in high school sciences, while Edmonton Catholic students were either on par with the provincial average, or a little bit lower.
Robertson said provincial exam results are just one of numerous ways schools gauge and track how well students are learning.
“We have excellent teachers who are constantly working to find interventions to help kids be successful in all subject areas,” Robertson said.
The Edmonton Catholic school board is expected to discuss its results at a board meeting next week.