Math course ‘crisis’ after 40% of Grade 9s flunk provincial tests
More than 40 per cent of Grade 9 public school students failed their math provincial achievement tests last year — bringing the state of math in Alberta to what parents are calling a “crisis.”
According to data released by the Calgary Board of Education and the Calgary Catholic School District for the 2017-18 school year, math results were among the worst in all core courses, but Grade 9 students in particular struggled to achieve acceptable standards of 50 per cent or more on standardized math tests.
At the CBE, only 59.4 per cent of students achieved acceptable standards in the Grade 9 math provincial achievement test (PAT), meaning that 40.6 per cent failed. At CCSD, 73.4 per cent received 50 per cent or more, meaning up to 26.6 per cent of students failed the test.
Both districts have seen significant drops from 2016-17, with CBE results declining by six per cent in Grade 9 math, and CCSD results decreasing by eight per cent from the previous year.
Provincewide, Grade 9 math was also poor, with only 66.7 per cent of students passing the PAT last year, a more than 10-per-cent drop from 75.5 per cent in 2016-17.
“We are in a state of crisis with math,” said Sarah Bieber of the Kids Come First parent advocacy group.
“But it is the price that we are paying for our kids still not having a mastery of basic math functions,” she said. “It’s disturbing. And there is no way that we should not be able to fix this in Alberta.”
Officials with both the CBE and CCSD blamed the poor Grade 9 math results on last year’s introduction of a “written portion” to the Grade 9 PAT, where students have to show their work and are not allowed to use a calculator.
“Students experienced this as something new and different, something they had not seen before,” said Jeannie Everett, superintendent of learning at the CBE.
“This continues to be an area of focus for us and we have a dedicated math strategy,” she said.
Gary Strother, superintendent at CCSD, explained that “math is a different process right now. But we will continue with a balanced learning approach.”
But Bieber argued that just because students had to show their work and couldn’t use a calculator shouldn’t automatically mean they are doing worse.
If anything, she added, it shows their inability to recall basic math facts like simple multiplication or division without the use of a calculator.
“Kids still have a huge reliance on calculators,” Bieber said.
“But it’s not right. There are so many things in everyday life that you have to figure out quickly, without a calculator. And our kids are just not getting those skills.”
In Grade 6 math, only 74.9 per cent of CBE students achieved acceptable standards while 86 per cent of CCSD students passed that test.
And while that average was higher at Catholic schools, it was still the lowest percentage among test results for core courses.
In Grade 12, Math 30-1 students at the CBE fared better, with 82.9 per cent achieving the acceptable standard.
However, kids who aren’t as strong in math often opt for the simpler Math 30-2 course. And only 75.3 per cent of those students achieved the acceptable standard.
That means as CBE students look to graduate, nearly 25 per cent who generally struggled with math throughout their school years still failed their diploma exam.
Catholic Grade 12 students showed similar struggles in math, with only 77.8 per cent of students passing the Math 30-1 diploma exam and only 74.2 per cent of students passing the Math 30-2 diploma exam.
Grade 9 students at the CBE also scored poorly in social studies and science PATs, with more than 32 per cent of students failing the social studies test and more than 23 per cent of students failing the science test.
Parents also wondered why the province continues to define “acceptable” as a grade as low as 50 per cent, particularly at the Grade 12 level, when most post-secondary programs require grades well above 80 per cent for entry.
“We hear, as well, from many university professors that Alberta students aren’t arriving prepared to do advanced math,” said Bieber, adding that they don’t have the skills they did a generation ago.
Overall, results from 2017-18 aren’t markedly different from those in 2016-17, with only math showing a sharp decline from the previous year.