The Government of Alberta is hoping to help students and teachers go above and beyond when it comes to mathematics.
Earlier this month, Alberta Education announced a Future Ready initiative that, starting in 2018, would require high school students to show their work on diploma exams, and require Grade 9 students to complete a non-calculator portion of their mathematics Provincial Achievement Test (PAT).
“I don't know if that is much of a change for students, because they would already be showing their work when they are doing the problems in class… so I can't see that as being much of a change,” said Mary Anne Penner, Lakeland Catholic School District (LCSD) board chair.
Alberta Education has allocated $2 million toward the initiative through its existing budget. This would include the $2,000 made available for teachers looking to expand their knowledge and confidence in teaching mathematics through post-secondary courses.
This year, 28.7 per cent of all LCSD Grade 6 students who took the mathematics PATs scored below the acceptable standard, while 71.3 per cent hit the acceptable standard, and 7.6 per cent were at the standard of excellence.
Grade 9 students within the LCSD scored fairly well in the same test, with 23.7 per cent below acceptable, 76.3 per cent acceptable, and 20.1 per cent received a standard of excellence.
“I think that our schools have done well in math and in the teaching of math. I think we have been ahead in a lot of cases with math instruction and the students do very well,” said Penner.
The school district's three-year plan will continue to improve student learning in all courses, including mathematics.
“We are always working on addressing and improving what our students are learning and how they are learning in mathematics and in literacy and so forth, so that they will be ready to meet the demands of the world that they are going to be moving into,” explained Penner.
She noted that the provincial initiative might be addressing student life outside of their school.
“We often hear that the students don't know things like the timetables, and that once they are out into the workplace they are having trouble making simple calculations that would be necessary to make change. Maybe that is part of what they are trying to address, is that when they go out into the real world, where they may not always have a calculator,” she said.
The details of the initiative haven't been released, so how the province plans to adjust the school curriculum has yet to be seen.
“I think there is a place for memorization, which is probably what (the government) is looking at. I am not sure how far they are going to go with that, or what exactly is going to be expected of them, whether they are looking at simple calculations or more complex calculations,” said Penner, adding she is interested to see “exactly what the plans are and how they intend to improve the math curriculum.”
“At this point, it is a little too new. We would need more details on a lot of these programs,” said Mandi Skogen, board chair for Northern Lights Public Schools (NLPS).
She added even though the government has not yet released the details, they welcome any support they do have to offer.
“We will definitely take advantage of what we can,” she continued. “Any sort of support for the teachers and students is beneficial.”
The NLPS three-year plan addresses their mathematics PAT scores, with Grade 9 students writing the PATs scoring well below average. Almost 37 per cent of all students who wrote the test were below the acceptable standard. Just over 63 per cent of Grade 9 students scored acceptable, with 12.4 per cent being within the standard of excellence.
Knowledge and Employability (K&E) Grade 9 students scored about the same, with 36.2 per cent sitting below the acceptable standard, 63.8 per cent were at the acceptable level, and 10.6 per cent achieved excellence.
Thirty-one per cent of Grade 6 students scored below the acceptable level on their PATs, 69 per cent were within the acceptable make and 8.2 scored excellence.
“For our Grade 9 PATs, we noticed that the mathematics portion is slightly below what we would like, however when we do get into the diploma exams, those are on par with the province,” said Skogen.
In terms of NLPS three-year plan, Skogen said they are planning on focusing on both literacy and numeracy.
“We did notice a downward trend in those Grade 9 PATs, so that is why this year we are really focusing on those,” she noted, adding the board plans on keeping an eye on the trends in these courses over the next three years.
Once the initiative comes into affect, students will be required to take a non-calculator portion of their mathematics PATs. It's something Skogen said shouldn't affect their students because, in most cases, teachers are already teaching them without the use of a calculator.
“We do need to make sure the students are ready to survive in the real world, and so they do need to have a basic mathematic understanding. Being taught without a calculator could help them in the future,” said Skogen, adding that the province is continually working on ways to restructure education in Alberta.
“They just want to make sure that our structure is working best, and that we are working on that Future Ready focus, because the government is putting a lot of weight into that Future Ready in order to ensure that our students are ready to become productive members of society once they are done school.”
