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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 could not 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.