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Something doesn’t add up in Nova Scotia mathematics education. Student math scores in Grade 8 took a significant nosedive, but you would never know it from the reaction.

The 2017-18 test results appeared online two weeks ago. The percentage of Grade 8 students meeting the Grade 8 provincial standard fell to 56 per cent, a six per cent decline since 2015-16. Any and all gains in achievement since 2012-13 were completely erased in the latest set of assessments. The alarming decline not only attracted nary a mention, but got completely lost in the excited school system chatter over province-wide professional development days.

Building cardboard haunted houses, weaving literacy into mathematics, teaching kids to search for patterns, and finding ingenious new ways of sparing kids from the hurt accompanying wrong answers. Those activities sound flaky, but they were among the hottest topics for teachers at the Oct. 26 PD day of the Mathematics Teachers Association of Nova Scotia.

Why worry about declining math scores when the whole Halifax school system is caught up in a transformative movement? Guest speaker Dr. Sharroky Hollie, flown in from Los Angeles, had the latest answer: “Cultural responsiveness for everyone.”

“Join us on the journey to cultural responsiveness,” he told 5,000 Halifax teachers and staff, in two mass gatherings, and urged them to put their faith in “validating, affirming, building and bridging” in today’s classrooms. What works in reaching marginalized students in L.A. was what we need here in Nova Scotia.

Students of Indigenous ancestry and African Nova Scotian descent are struggling mightily, particularly in mathematics. Only 46 per cent of Mi’kmaw/ Indigenous students achieved the provincial standard in Grade 8 mathematics, virtually unchanged from 2013-14. Among students of African descent, only 36 per cent made the grade, a drop of seven percentage points since 2015-16.

Marginalized students of Indigenous ancestry and African Nova Scotian descent are only part of the problem for one simple reason – the vast majority of Grade 8 students, not in those groups, still only scored 57 per cent on those Grade 8 math tests.

Professional development programs are clearly not addressing the fundamental weakness of Grade 8 students in mathematics. One of the MATNS 2018 conference headliners, P.E.I. vice-principal David Costello, specializes in using mathematics to facilitate literacy.

Popular Canadian Mathematics consultant Marian Small, a fixture at provincial conferences, delivered her usual presentation: “Developing a risk-free environment in math.” No students, she believes, should be told directly that they have the wrong answer. That only makes kids feel that they are “wasting their time” or hurts their feelings. Instead, be affirming. “They never feel sad,” she told the workshop. “It works like magic.”

What’s strange about the prevailing approach is that it is not new at all. In fact, Nova Scotia is already recognized for having the most exemplary programs for Mi’kmaw and African youth, led by Lisa Tunney Borden of St. Francis Xavier’s school of education. They too weave Indigenous and African Knowledge into mathematics with a distinct creative arts focus.

Why are our Grade 8s floundering in mathematics? One outspoken Halifax physical education teacher offered this off-the-record explanation. “Our Grade 8 students simply blow them off,” he said on social media. “Students don’t care about those provincial tests because they do not count toward their marks.”

Nova Scotia’s recent improvement in the 2016 Pan Canadian Assessment Program results may have evaporated. Provincial testing was suspended during the protracted 2016-17 work to rule conflict and these are the first results published since that disruption.

No matter how you slice it, Nova Scotia students are lagging in mathematics achievement. It’s also becoming clearer why Quebec students continue to lead the class in mathematics and have done so for 30 years.

My latest Policy Options magazine research commentary tackles that question. The five key reasons presented explaining Quebec’s dominance are: (1) clearer philosophy and curriculum sequence; (2) superior math curriculum; (3) more extensive teacher training; (4) maintaining secondary school provincial exams; and (5) focusing on math preparedness rather than raising graduation rates.

The winds are shifting in Canadian mathematics education. Ontario’s Doug Ford government is out to banish “discovery math” and “get back to math fundamentals.” Alberta’s new K-6 elementary curriculum restored the times tables. Manitoba is instituting Grade 12 provincial exams. All student teachers in Ontario will now be required to pass a Grade 6-7 math test to secure a B.Ed. diploma.

Where is Nova Scotia heading in math education? It may be time to stop playing around and get on board with the latest trends in mathematics curriculum reform.

Paul W. Bennett, Ed.D., is director of Schoolhouse Institute, Halifax, and author of “What Can We Learn from Quebec’s Math Prowess?” Policy Options (October 2018). http://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/october-2018/what-can-be-learned-from-quebecs-math-prowess/