The Algebra Project is a national

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

mathematics literacy program aimed at helping low-income students and students of color achieve the mathematical skills in

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

that are a prerequisite for a college preparatory mathematics sequence. Founded by

Civil Rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life o ...

activist and Math educator Bob Moses in the 1980s, the Algebra Project provides curricular materials, teacher training, and professional development support and community involvement activities for schools to improve mathematics education. By 2001, the Algebra Project had trained approximately 300 teachers and was reaching 10,000 students in 28 locations in 10 states.

History

The Algebra Project was founded in 1982 by Bob Moses in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston ...

. Moses worked with his daughter's eighth-grade teacher, Mary Lou Mehrling, to provide extra tutoring for several students in her class in

algebra Algebra () is one of the broad areas of mathematics. Roughly speaking, algebra is the study of mathematical symbols and the rules for manipulating these symbols in formulas; it is a unifying thread of almost all of mathematics. Elementary ...

. Moses, who had taught secondary school mathematics in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

and

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...

, wanted to ensure that those students had sufficient algebra skills to qualify for honors math and science courses in high school. Through his tutorage, students from the Open Program of the Martin Luther King School passed the citywide algebra examination and qualified for ninth grade honors geometry, the first students from the program to do so. The Algebra Project grew out of attempts to recreate this on a wider community level, to provide similar students with a higher level of mathematical literacy. The Algebra Project now focuses on the southern states of the United States, where the Southern Initiative of the Algebra Project is directed by Dave Dennis.

Young People's Project

Founded in 1996, the Young People's Project (YPP) is a spin-off of the Algebra Project, which recruits and trains high school and college age "Math Literacy Workers" to tutor younger students in mathematics, and is directed by Omowale Moses. YPP has established sites in

Jackson, Mississippi Jackson, officially the City of Jackson, is the capital of and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city is also one of two county seats of Hinds County, along with Raymond. The city had a population of 153,701 at t ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, and the Greater Boston area of Massachusetts, and is developing programs in

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

Petersburg, Virginia Petersburg is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 33,458. The Bureau of Econ ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

, Ann Arbor, and

Mansfield, Ohio Mansfield is a city in and the county seat of Richland County, Ohio, United States. Located midway between Columbus and Cleveland via Interstate 71, it is part of Northeast Ohio region in the western foothills of the Allegheny Plateau. The ci ...

. Each site employs between 30 and 100 high school and college age students part-time, and serves up to 1,000 elementary and middle-school students through on and off site programs. In 2005, the Algebra Project initiated Quality Education as a Civil Right (QECR), a national organizing effort to establish a federal constitutional guarantee of quality public education for all. Throughout 2005, YPP worked with students from Baltimore, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Oakland, Miami, Jackson, Chicago and Virginia to raise awareness about QECR. The Algebra Project and YPP students from Jackson and New Orleans hosted conferences, organized a Spring Break Community Education Tour to Miami and participated in QECR planning meetings at

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a Private university, private, University charter#Federal, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classifie ...

, the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, and

Jackson State University Jackson State University (Jackson State or JSU) is a public historically black research university in Jackson, Mississippi. It is one of the largest HBCUs in the United States and the fourth largest university in Mississippi in terms of studen ...

References

{{reflist

External links

Algebra Project websiteWebsite of The Young People's ProjectFinding Our Folk Tour, a YPP InitiativeNPR Codeswitch segment - To '60s Civil Rights Hero, Math Is Kids' Formula For Success
Algebra education Race and education in the United States