Algebra Project

The Algebra Project is a national U.S. mathematics literacy effort aimed at helping low-income students and students of color successfully achieve mathematical skills that are a prerequisite for a college preparatory mathematics sequence in high school. The Project's mission states,"The Algebra Project, Inc. is a 501 (c) (3) national, nonprofit organization that uses mathematics as an organizing tool to ensure quality public school education for every child in America. We believe that every child has a right to a quality education to succeed in this technology-based society and to exercise full citizenship. We achieve this by using best educational research and practices, and building coalitions to create systemic changes." ("Algebra Project") Founded by Civil Rights activist and Math educator Robert Parris Moses in the 1980s, the Algebra Project has developed curricular materials, trained teachers and teacher-trainers, and provided ongoing professional development support and community involvement activities to schools seeking to achieve a systemic change in mathematics education.

The Algebra Project reaches approximately 10,000 students and approximately 300 teachers per year in 28 local sites across 10 states.

The Algebra Project focuses on the Southern U.S., where the Southern Initiative of the Algebra Project is directed by David J. Dennis, Sr., and on the Young Peoples' Project (YPP), which recruits, trains and deploys high school and college age "Math Literacy Workers" to work with their younger peers in a variety of math learning opportunities and engage "the demand side" of mathematics education reform. The YPP is directed by Omowale Moses.

Increased student performance in mathematics, as well as greater numbers of students enrolling in college preparatory mathematics classes, is a well documented outcome of the project's work.

The Algebra Project was born out of one parent's concern with the mathematics education of his children in the public schools of Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1982, Bob Moses (who had been providing additional math instruction to his daughter) joined Mary Lou Mehrling, his daughter's eighth grade teacher, to help several students with the study of algebra. Moses, who had taught secondary school mathematics in New York City and Tanzania, decided that an appropriate goal for those students was to have enough skills in algebra to qualify for honors math and science courses in high school. His success in producing the first students from the Open Program of the Martin Luther King School who passed the city-wide algebra examination and qualified for ninth grade honors geometry was a testament to his skill as a teacher. It also highlighted a serious problem: Most students in the Open Program were expected not to do well in mathematics.

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