THE ALGEBRA PROJECT INC
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Mission Statement
The Algebra Project uses mathematics as an organizing tool to guarantee quality public school education for all children in America. The Algebra Project works with students from the lowest quartile of the academic and economic distributions in the nation. Our goal is enable students to graduate high school on time in four years, pass state and national exams, and be ready to do college math for college credit.
About This Cause
The Algebra Project currently engages a three-pillars strategy for raising the floor of K-12 mathematics literacy in school communities around the country. We define mathematics literacy as the ability to read, write, and reason with the principle symbol systems of mathematics. We believe that all students are capable of obtaining mathematics literacy across their K-12 school journey. We focus our supports with teachers and the people that support and engage with teachers. Our three pillars include site development - direct support to school communities including curricular interventions, teacher professional learning, and design teams composed of school community representatives (students, teachers, school leaders, community members, researchers); research initiatives - designed as practitioner and research collaborations that innovate curriculum materials, professional learning strategies, assessment strategies, and community engagement organizing; and national outreach - organizing local, regional, and national coalitions to raise awareness, advocate for investment, and implement progressive programs. These three pillars, co-designed and co-implemented with local, regional, and national collaborators, enable our small organization to contribute to broader impacts that we could achieve if only working in isolation. Current sites include Cambridge, MA; Bronx, NY; Englewood, NJ; Miami, FL; Jackson, MS; St. Louis, MO; Austin, TX; San Francisco, CA Current research initiatives include: * The Accessible Calculus Project - creating approaches to teaching key concepts of Calculus (without limits or analysis) in the context of high school Algebra II courses, using CCSS standards for Algebra II - with KSU, NSBE, EPSD, and CCPS - supported by the National Science Foundation's Robert Noyce Scholarship Program. * Concept of Function Student Collaboration - developing new assessments measuring the role of student collaboration in improving the acquisition of understanding of the function concept in Algebra - with ETS, SIUE, UNL, and YPP - Supported by NSF's DRK-12 program * Computer Science for Algebra - innovating the integration of computational thinking with the Algebra Project's Five-Step Curricular Process to transform the teaching of middle and high school mathematics - with KSU and CCPS - Supported by NSF's CS for All program Current National Outreach initiatives: * Contributing to the national We the People - Math Literacy for All Alliance * Contributing to the national Quality Education as a Constitutional Right initiative * Designing Math Makes Movement, a 10-year National Math Literacy Campaign and blueprinting an accompanying Digital Learning Lab online platform soft launching in the spring of 2025, with support from Cisco Foundation * Collaborated on a Simons-Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute, Critical Issues in Mathematics Education workshop, "K-12 Mathematics Literacy for 21st Century Citizenship, to be held in Berkeley, CA, April 2-4, 2025, https://www.slmath.org/workshops/1147 - please see, "Organizing for K-12 Math Literacy for All" in the AMS Teaching and Learning column online, https://mathvoices.ams.org/teachingandlearning/organizing-for-k-12-math-literacy-for-all/ Example of Prior Algebra Project research, supported by NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION Award #DRL-0822175 Between 2008 - 2014, the Algebra Project studied a cohort model designed to “harness the peer culture” and accelerate mathematics learning for students who enter high school performing in the lowest quartile on the math portion of state tests. At six high schools, cohorts of ~20 students took math together with the same teacher for Grades 9-12. They used rigorous materials designed by mathematicians and teachers to engage low performing students through a unique pedagogy, and enable them to graduate on time ready to take college math courses for credit. The project’s classroom materials are designed to engage students who have experienced academic failure, who enter Grade 9 with conceptual foundations different from those of average- to high-performing students. Its materials and pedagogy build cognitive and noncognitive skills together. Research included (a) preliminary studies at Edison High School, “little Haiti”, Miami; and (b) a multi-site study of cohorts implemented “from scratch” in five demographically different high schools in Ypsilanti, MI; Mansfield OH; Eldorado, rural Illinois; and Los Angeles (Table 1). Nearly all students performed BELOW “proficient” in math on the Grade 8 state test. Intellectual Merit Graduation: In 4 of 5 schools in the multi-site study, Cohort students had 4-year graduation rates (federal formula) above 70% (from 71-80%) (Table 2). In 3, their graduation rates were 11-32% higher than the non-project students, matched for race, gender, math proficiency and language status. At the 4th school, rates were similar (~75%). But this Cohort comprised the lowest performing students in a class of 97, so they appear to have “caught up” with their peers. At the 5th school, graduation rates were similar and low: 43% (Algebra Project) versus 41%. But here the Cohort kept changing -- only 7 students were present for 3-4 years. Five graduated, approximating the