Algebra Project - History

History

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 was invited by 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.

Moses approached the problem at the Open Program in a similar manner to problems he and others had faced in the early sixties in helping the black community of Mississippi seek political power through the vote. While on the surface the problem of the acquisition of political power looked like a simple issue of enticing people to vote, the problem would involve answering an interrelated set of questions. "What is the vote for?" "Why do we want it in the first place?" What must we do right now to ensure that when we have the vote, it will work for us to benefit our communities? Answers to these questions eventually resulted in an important context in which to ask people to vote. This context was the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, a community based political party.

Similarly, the everyday issues of students failing at mathematics in the Open Program would require a more complex set of issues and community of individuals. Moses, the parent-as-organizer in the program, instinctively used the lesson he had learned in Mississippi transforming the everyday issues into a broader political question foklr the Open Program community to consider: What is algebra for? Why do we want children to study it? What do we need to include in the mathematics education of every middle school student, to provide each of them with access to the college preparatory mathematics curriculum in high school? Why is it important to gain such access? Within these questions, a context for understanding the problems of mathematics education emerged, and a possible solution and effort at community organizing represented by the Algebra Project began to take shape.

The answers to the questions, "What is algebra for?" and "Why do we want children to study it?", play an important role in the Algebra Project. The project assumes that there is a new standard in assessing mathematics education, a standard of mathematical literacy. In this not so far future, a broad range of mathematical skills will join traditional skills in reading and writing in the definition of literacy. These mathematical skills will not only be important in gaining access to college and math and science related careers, but will also be necessary for full participation in the economic life of this society. In this context, the Algebra Project has as a goal that schools embrace a standard of mathematics education that requires that children be mathematically literate. This will require a community of educators including parents, teachers and school administrators who understand the paramount importance of mathematics education in providing access to the economic life of this society. An answer to the question "What do we need to include in the mathematics education of every middle school student?" also frames the Algebra Project.