Algebra Project

The framework for the Algebra Project comes from the life experiences of its founder, Robert Parris Moses. Moses grew up in Harlem, New York City. After having earned a master's degree at Harvard College, he began teaching mathematics in 1958 at the Horace Mann School in Manhattan before becoming an active member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). His involvement with SNCC moved him to search for social justice, causing him to leave his teaching position and move to Mississippi, where he was a prime organizer of the Freedom Summer project. The goal of the project was to secure voter registration for African American citizens. In 1975, he returned to Harvard to study for his doctorate. Upon graduation, he taught mathematics in a high school in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Moses's background is key to the foundation of the Algebra Project. He has linked the knowledge of mathematics with economic equity and full participation in citizenship in the United States. Moses sees that mathematical literacy is the key to becoming a citizen able to fully participate in the democratic process. He identifies algebra as the gatekeeper not only to further mathematical study but also to continuing education beyond Grade 12, challenging careers, and economic opportunities in a global knowledge economy.

Putting these ideals into practice in his own home, Moses augmented his children's study of mathematics with daily practice augmenting the usual school assignments. His four children, he reported, were not enthusiastic about this additional responsibility but did complete the assignments. In 1982, his oldest child, Maisha, was in the eighth grade, and Moses was introducing algebraic concepts to her during her home assignments. Maisha argued with her father that she was competent with the mathematics at school and therefore no longer needed to do additional mathematics assignments at home. Moses approached his daughter's teacher and volunteered to teach algebra at his daughter's school. The teacher welcomed the help and asked that he take on three other students. This subgroup of the class worked for the remainder of the school year. The classroom teacher and parents took an interest in attending these math sessions. Parents began to request that their children study algebra during the middle school years. At the conclusion of the school year, Maisha and two of her fellow algebra students [Page 37]passed the city algebra test, the first students from that school to do so.

Through this school experience, Moses developed the goal that students take college preparatory classes starting at the middle school level. He posited that if students acquire basic mathematical understanding during their middle school experience, then they would not be excluded from advanced mathematics at the high school level and in higher education.

Recognizing the need to organize the community in his desire to promote higher-level mathematics in middle schools, Moses focused on local schools where his children attended classes. This was where the Algebra Project was founded. By the spring of 1985, parents were supporting the Algebra Project with their time and efforts. Through this work, the Cambridge, Massachusetts, Schools Committee officially identified the Algebra Project as an element of their school curriculum. Evidence of the success of the program was the increasing number of students who graduated from the middle school and moved to honors geometry or algebra at the high school level. Not one of these students needed to take remedial mathematics in high school.

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