About Us

The Algebra Project seeks to build the demand for math literacy in local sites across the country. Its leadership views this focus as a continuation of the Civil Rights struggle in which transforming math education in our schools is as urgent in today’s world as was winning the right to vote in the Jim Crow South in the early 60s. Its goal is to address the lack of economic access that face children from communities of poor people and people of color. It aims at bringing about a sea change in the attitude of teachers and young people toward math learning and math achievement. One example of this is happening today at Jackson, Mississippi’s Lanier High School where large numbers of students are taking trigonometry and introductory engineering.

 
This is the context in which we do our work:

• According to the Urban Institute, 50% of black ninth graders, 49% of Native Americans and 47% of Latinos/as do not graduate in four years.
• In some poor urban and rural schools drop out rates approach 80%.
• According to the National Assessment of Education Progress, 43% of black 12th graders and 58% of Latinos/as are testing at “below basic.”

Mission

The Algebra Project is a national network of sites striving to improve mathematics achievement for African American and other minority students who have not been reached by existing efforts at education reform through materials development, teacher training, peer education, and school-community partnerships. 

We work with local people, using math literacy to demonstrate that it is possible to provide quality education for all children. We engage communities to use the success of these local projects to advocate for national education reform. 

History

The Algebra Project was born of one parent’s concern with his children's mathematics education in the public schools of Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Bob Moses spent years experimenting in middle school classrooms, first in Cambridge in the '80's and then as classroom teacher in Mississippi from '90s to present. Early funding for his work came from a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship for his work in the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi.

Moses observed that students learning algebra need to consider not only the question of “how many”, but also “which way”, as is the case for an algebraic number line. These insights led to the development of a curriculum intervention based on experiential learning, utilizing the natural language of students, then methodically leading to the language of mathematical features, and finally to symbolic language.

Later, in Mississippi, Bob Moses initiated a new generation of Algebra Project curriculum for high school algebra and geometry, through funding from the National Science Foundation.

Algebra Project principles were utilized by the Southern Initiative of the Algebra Project (SIAP) from 1992 to 2004. SIAP worked across seven Southern states to provide teacher training and professional development, community and school site involvement activities, classroom mentoring, and youth and community organizing for math literacy. SIAP personnel and programs are now merged with national Algebra Project Inc. efforts.

The Algebra Project also spun off the Young Peoples’ Project, Inc. which trains high school and college-age Mathematics Literacy Workers (MLWs) who seek to create a new culture around math literacy for youth in our targeted school communities through peer education and mentorship in after-school, in-school, Saturday programs and summer program settings.

During the mid and late 1990’s, Algebra Project efforts targeted middle schools in 13 states, 23 school districts, reaching over 10,000 students. This reach was made possible in large measure by the Open Society Institute.

Since 2001 the project has been retooling, initiating research and development of materials for early high school programs, reconfiguring its middle grade curriculum, and partnering with the expanding Young Peoples’ Project.

The Algebra Project is currently positioned to play a leading role in the movement for educational reform and social change. Its demonstration sites are designed to be models of how young people, who for generations have been tracked to lives of deprivation and poverty, when given the right conditions can reverse all expectations and achieve a proficiency in math and science vital to enjoying the full benefits of citizenship.

Board, Staff & Consultants

Board of Directors

LaDon James, Chair

Margaret A. Burham, Clerk
Associate Professor of Law, Northeastern University School of Law

Ceasar McDowell
Director, Center for Reflective Community Practice, MIT
Associate Professor of Practice, MIT

Danny Glover
Actor and Activist

Robert P. Moses, President
Educator and Organizer, The Algebra Project Inc.

John Anthony Butler, Treasurer
Finance Manager, Legal Services for New York City, Inc.

Khari Milner, Vice Chair
Director, Cornerstone Foundation

Ernest Andrew Brooks III

Pedro A Noguera
Executive Director, Metropolitan Center for Urban Education
Co-Director, Institute for the study of Globalization & Educ in Metropolitan Settings
Professor, NYU School of Education

BJ Walker
Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Human Resources

Ex Officio: Alvin Poussaint, M.D., Rudy Lombard Ph.D., Dr. Vida Gaynor,
               & James Anderson, M.D.



Staff and Program Partners of the Algebra Project Network

Ben Moynihan
Director of Operations

Robert P. Moses
President and Founder
Director of Curriculum Development and Policy Initiatives


Dave Dennis Sr.
Director of Community and Site Development


Junko Kim
Fund Developer, Algebra Project National Office 

Becca Bailey
Administrative Coordinator, Algebra Project National Office

Demetrica Gorden
Teacher, Lanier High School Algebra Project Math Lab

Herbert Brown
Teacher, Lanier High School Algebra Project Math Lab

Frank Figgers
Parent & Community Liaison, Lanier HS AP Math Lab  

 

Consultants

Nell Cobb
Algebra Project Professional Development Specialist

Jessie Cooper-Gibbs
Algebra Project Professional Development Specialist

Merle Harris
Algebra Project  Professional Development Specialist

Peggy Quinn
Professional Development Specialist

Denina Porter
Professional Development Specialist


Alan C. Shaw
Imani Information Systems, Inc.

Gregory Budzban
Southern Illinois University Dept. of Mathematics

Ed Dubinsky
Professor of Mathematics, Emeritus, Kent State University

Gary Benenson
Professor of Engineering, City College of New York


David Henderson
Professor of Mathematics, Cornell University

Staffas Broussard
Math Department, University of New Orleans

Doris T. Williams
Site & Community Development 

Lynne M. Godrey
Algebra Project Professional Development Specialist


William O. Crombie
Algebra Project Professional Development & Materials

Marian Currell
Algebra Project Professional Development Specialist


Mary M. West
Senior Researcher, Program Evaluation & Research, Lesley University

Frank E. Davis
Senior Researcher, Program Evaluation & Research, Lesley University

Anne Johnson
Language Arts Specialist


Omo Moses
National Director, The Young People's Project, Inc.

Maisha Moses
Professional Development Specialist


Talib Gramby
Desktop publisher

 

Funders

Our Current Funders:

. Marguerite Casey Foundation

. Community Investments of the Tides Foundation

. The Institute For Figuring


. The Poss Family Foundation (c/o The Boston Foundation)

. National Science Foundation

. Tides Foundation

. Florida International University Center for Urban Education and Innovation

. Vanguard Public Foundation

. Plus numbers individual donors

Donations in honor:


.  In memory of Civil Rights Activists, Yvonne Stephens and Wilhelmenia Evans

.  In memory of SNCC Veteran, Mendy Samstein 

Our Past Funders have included:

· Hasbro Foundation

· MacArthur Foundation

· The Lilly Endowment Inc.

· Andrew W. Mellon Foundation/Russel Sage Foundation

· Open Society Institute

· Barr Foundation

· The Boston Foundation

· San Francisco Community Foundation

· Cambridge Community Foundation

· Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation

· National Science Foundation

· Marguerite Casey Foundation

· Annie E Casey Foundation

· Edna McConnell Clark Foundation

· Chicago Community Trust

. General Electric Foundation-Math Excellence Program


· Spencer Foundation

· Funding Exchange (in NYC)

· Haymarket Community Foundation

· Tides Foundation

· 21st Century Foundation

· Kellogg Foundation

· Heron Foundation

· Noyce Foundation

· New World Foundation

. Mellon Foundation 

· Walton Family Foundation

· Vanguard Public Foundation

· Annenberg Rural Challenge (now Rural Community Trust)

· Seagram's Foundation

· Schott Foundation

· Poss Family Foundation

· Plus numerous individual donors

 

Contact Us

The Algebra Project, Inc. is continually working to help build and sustain a national movement for quality public school education for all children.  If you would like additional information about any of our current programs and initiatives, or would like to subscribe to our network of friends and supporters, please fill out the form below.


Feel free to send us a message, and we will respond as soon as possible.  Please be sure to include your contact information: name, address, email, telephone.  Thank you for your interest in the Algebra Project's mathematics literacy work!