Algebra Project

About: Algebra Project is a nonprofit organization based out in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Procedural knowledge & Symbol. The organization has 4 authors who have published 6 publications receiving 80 citations.

An Earned Insurgency: Quality Education as a Constitutional Right

Abstract: In the following pages, Robert Moses tells the history of the early civil rights movement in Mississippi, focusing on the individuals, alliances, and strategies that brought about fundamental change in the United States and ultimately made possible the election of Barack Obama to the presidency. Moses describes how the efforts of Justice Department officials working from the "top" of society combined with the day-to-day work of sharecroppers and organizers at the "bottom" to challenge Jim Crow. His story takes us from the front lines of the movement in Mississippi to his contemporary efforts to ensure that all children in this country receive a quality education. While working from the bottom of today's movement for educational equality, he calls on Obama to provide the leadership needed at the top to ensure lasting change. In this "illuminated story" he infuses his narration (in sans serif) with his own reflections and insights about the lessons this story offers.

Polynomial Calculus: Rethinking the Role of Calculus in High Schools.

Abstract: Access to advanced study in mathematics, in general, and to calculus, in particular, depends in part on the conceptual architecture of these knowledge domains. In this paper, we outline an alternative conceptual architecture for elementary calculus. Our general strategy is to separate basic concepts from the particular advanced techniques used in their definition and exposition. We develop the beginning concepts of differential and integral calculus using only concepts and skills found in secondary algebra and geometry. It is our underlining objective to strengthen students' knowledge of these topics in an effort to prepare them for advanced mathematics study. The purpose of this reconstruction is not to alter the teaching of limit-based calculus but rather to affect students' learning and understanding of mathematics in general by introducing key concepts during secondary mathematics courses. This approach holds the promise of strengthening more students' understanding of limit-based calculus and enhanci...

An Insurrectionary Generation: Young People, Poverty, Education, and Obama

Abstract: The Baltimore Algebra Project is a student-run, student-staffed nonprofit that employs public high schoolers and recent graduates as math study group leaders and as organized advocates for quality education as a constitutional right. In this essay Jay Gillen draws on his experiences as a facilitator of the Algebra Project to argue that only a generation of young people—and particularly young people in poverty—has the potential and the necessary boldness to break the caste system of schooling. In this struggle, they follow their ancestors who "earned" the insurrections required to break the slave and sharecropper systems. How young people in poverty interpret Obama's election, asserts Gillen, will determine what Obama means for educational justice.