http://www.rethinkingschools.org/Archives/15_04/Mose154.htm Rethinking Schools Summer 2001 [Vol. 15, No.
4] Book Review ---------------------------------------------------- Radical Equations: Math Literacy
and Civil Rights By Robert Moses and Charles E. Cobb Jr. Boston: Beacon Press, 2001 Hardcover, 233 pages, $21.00
---------------------------------------------------- 'Racial Equations' Civil Rights veteran Robert
Moses tells the story of the Algebra Project and the struggle to ensure math literacy for African Americans.
By David Levine <dlevine@email.unc.edu> In Radical Equations: Math Literacy and Civil Rights, veteran
civil rights activist Robert Moses collaborates with journalist Charles E. Cobb to offer a stirring account of the
Algebra Project, a reform initiative designed to help African-American students achieve a high level of mathematical
competency. The book raises important issues about both math education and the struggle for racial equity within our
schools. The Algebra Project focuses mainly on the middle-school years, when Moses and his colleagues believe
African-American children must be prepared to enter high school math classes, which will open the door to higher education
and technical careers requiring a strong math background. It encompasses new curricular materials, teacher training,
the development of student leadership, and community involvement well beyond the scope of most educational reform
efforts. From a modest beginning in Cambridge, Mass., the program has grown into a national network with 18 sites,
over 100 schools, and 40,000 students. As a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC),
Moses pioneered voter registration work in Mississippi during the early 1960s. Through his soft-spoken courage and
patient encouragement of local leadership, he played a crucial role in building the movement which overturned state-sanctioned
segregation and disfranchisement in the South. After a sojourn in Tanzania, where he and his wife Janet taught school,
he and his family moved to Boston. By 1982, Moses had been tutoring his eldest child Maisha in math for years.
He believed she was ready for algebra, a subject not offered for eighth graders at her Cambridge, Mass., school. Since
Maisha rebelled against having to do "two maths" -- her regular schoolwork and the algebra tutorials her
father insisted upon -- he convinced her teacher to let him come to school to tutor her during the day. Soon he was
working with a small group of students, and the Algebra Project was underway. As the program grew, it also became
a family collaboration -- Moses' wife Janet and his children Maisha, Omo, Taba, and Malaika all came to play important
roles. In the early 1990s, Moses convinced a colleague from his Mississippi days, Dave Dennis, to bring the program
into the Delta. This work has grown into a multi-state "Southern Initiative" of the project, which Dennis
directs. In their book, Moses and Cobb (a SNCC field secretary in Mississippi from 1962 to 1967 and now a senior
writer for allAfrica.com) present the Algebra Project as a spiritual descendant and practical continuation of their
organizing in Mississippi 40 years ago. They argue that the civil rights movement's undeniable achievements in winning
civic empowerment and formal equality for African Americans failed to overcome the economic servitude still endured
by millions of black Americans. This failure has been exacerbated by profound technological changes. Farm mechanization
has reduced the 110,000 agricultural jobs in the Mississippi Delta during the 1960s to just 17,000 jobs today, reflecting
a national erosion in semi-skilled and unskilled jobs in the industrial sector. At the same time, the computer revolution
has generated the need for "knowledge workers" with strong academic skills. Cobb and Moses contend that
poor (and poorly educated) white, Black, and Latino students of today are the equivalent of Mississippi's disfranchised
Black sharecroppers of the 1960s, "trapped at the bottom with prisons as their plantations." More specifically,
they argue that mastery of the increasingly technological workplace depends on increasingly sophisticated math skills,
including algebra. "People who don't have it [algebra] are like the people who couldn't read and write in the
industrial age," they argue. To help African-American students master mathematical literacy, the program
has replaced traditional, rote-bound instruction with imaginative activities that engage student creativity and encourage
sophisticated mathematical reasoning. An African drums curricular unit is designed to pair a drummer and a teacher
in lessons which teach fourth and fifth graders about ratios, proportions, fractions, and rates. In his work with
high school geometry classes, Moses encourages students to post their own versions of geometric proofs on the classroom
wall, to be analyzed and possibly challenged by their classmates. For the sixth-grade curriculum, which forms
a bridge from arithmetic into algebraic thinking, Moses designed a five-step learning process. The students first
observe or experience a physical event. For example, in a unit on positive and negative numbers, Cambridge students
begin with a subway ride during which the teacher asks questions that focus their attention on their shifting environment.
They then draw pictures, construct models, or in some other way create a representation of the event. The following
step is to write a description of the event in their own language. Next, each class member translates their description
into "regimented English," highly compact language which moves them into a mathematical mode, and from which
they finally render the event as a mathematical expression. This five-step process helps students gain a firm grasp
of mathematical ideas, connect math to everyday life, and become comfortable communicating in the language of mathematics.
Similar classroom practices in geometry and algebra courses encourage students to debate mathematical problems and
actively construct their own understanding of math concepts. The Algebra Project's pedagogy is not unique. It
resonates with the experiential, inquiry-based approach advocated by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
(NCTM), and resembles intellectually robust math instruction that can be found in some classrooms around the country.
But the grassroots organizing philosophy of the program offers a dramatic departure from many mainstream reform efforts.
Moses believes that math education innovations are often implemented by university researchers whose primary
frame of reference is their own discipline and academic community, and the modus operandi is to offer pre-packaged
programs to schools. In contrast, the Algebra Project works on the premise that oppressed people can only win just
schools through political organizing. To emphasize this perspective, the early part of the book describes how Moses
and other civil rights activists built the Mississippi movement during the 1960s. With the guidance of Ella Baker,
an experienced veteran of the Black freedom struggle, Moses and his companions learned to develop the capacity of
"ordinary people" to act as leaders and collaborate to bring about fundamental social change. Their approach,
with its patient emphasis on democracy and nurturing the talents of poor people, has come to be known among civil
rights historians as the "organizing tradition" of the movement. It is often contrasted with the "mobilizing
tradition" of Martin Luther King, Jr. and other charismatic leaders, which is successful at turning out large
numbers at demonstrations but often neglects the day-to-day work that builds powerful and sustained grassroots involvement.
For the Algebra Project, "organizing in the spirit of Ella" rests on three principles: 1)
The centrality of families to the work of organizing. When Moses and other young organizers reached the Mississippi
Delta, they connected with strong local leaders. Often, these leaders would involve family members in the movement,
helping to create crucial networks of political activists. The Algebra Project seeks to involve the families of students
and other community members in committees which run the local projects. 2) Organizing in the context of the community
in which one lives and works. The young civil rights workers were absorbed into local families, who fed,
housed, and protected them from hostile whites. This helped the activists "sink deep roots into the community."
The Algebra Project also operates on the idea that staff members should be fully immersed in the communities which
host local projects. 3) Young people need to be empowered to fight for their own liberation. Moses points
out that high school- and college-age young people provided some of the crucial leadership of the civil rights movement.
He believes that the reforms necessary for young Black people to achieve deep math literacy will only come about when
they become ardent and savvy advocates for their own education. Through the program's Young People's Project, for
example, students tutor their peers, lead workshops for students and adults, and help plan and run math youth camps
during the summer. ALGEBRA: KEY TO ECONOMIC LIBERATION? One of the book's core arguments is that students
must master algebra to succeed in the workplace of the future. They cite Labor Department statistics that 70 percent
of current jobs require "technology literacy" and that by 2010 all jobs will require "significant technical
skills." Increasingly, essential technological expertise has come to mean relatively sophisticated understanding
of how to use computers to perform a multitude of vocational tasks. To fully master computers, they argue, students
need to be comfortable manipulating symbolic repre- sentations which represent "underlying mathematical concepts."
They further argue that our society has designated algebra as the place where young people acquire such skills.
This cornerstone argument needs further documentation to be fully creditable. The phrases "technology literacy"
and "significant technical skills" are quite general. We need to know if such literacy and skills specifically
include algebraic thinking. Another issue is the varied impact of increased computer use on different occupations.
The computerization of a job does not always bring the need for more sophisticated intellectual skills. Many low-paying
service jobs have incorporated computer use which require learning some new procedures, but not mastering substantially
more demanding cognitive tasks. The authors would have been more persuasive if they had offered concrete examples
of how algebraic skills are used in particular jobs, and evidence that such jobs are or will become a major part of
our evolving economy. Nevertheless, Cobb and Moses are not wrong to assert that algebra functions as a crucial
gatekeeper to full economic opportunity. Even if a young person is not drawn toward a highly technical vocation, high
school algebra is usually required for college entry. In addition, algebra provides knowledge necessary for advanced
math which prepares students for a number of technical and scientific careers. Too many students of color lose these
options through poor math performance before they reach high school. As Cobb and Moses note, part of this problem
is reflected in Ph.D. statistics for technical fields. In 1995, Blacks were 15 percent of the U.S. population but
earned "only 1.8 percent of the Ph.D.s in computer science, 2.1 percent of those in engineering, 1.5 percent
in the physical sciences, and 0.6% in mathematics." Finally, even though the authors could have presented stronger
evidence regarding the relevance of algebra to adult employment, the technological evolution of many occupations does
support their case. An understanding of algebraic concepts can help workers become more adept at working with spreadsheets,
graphs, and databases. Our computer-based economy increasingly calls for such skills, even outside of highly technical
fields. IS THE PROGRAM WORKING? In assessing initiatives such as Algebra Project, a crucial question
is whether the program is meeting its stated goals. In Bessemer, Ala., teachers at Hart Elementary, a school of mostly
poor, Black children, started participating in the Algebra Project in the fall of 1991 while teachers at the predominantly
white West Hills, one of the "top elementary schools" in the district, continued with traditional math instruction.
During a three-year study initiated in 1995, Hart moved from trailing West Hills on standardized math tests by several
points to exceeding it by a few points, compiling the highest scores in the district. Radical Equations and other
Algebra Project reports are filled with similar success stories. They also document instances in which Algebra Project
students register in greater numbers than their peers in higher-level math courses. As Cobb and Moses tell the Algebra
Project story, they weave into their narrative extended testimonials from parents, teachers, and students which provide
both penetrating explanations of the reform process and many examples of how the program has helped students learn
more. While the vignettes and overall narrative thread give us a persuasive picture of an effective reform movement,
the book would have been strengthened by more systematic documentation and analysis of the program's impact on student
achievement. We need to learn more about the extent of the program's success in strengthening students' math abilities,
and the classroom dynamics which make such success possible. In-depth case histories of Algebra Project classrooms
would be helpful, as would comparisons between the learning experience of students within the program and the learning
experience of similar students in traditional math classes. Research on the project should not fall victim to the
popular and crude trend in American education to judge programs mostly by narrow quantitative measures. Cobb and Moses
cite increased standardized test scores to document the program's success, but realize that such numbers only tell
a small part of the story. They examine the Algebra Project's impact on student motivation and work habits, teacher
attitudes and behaviors, and community involvement. Future research should build upon and extend this holistic approach.
ALGEBRA PROJECT LESSONS In a review of school reform during the past century, educational historians
Larry Cuban and David Tyack note that innovations often falter because their advocates fail to win political support.
Radical Equations does a good job of teasing out insights from the kind of political work which builds durable support
for substantive changes in how schools function. It offers a refreshing contrast to glib and self-congratulatory recipes
for fixing up schools. Even after nearly two decades of nurturing the program, Moses writes, "I have thought
of the Algebra Project as a young child who is trying to stand up and teetering and falling down a little, then getting
back up." The book pays careful attention to this teetering up and down of small groups of people trying to make
their schools better. Cobb and Moses glean insights into the often contentious dynamics of school change from battles
with the constraints of rigid standardized testing, uneasy administrators, and bureaucratic fear of innovation. The
challenges faced by the Algebra Project affirm what they learned in Mississippi: people have to be willing to change
themselves if they are to develop the strengths they will need to change the system. Beyond the issue of
math instruction, the Algebra Project offers compelling lessons on how determined networks of educators, parents,
and students can build a program which advances educational equity. Such democratic renewal promises the obvious rewards
of promoting academic and vocational success for young people. But perhaps just as important, it also affirms local
people's cultural values and capacity to deepen community life through shaping the public institution most likely
to have a profound impact on their children. "Organizing in the spirit of Ella" means school reform which
enriches the lives of teachers, community members, and students. In contrast to top-down reform initiatives which
demean the expertise and professional pride of teachers, Moses and his colleagues have developed training programs
which build upon their strengths. A Cambridge, Mass., teacher comments, "Bob was affirming what we were doing
while he was helping us change. He didn't come in and say, 'We're throwing this out, it's junk.' He came in and said,
'You guys are great. Wanna try something different?' When we asked, 'How will it work?' he turned around and asked,
'Well, how do think it should work? What do you want to have happen?'" By posing problems rather than solutions,
Moses invites teachers to confront and work through the frustration and anxiety of experimenting with new ways of
teaching. Such collaborative processes within the classroom are buttressed by efforts to involve community members.
Although the dynamics of community involvement differ from site to site, the project is deeply committed to encouraging
local control. During a 1998 visit to Jackson, Miss., Algebra Project, I talked with Kathy Sykes, who served as a
project staff member and representative on the local Site Planning Committee. This group reviewed the program budget,
helped plan such activities as student retreats, and encouraged parents to serve as chaperones for program activities.
The committee also encouraged parents to sit in on classes, and eventually hoped to train parents as classroom assistants.
Sykes told me, "I feel this is sort of like a crusade ... I think that the work which is going on here will make
a difference in the lives of our people and that's why I want to do what I can to see that it continues."
The program seeks to instill this spirit of personal responsibility through pedagogy which encourages students to
break out of their own passivity and take charge of their own learning. Mary Lou Mehring recounts how 12-year-old
student Andrea Harvey asserted, "I'm going to do four lessons a week because I want to finish such-and-such by
the seventh grade, so that I can finish the book by the eighth grade, so I can be in honors geometry in the ninth
grade." Andrea went on to work with the Algebra Project and eventually become certified to teach math in the
Boston schools. As a continuation of the civil rights movement, the Algebra Project places itself firmly
in the tradition of education aimed at racial equality. At the same time, Moses conceptualizes the goal of the endeavor
almost exclusively as improved job opportunities. The program does not appear to directly use math instruction to
help young people see full citizenship as the opportunity to use their math skills to promote social justice. As indicated
by middle school teacher Eric Gutstein's article in the Spring 2001 issue of Rethinking Schools, math can be used
to analyze social inequities within our society -- such topics as the disparities between rich and poor school districts,
the mathematics of sweatshop economics and the quantitative injustices built into the wealth and income structure
of our society. Such themes might represent a fruitful direction as the program's curriculum evolves. However,
the absence of political math content hardly means the program is apolitical. The authors persuasively echo Ella Baker's
assertion that demanding something which is essential to your life which you are systematically deprived of is an
inherently radical act. Moses approvingly cites instances when young people agitate that their schools dramatically
improve math instruction. For African Americans, the struggle for education has always been entwined within the
struggle for freedom. This intimate historical relationship is underscored when the authors quote Mississippi school
desegregation activist Mae Bertha Carter: "The way to control Black people or anybody is to keep them dumb. Back
in slave time they catch you reading and they would whip you. Education, that's the goal. These [present day] school
systems ain't doing nothing but handicapping these children." In a society so afflicted with faulty historical
memory, the Algebra Project demonstrates the necessity of learning from our past to fashion our future. In doing so,
it puts history to its most honorable and practical use. -- David Levine, an editorial associate of
Rethinking Schools, teaches in the School of Education at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill. He would
like to thank Bill Bigelow, Beverly Cross, Mark Ellis, Susan Friel, Rick Kitchen, Howard Machtinger, and Carol Malloy
for advice on this review. -- To get in touch with the Algebra Project contact: Algebra Project
National Headquarters, 99 Bishop Richard Allen Drive, Cambridge, MA 02139. 617- 491-0200. Web site: <http://www.algebra.org/>;
David J. Dennis Sr., Director of the Southern Initiative of the Algebra Project, c/o Positive Innovations, 5135 Galaxie
Drive, Bldg. A, Jackson, MS 39206. 601-362-0144. Copyright (c) 2001 Rethinking Schools. All Rights Reserved.
Our World
|