Teaching Strategies for Algebra for All

ducators and policymakers alike recognize that algebra is an important gatekeeper course, not only for college preparation but also for preparation for the world of work. To prepare students for future success, many school districts and state legislatures now make algebra a graduation requirement for all high school students. Of course, the burden for preparing all students in algebra falls on the shoulders of the classroom teacher. Whether an algebrafor-all initiative is school-, district-, or state-based, a teacher faces the difficult challenge of teaching a high-standards course to a classroom of students whose beginning knowledge may range from far below to far above the course prerequisites. Since 1990 I have been actively involved in the College Board’s algebra-and-geometry-for-all school-reform project called Equity 2000. Equity 2000 is an educational reform initiative for grades K–12 that is based on the Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics (NCTM 1989). It uses mathematics—algebra and geometry by the tenth grade—as a lever to enhance academic achievement for all students, especially minority students, thereby increasing the likelihood that they will enroll in and complete college. My work for Equity 2000 consists of serving as chair of the Equity 2000 National Mathematics Technical Assistance Committee and as an in-service presenter at Equity 2000 professional development institutes for mathematics teachers. This article shares some lessons that I have learned from my Equity 2000 experiences. The article presents classroom strategies that help me in my own teaching at the university level and in in-service presentations. These strategies have evolved over time. They have been the result of a gradual personal professional development stemming from the challenges that I have faced in being asked by the College Board to lead Equity 2000 teachers by offering insights and strategies to help them reach all students. They have also been formed from working with teachers and students in Equity 2000. In this leadership role, I have worked toward preparing algebra-for-all exemplar classroom materials for Equity 2000 in-service presentations to teachers and have demonstrated these lessons for teachers by modeling their use and pedagogy with actual classes of students that are typical of those that they are likely to face within their districts. For example, in 1992, I teamed with J. T. Sutcliffe, a mathematics teacher at Saint Mark’s School of Texas, to create and demonstrate five algebra-for-all lessons with a group of thirty-two eighth graders from Prince George’s County, Maryland. Subsequently, in 1993, I teamed with Rheta Rubenstein of Schoolcraft College, in Livonia, Michigan, in creating and demonstrating lessons in geometry with thirty tenth-grade students in an Equity 2000 Summer Math Institute in Milwaukee. Each algebra-for-all teaching strategy includes a brief explanation of the nature and scope of the suggested strategy. Although each one has general application to teaching mathematics, the strategies are presented in the setting of teaching algebra.