Reviewed by Joyce A. Ladner

Making a timely appearance amid the debates over testing, accountability and vouchers, Radical
Equations describes an inspiring educational program called the Algebra Project, which has  dramatically raised the achievement levels of mostly poor students. Veteran civil rights activist
Robert P. Moses is one of the nation's most creative and enduring leaders working in the nonprofit sector, as well as a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship and the Heinz Prize for his innovative work in math literacy. His co-author, Charles Cobb, is a veteran journalist who worked with Moses in the civil rights movement.

   The Algebra Project started accidentally, when Moses learned that his daughter was not taking algebra in her Cambridge, Mass., middle school the teachers said that the students were too young for the subject matter. Moses decided to tutor her and some of her friends in his home. Word spread, and so did demand.

   The Algebra Project now teaches math skills to 20,00 students in 28 states nationwide. The underlying premise is that algebra is a gateway subject that students must master to compete in an
increasingly technological marketplace. Many of these students start with the disadvantages of inadequate preparation, poor educational facilities and equipment, poorly trained teachers, unsafe environments, high dropout rates and a lack of sustained support.

   Moses is familiar with empowering the economically disadvantaged. In 1961 he left his job as a high school math teacher in New York and moved to Mississippi to work with the nascent civil rights movement in registering blacks to vote. It is not surprising that Moses has redefined the requirements
of citizenship for the 21st century to include not only the right to vote but the right to become knowledgeable in math and science. He asserts that math literacy and economic access are the
essential tools that can give hope to a generation of the nation's most needy students, and that math literacy will be a major determinant in who gets the jobs in this digital age and who does not.

   Radical Equations is divided into two parts. The first is Moses's absorbing account of how the ordinary people with whom he worked in Mississippi's civil rights movement demonstrated that they could overthrow racial discrimination. His models of leadership and service were strongly influenced by these poor and working-class people, who, although mostly unlettered, taught him invaluable lessons, many of which he has incorporated into the Project (community participation, youth
empowerment, etc.).

   Moses said it was in Mississippi that the voiceless found their voice, which, once raised, could not be ignored. One surmises that he found his own voice as well, and has used it consistently to help others ever since. The autobiographical sections of Radical Equations are the most interesting
because they mark the first time that this self-effacing leader has spoken in such detail about his experiences and the pivotal role he played in an important era of American history.

   In the second part, Moses describes the Algebra Project's curriculum, and explains why it is so effective in raising student achievement. As a math teacher, he recognized that the symbolic language used in math would be difficult for his young charges to learn. So he put the focus on solving practical problems that the students experienced in their own lives and relied on problem-solving rather than
rote learning. He also created a metaphorical language, augmented by the use of mathematical games and graphic calculators, that uses examples from the students' environment such as train routes and bus lines. The curriculum is structured in several phases. It begins with a practical and familiar problem that students are asked to solve, then to explain in colloquial language. Next, they are
required to translate the colloquial explanation into Standard English. Finally, they express their solutions as mathematical symbols.

   Where most social observers see only disadvantages in the urban wastelands and the grinding rural
poverty of communities in which some of the Algebra Projects are located, Moses teaches educators how to identify the vast resources that exist in these communities. One of the many lessons he learned in the South was that strength and talent exist in unlikely places. For example, when he went
onto cotton plantations to recruit sharecroppers to register to vote, he could not have predicted that one Fannie Lou Hamer would emerge as a national heroine. Current disadvantages for students in the Algebra Project can also be overcome with the help of broad community support that demands educational equity. Defining educational equity as a right to full citizenship helps to strengthen rather
than subvert the primacy of democracy.

   Although some black students are stereotyped as ridiculing their high-achieving classmates, this book shows that there is no shortage of high-achieving students who demand educational equity. A key component of the Algebra Project is that students put forth enormous effort and commitment
to their work, and that they learn the skills of empowerment to demand the courses and teachers they need. Moses believes that systemic educational reform cannot occur unless students demand educational equity in the same way sharecroppers demanded the vote.

   This thin volume leaves one with the feeling that there is much more to be said about Moses and the way he has linked education to citizenship. For example, where does Moses find his inspiration to take on such daunting challenges, and how has he managed to continue this difficult work over four decades? What are the sources of his perseverance? Can the learning of higher-order mathematics alone transform the lives of the most economically disadvantaged? Once they have mastered advanced mathematics, will they find opportunities to go to college? These are problems that Moses cannot solve alone but that should be addressed by policymakers.

Joyce A. Ladner is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.