A Bay Area middle school, however, is in the vanguard and won't be caught scrambling to prepare its students for this new math requirement. 

Who would ever think that learning algebra could be fun? 

"Students, who had given up on the struggle to learn algebra and typed themselves as math 'losers,' have made a complete turnaround," says James Taylor, Jr., principal of Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in San Francisco. "Not only are they having fun learning math, but they are teaching it to other students." 

What has created this amazing turnaround? Taylor attributes it to the Algebra Project, a program in place for six years, which has math at its core, encourages parent involvement and supports the educational empowerment of students. Math teachers at King Middle School were trained by Bob Moses in his revolutionary math and algebra teaching methods. 

The Algebra Project, founded 20 years ago by Moses, is a national mathematics literacy effort aimed at helping rural and urban low income students and students of color compete successfully in today's technology-driven economy. 

In Moses' new book, Radical Equations: Math Literacy and Civil Rights, he writes, "In today's world, economic access and full citizenship depend crucially on math and science literacy. I believe that solving the problem requires exactly the kind of community organizing that changed the South in the 1960s." 

Ten high school math literacy workers from the Young People's Project (YPP) in Jackson Mississippi and Cambridge, Massachusetts will join Bob Moses and a group of King Middle School students in an Algebra Project games workshop. The YPP is an outgrowth of the Algebra Project and uses math games, rap songs and other learning activities to teach math and algebra concepts. 

• Bob Moses, Founder of the Algebra Project and co-author of Radical Equations: Math Literacy and Civil Rights
• Math Literacy workers & Algebra Project students from Mississippi & Massachusetts
• Algebra Project students from King Middle School, San Francisco