Organized in 1982 by Bob Moses, the Algebra Project has transformed the teaching of math at 28 sites in the United States. The project works with entire communities--parents, teachers, and especially students--to create a culture around algebra, a crucial steppingstone to college math and life/career opportunities. 

Since the mid-1980s, the AP has developed curricular materials, trained teachers and trainers of teachers, provided ongoing professional development support, and community involvement activities to schools seeking to achieve a systemic change in mathematics education. 

The AP reaches approximately 10,000 students and approximately 300 teachers per year in 10 states and 28 sites, with a particular focus on the Southern United States. The AP introduces algebraic concepts to students as young as the fifth grade (10-11 years old). Increased AP student performance in mathematics, as well as greater numbers of AP students enrolling in college preparatory mathematics classes, is a well-documented outcome of the project's work. 

AP graduates have formed a "young People's Project" that recruits, trains and deploys high school and college age youth to work with their younger peers in a variety of math learning opportunities and engage "the demand side" of mathematics education reform. 

The Algebra Project provides technical assistance to the sites and programs within the national Algebra Project network, particularly in the areas of curriculum development, program implementation, development, financial management, and administrative assistance. The AP works to identify resources and provide assistance in problem solving of various kinds at the site and program levels. 

In the book, Radical Equations: Math Literacy and Civil Rights, Cobb and Moses write: "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."