We The People Alliance for Math Literacy launches in D.C.

The Algebra Project and the Washington Teachers’ Union have launched a citywide math literacy campaign in 2018. The We the People Alliance for Math Literacy is a grassroots effort to introduce revolutionary methods for teaching math literacy that have been proven to make math accessible to students. Mathematics skills are needed for making progress in everything from language literacy to logical thinking about any subject.

Algebra Project president Dr. Bob Moses believes that just as voting rights was the key civil rights issue of the 1960s, equity in education is the key civil rights issue of today, and that math literacy is a vital component of a good education. He remarked,

Everyone said sharecroppers didn’t want to vote. It wasn’t until we got them demanding to vote that we got attention. Today, when kids are falling wholesale through the cracks, people say they don’t want to learn. We have to get the kids themselves to demand what everyone says they don’t want. Universal math literacy is, or should be, a civil right.

The math literacy campaign includes a wide range of activities and a mobilization of teachers, parents, administrators, labor unions, churches, community and civic organizations, universities, DCPS and other District government agencies.

The Alliance’s first effort will be to train teachers and elementary school students to use a new sport, called Flagway to teach and learn basic mathematical concepts.