Balance the Equation: A Grand Challenge for Algebra 1

Overview

<p>We are looking for partners to help us radically transform and rethink the traditional math classroom to better support students who have been historically marginalized in math, including Black and Latino students, students who speak a language other than English, and students affected by poverty in the United States.<br>Balance the Equation has five areas of focus, derived through primary research with students, teachers, and academic experts across the nation. These areas have the biggest opportunity for altering the traditional classroom experience for priority students in order to achieve the desired outcomes. Specifically, these areas include: building out support systems, improving the relevance of algebra content, elevating understanding of mathematical language, empowering and strengthening teacher practices, and developing new or better feedback mechanisms<br>We are seeking proposals in response to Balance the Equation that think creatively and prioritize student identity and experience, including: expanding daily practices for productive mathematical discussions to build their math identity and reiterate math’s real-life connection in the evolving “classroom environment” (physically or virtually; synchronous or asynchronous), incorporating tasks and/or lessons that empower them and/or reflect students’ culture and community or serve to explore issues of humanity and social justice, altering the focus of mathematical aptitude from “easily, quickly, and independently arriving at a correct answer” oriented around the individual to more thoughtful, iterative approaches that promote multi-person processes and interactions, adding assessment approaches that empower and humanize students and leverage more nuanced forms of data, and enhancing teacher professional development so educators are set up to meet the unique needs of each student, reflect upon their own biases, and build relationships that allow students to feel supported.</p>