The Frank Ragland Math Masters Institute is a Central Brooklyn middle school mathematics enrichment initiative. It emulates the structure of Math Circles in order to to cultivate mathematical interest and fascination among the middle school students in inner city public schools. It works with over 50 students from a number of middle schools in Central Brooklyn over the course of the entire academic year. It has operated continuously since the Summer of 2011. Weekly lectures with attendance averaging 50-75 students are conducted on Tuesdays and Thursdays at MS61 in Brooklyn and on Saturday at the Medgar Evers College campus. The Institute is supported through Male Development and Empowerment Center(MDEC) at Medgar Evers College, The Medgar Evers College Mathematics Department, and by parent and community donations.
Math Circles originated in Hungary more than a century ago. They soon spread throughout Eastern Europe and Asia and since then they have produced many of the great scientists from those parts of the world, in mathematics and in other disciplines. Math Circles also led to the start of many national and international math contests, including the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) in 1959 in Romania. It is widely believed that it is the presence of these circles that has enabled the youth of countries such as Russia, Bulgaria and Romania on the average to outperform the United States at the IMO.Given the success of math circles in Russia and Eastern Europe many institutions in United States have developed similar programs. The Berkeley Math Circle and The New York Math Circle are the examples that we have tried to emulate and adapt to the Central Brooklyn context.
The Frank Ragland Math Masters Institute( FRMMI)
The Frank Ragland Math Masters Institute( FRMM1) was founded in 2011. It started with an outreach meeting in February 2011 called by the then District 17 Superintendent, Dr. Rhonda Taylor aimed at involving Medgar Evers College in the District’s efforts to intentionally address the performance of the District's black male students on New York State Mathematics Exams. At that meeting, MDEC Director Larry Martin met Lisle Jackson, an instructor at Middle School 61(MS61), who raised the issue of low math achievement by black male students specifically at MS61 and by students at MS61 in general. Mr. Jackson proposed that an experimental program around mathematics be instituted to address the problem. Mr. Martin was already in discussions with Dr. Terrence Blackman , then, a lecturer in the mathematics department at Medgar Evers College, regarding math education for young black males and other young people of color. Martin and Blackman were committed to enriching math education in the surrounding community and, secondly, to providing opportunities to Medgar Evers College students opportunities to teach math as a means to strengthen career objectives to those interesting in becoming math or science teachers. Mr. Martin, whose office received funding for MDEC as one of the 23 City University of New York Black Male Initiative projects throughout New York City, was responsible for organizing a structured mentorship program for Medgar Evers College male students, the majority of whom are of African descent. He convened a meeting with Dr. Blackman and Mr. Jackson to discuss how they might design a math program targeted to black male middle school students. It was decided that as a pilot program be created, a summer math camp to be held for six weeks from July to August 2011. Mr. Jackson was responsible for recruiting and selecting the students from MS 61; Dr. Blackman would be responsible for recruiting and selecting the Medgar Evers College students who would serve as instructional aides and Department of Education certified math teachers, in addition to creating the curricular and pedagogical infrastructure of the program; and Mr. Martin would be responsible for administrative oversight. Thus was born the Frank Ragland Math Masters Initiative.
The success of Frank Ragland Math Masters Initiative in unearthing and nurturing talent in short tenure is striking.
For example, our alumus Tyshawn Burke, Ripton Richards and Theodore Johnson Jr., all earned places at Brooklyn Technical High School in 2013. This is a remarkable achievement! To place it in its proper context it is instructive to note that of the 5,229 students accepted to the citys eight specialized high schools this year, 618 were black or Hispanic, according to data released by the NYC Department of Education. Last year, the schools accepted 733 black and Hispanic students. Out of 963 students accepted to ultra-elite Stuyvesant High School, just nine are black and 24 are Hispanic. Last year, the school accepted 51 black and Hispanic students. At Brooklyn Technical High School, the largest of the specialized schools, the number of black and Hispanic students accepted fell by 22 percent. To have three students be admitted to Brooklyn Tech from MS61 in Brooklyn is almost a miracle.
The heart of the Circle is the Weekly Math Circle activities at Medgar Evers College. Each week (typically on Saturday) during the academic year middle school students from Central Brooklyn gather for four hours for a lecture on varied mathematical topics. Professors, middle school teachers, and Medgar Evers College math and science undergraduates present the lectures. Frequently, the lectures take the form of an interactive discussion between the instructor and students, and the students volunteer to explain solutions and problems to the rest of the group. The style, organization, level and topic of the lectures varies from meeting to meeting. Some lectures are aimed at problem-solving for Specialized High School and Regents Exams. Other lectures introduce the students to exciting advanced math topics whose level range from elementary to undergraduate. As the Circle evolves we anticipate lectures dealing with the connections between mathematics and other sciences such as physics, biology, computer science, and economics.
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