Real world math in North Chicago

Alumni use sports and more to teach algebra

Something happens between middle school and high school in North Chicago.

While 43 percent of African-American students in seventh and eighth grade meet or exceed state standards in math, only 10 percent of African-American North Chicago High School students meet or exceed state standards in math, according to the 2008 State Report Card.

Three North Chicago High School alumni have decided to do something about it and created "4 Real Math," a twice-weekly program to teach seventh and eighth graders algebra through basketball at Neal Math and Science Academy.

"The fallout in math begins in middle school," said attorney Marian McElroy of North Chicago. "When we talk about Barack Obama, people say the sky is the limit, but we have to make sure they really have the tools to succeed."

She and her twin brothers, Harry and Larry who own a software engineering company together in Los Angeles, launched the pilot program last spring through a grant from Shields Township. They started it up again this week with about 25 students and hope to expand it to other schools where African-Americans have fallen behind their peers.

Through hands-on activities, the program's goal is to help kids visualize the real-world applications of math, develop confidence, get exposed to careers in math, and counter peer pressure that "it isn't cool to be good in math."

For example, this week students shot free-throws, two-pointers and three-pointers and will graph the results and calculate probabilities. Future activities include cutting up pizza to understand fractions and using a football grid number line to illustrate adding positive and negative numbers.

"It makes math fun and real," said Harry who played on the 1971-72 Warhawks basketball team with his brother. "Broken down into everyday forms, it makes more sense for them."

Richard Fields, an eighth grader at the school, plans to get up early on Tuesdays and Thursdays to attend the program at 7 a.m.

"I love basketball all the way around," he said. He likes math and is considering a career designing video games.

Though Harry and Larry, both 54, live in Los Angeles, they plan to return periodically to the school to train the teachers to lead the program. Eventually they would also like to pay high school students and College of Lake County students to coach the middle school students through the exercises.

For the last two years, students at Neal Math and Science Academy have had two 40-minute math periods each day that include a regular class as well as a supplemental period to help students reinforce their skills, said Principal Sidney Glassner. Additionally, the school offers tutoring in math after school once a week.

About 43.1 percent of black students and 57.5 Hispanic students at Neal met or exceeded state standards on the Illinois Standards Achievement Test last spring, below the state average of 80 percent, according to the 2008 State Report Card.

"Teachers here by and large do a good job, but the community has to buy into it," Marian said. "We have to stop crossing our fingers, hoping for the best, and do something."