For 16 years, numerous students spent their summer with The Calculus Project, a math support program founded by former Dean of Students Adrian Mims. This summer, the program will operate under a different name, while continuing most of its initiatives.
Brookline High School’s math enrichment summer program will operate under a new name this year, transitioning from The Calculus Project to Fostering Excellence in Mathematics.
Mims started The Calculus Project in 2009. However, years after Mims had left the high school, the program no longer matched the school’s needs, said math teacher Lisa Rodriguez.
“In some sense, Brookline’s version of it had just evolved so much that it no longer looked like what his program looked like,” Rodriguez said. “We were being held to standards that don’t even fit with Brookline needs. So it felt, for me at least, limiting in some ways, to be like, ‘we can, and we have resources to go into these levels and do these things, but we couldn’t.’”
Despite the change in name, Math Department Chair Joshua Paris said that the new program will still be operating the same components.
“We are very much continuing the three main programs that were the foundational elements of The Calculus Project work, which were the summer academy, where we preview math courses that students are going to take the following year, cohorting students in honors-level math classes and the after-school math tutoring center,” Paris said.
Junior Alina Oliva, who became a member of The Calculus Project in 2022, said that the program has not felt much different.
“I feel like at first people were confused why the name was changing, just because it was very sudden. There was no talk about it beforehand or anything,” Oliva said. “So I feel like it did spark some confusion, but ever since we were explained why the name got changed, everything has just been the same.”
Rodriguez said the detachment from The Calculus Project will allow Brookline to make its own decisions for what is best for them. One of the decisions was to expand the range of students in the program.
“Now that we can have more kids and do more for all levels of math, there are going to be more kids part of it. Now, if you identify as a person of color, you can be part of it; it’s not just Black and Latino kids,” Rodriguez said.
Paris said that the program also has goals to expand in multiple ways, including plans for better communication with educators of students who are in additional programs.
“One other thing we’re working on is improved communication with caregivers of students in the program and with other stakeholders in the school district, such as the Scholars Program, METCO and Steps to Success,” Paris said. “There is a lot of overlap between students in those programs and students in the Fostering Excellence in Mathematics Program.”
Paris said that the gap in math achievement among students of color and those from lower-income backgrounds often begins as early as pre-kindergarten. By the time they reach that age, their first years of life have already exposed them to very different experiences. As students get older, the gap expands, which is why Paris would ideally like to narrow the gap right at the beginning.
“If I had my druthers and infinite resources I would start focusing on the work in pre-K, and go from there,” Paris said. “We live in a complex society within Brookline, with budgetary limitations. Though those economic challenges are present, that’s critical work that we need to do and that I’m looking forward to doing.”
