Civil Rights Activists in the Information Age: The Development of Math Literacy Workers. CIRCLE Working Paper 50

Roderick Watts and Omar Guessous of Georgia State University conducted exploratory research to investigate the link between math and civic engagement. Their research is based on an evaluation of the Young People's Project (YPP), a national program that recruits, trains, and deploys high school and college Math Literacy Workers for mentoring middle and elementary school students. The purpose of this study is to examine whether the Young Peoples Project, as a community-based math and social justice organization for youth, contributes to the math, academic, sociopolitical, ethnoracial identity, and positive youth development of participants. Five specific research questions addressed by this study were: (RQ #1) Program effect: Do YPP participants show more favorable outcomes than the two comparison groups on outcome indicators of interest? (RQ #2) Dosage effect: Do veterans show more favorable outcomes than novices on the outcome indicators of interest? (RQ #3) Program x dosage interaction: Is the dosage effect stronger among YPP participants than among the School Controls? In other words, is there an interaction effect between program membership and level of seniority? (RQ #4) Math--SPD link: Is there a positive relationship between math confidence and indicators of sociopolitical development? (RQ #5) Math--SPD x Program: Is this link moderated by group membership, such that YPP participants demonstrate a stronger positive relationship between math confidence and indicators of sociopolitical development than the School Controls (SC)? Participant in this cross-sectional study were Chicago-area residents in grades 8 and above who were administered a paper-and-pencil survey in a group format at the site of each YPP and After School Matters (ASM) program. YPP participants were encouraged to recruit a peer who did not participate in YPP to serve as matched comparisons. Additionally, ASM participants from three Chicago public high schools were recruited for participation in this study, to serve as an additional comparison group (N=73). There were a total of 196 participants. Each variable of interest was assessed using one or more self-report survey instruments that were answered on a numerical Likert scale. These included measures of social analysis, sense of urgency, societal involvement, cultural and ethnoracial identity. academic and math self-concept, and positive youth development. The five research questions were examined using Univariate Analysis of Covariance and Hierarchical Multiple Regression. Among the outcomes was a favorable link between YPP participation and aspirations for mathematics education, and another was evidence of sociopolitical development. The third was an exploration of other youth development outcomes of interest to the program and the researchers. Sense of Agency was positively related to math self confidence and negatively related to math self-doubt. Similarly, commitment to societal involvement activities was negatively related to math self-doubt. And in the only instance were the ethnoracial variables came into play, cultural pride reinforcement was found to positively correlate to math self confidence. The relationship between sociopolitical development and math confidence was consistently stronger among YPP participants compared to School Controls. This suggests that YPP contributed to a link between math knowledge or reasoning and to both sociopolitical agency and commitment; that is, YPP experiences are associated with the idea that "math is power." (Contains 14 tables and 9 figures.) [This Working Paper was produced by CIRCLE (The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement). For CIRCLE Working Paper 49, see ED494074.]