Math Content Standard A: Content of Math

Key Element 4. Functions and Relations

A student who meets the content standard should represent, analyze, and use mathematical patterns, relations, and functions, using methods such as tables, equations, and graphs

Algebra for All

Algebra is a gatekeeper that allows students to go on to the work force and to a higher education. Students who do not have the algebraic concepts are denied opportunities that affect their futures. The way we teach algebra needs to be a rich, technology assisted applicable course that challenges and enriches a student's ability to solve problems. Algebra should be taught as a means of representation and be integrated with statistics, geometry, and discrete mathematics. As a means of representation, algebra provides a language that uses verbal, tabular, graphical, and symbolic forms to model and answer questions about quantitative patterns and relationships. These patterns and relationships often arise in contexts involving data, shape, or change. Thus, algebra in this broader conception is intimately tied to other mathematical strands.

Algebra Big Ideas (Kindergarten Through 12th Grade)

Number sense
The concept of variable
Linear functions
Patterns
Proportionality
Solving equations
Representations
Non-linear functions
Solving linear inequalities