In this study we investigated the relationship between urban eighth grade students’ Hands-On Exposure to Algebraic Thinking (HEAT) competition performance and their subsequent performance on standardized measures of mathematics achievement (ACT Composite Score, ACT Math Scores, and Louisiana Algebra End of Course Exams). It was found that the pictorial portion of the project was a relatively consistent predictor of participants’ high school academic performance. That is, as participants’ HEAT pictorial competition scores increased, so did their ACT composite, ACT math scores, and Algebra End of Course Exam Scores. Findings from the HEAT Project may contribute to conversations centered on ways to expose urban students to creative, social, hands-on pedagogy in non-evaluative contexts in order to position students for both immediate and long-term mathematics success without sacrificing intellectual rigor.

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HEAT, an instructional program emphasizing a nontraditional hands-on approach to algebraic instruction for urban, predominantly African American middle schoolers, provides a space to explore teachers’ beliefs about urban students’ mathematical abilities and motivation and addresses how teacher perceptions can intersect with instruction, learning, and the construction of students’ mathematical identities. Using a multiple case study design, we analyzed six urban middle school mathematics teachers’ written reflections and interview responses. Findings suggest that teachers’ instructional behaviors, along with their perceptions and expectations of urban, African American middle schoolers’ mathematical abilities and motivation, interact with students’ beliefs and work habits in ways that can promote and support students’ positive mathematical identity construction. Thus, HEAT personified thriving learning subcultures and supportive mathematical communities of practice that are far too atypical in urban middle schools.

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