In 1990, the Mathematical Association of America and its Strengthening Underrepresented Minority Mathematics Achievement (SUMMA) Program began concerted efforts to improve the mathematics education of minorities and increase the representation of minorities in the fields of mathematics, science and engineering. Funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York enabled SUMMA to award $250,000 in small planning grants to college and university faculty to encourage the development of mathematics-based projects serving minority middle and high school students. The National Science Foundation (NSF) supported networking activities by SUMMA for novice and experienced project directors. This led to an increase in the number of projects directed by mathematics faculty from some 50 in 1992 to 150 in 1997 when some 40,000 students were participants, of whom 90% were minorities. Project directors leveraged SUMMA planning grants and technical assistance into $13.7 million in project funding.

In addition to being a former co-chair of the Committee for Minority Participation in Mathematics of the MAA, the committee with oversight of SUMMA, I direct the Academic Challenge Program, an intervention program at the University of Puget Sound. From these vantage points I have seen that SUMMA intervention projects produce results.

One reason they make a difference is that students in them go on to careers in mathematics, science, computer science and engineering. For example students participating in Tex Prep in San Antonio have a 99+% high school graduation rate, an 80% overall college graduation rate, and a 56% college graduation rate in the mathematics, science or engineering fields. This is from a program that is 80% minority, 54% female and 52% low income.

Another is that these programs build bridges between colleges and public schools. Many of these programs employ public school teachers as well as college faculty, and the resulting dialogue promotes understanding of the needs and expectations of the two institutions. With this better understanding of where the students are coming from and where they are headed, we are better prepared to guide the students well.

Besides statistics on the effectiveness of these programs, the directors all know of individual triumphs of students that demonstrate these programs are important (and often make them personally rewarding). Allow me to quote from an application I received from a student. "Last year's ACP summer enrichment program really helped me to establish better study habits. My GPA took a tremendous leap from a 2.34 to a 3.01. My parents were very proud of this accomplishment on my part. I would like to keep this new found zest for learning that I got from last year's program and do even better my senior year of high school. I look forward to performing at a higher level that I know I am capable of. I also want to be an encouragement to other students, and to my teachers, and to the community to let them know that not all young Black men run the streets in gangs and have no desire to get a good education. Some of us are into school and bettering ourselves. If you choose me for the program again this year, I promise to be a good student, learn as much as I can, and take it back to school with me next year. I would like to see how a 4.0 feels."

External support for pre-college intervention projects has become scarcer with the discontinuance of substantial federal funding for these activities from such agencies as NSF and the Department of Energy. As a result, the MAA has begun to encourage mathematics departments, not just individual faculty, to work in this arena. Institutional resources should be brought to bear on encouraging pre-college students to take more challenging mathematics and science courses in preparation for the mathematics-based careers that will be at the heart of the Information Revolution of the 21st Century and throughout the 3rd Millennium.

I would like to make part of the record the text of a motion adopted by the MAA Board of Governors in August 1997.

MOTION: Intervention projects provide valuable opportunities for precollege students from underrepresented groups to learn interesting and substantive mathematics in programs designed directly by college mathematicians. They also provide valuable opportunities for college and university mathematics departments to reach out to underrepresented groups that are not always served effectively by the more traditional functions of college and university mathematics departments. For these reasons, the MAA strongly encourages every college or university mathematics department either to conduct an intervention project itself or to be an active member of a consortium that conducts intervention projects affecting a substantial number of students in the geographical area served by the institution.

I urge CAWMSET to formally recognize the effectiveness of college based intervention programs like those associated with the SUMMA program of the MAA, and to recommend that federal funds be available for starting and supporting such programs.

Further information on conducting a successful intervention project is available through the SUMMA Office, c/o Mathematical Association of America, 1529 18th Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20036, ph: 202-387- 5200, fax: 202-265-2384, e-mail: bhawkins@maa.org.