Berkeley's Star Algebra Teacher is Award Hopeful

Juliana E. Jones, one of for the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching, realized she wanted to teach math while in high school.

Why? "Because people don't like it," said Jones. "I thought that'd be a good challenge."

Stepping up to that challenge has been Jones's job at in Berkeley for the past three years — helping its eighth grade students find success with algebra.

Jones, 37, said she uses her enthusiasm to combat students’ trepidation about math. "A lot of students by eighth grade have deep-seated fears about math," she said. "They feel like they can't do it."

She said her own struggles as a math major at UCLA, where she also earned her master's in education, help her communicate with her students. She tries not to "freak them out," she said. "A big piece of being successful in mathematics is confidence."

"Parents say, 'My kid didn't like math until this class,'" she said. "It's really exciting for me when I get that feedback.

Judging from her accolades, Jones has found success with her algebra teaching as well.

Besides being a finalist for the Presidential Awards, she is a National Board Certified teacher, vice chair of the National Teacher Advisory Council, and a member of the Teaching and California's Future Task Force at the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning. Jones was also Alameda County Teacher of the Year in 2007, while teaching at Montera Middle School in Oakland. 

Last September, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan visited her class with Congresswoman Barbara Lee to commend the students for their high algebra test scores on the California State Test (CST) for Algebra. In the 2009-10 school year, 64 percent of the school's eighth graders, taught by Jones and fellow algebra teacher Marlo Warburton, were proficient or advanced in algebra — high above the state average of 25 percent.

There was only one problem with the fall 2010 commendation from Duncan and Lee. "It was the eighth day of school and we hadn't learned anything yet," said Jones. The students who earned the high algebra scores had graduated in the spring, and were beginning high school.

“So, the school gets all the recognition, but the students who were a part of it don’t,” said Jones.

After initially laughing off the incident, Jones said she asked the superintendent to recognize the students who really earned the top-notch scores.

Jones calls Longfellow a "very special" school, crediting its counselors for leading a LGBT-inspired day of silence and multicultural heritage celebrations. "The students at Longfellow are tolerant, they're respectful, and we're like a big family," she said. "At that age, in middle school, that environment is difficult to create."

After seven years of teaching at Montera Middle School in the Oakland Unified School District, Jones appreciates teaching in Berkeley. In Oakland, she had 150 students at a time, she said, but in Berkeley she has 70, allowing her to spend more time on each student. And it makes a difference.

"Coming from a really toxic school environment, I really appreciate the morale and the positive attitude at my school," she said. "People are happy at Longfellow."

But Jones worries that not all Berkeley students are as lucky as hers, since some middle schools don’t push their students to succeed in the algebra sequence emphasized at Longfellow Middle. Because of the pace of math classes in high school, she said, students who arrive without algebra knowledge are a step behind, and may lose the chance to take advanced math classes. 

"I think math is a gatekeeper, and math can segregate students," she said.

She hopes for more equity in math education in the district, so fewer students fall behind and miss out on opportunities in high school and beyond. She added that it's important for students to take math all four years of high school, to be college ready.

When she's not teaching, Jones is busy parenting her 2 year-old son Roman with her husband, Jason. They enjoy walking to the Fourth Street shops and playing at the park behind the Berkeley Adult School. "In 2005 when we moved here, it was a parking lot," said Jones. "It was the community [that built the park], and I think that's a beautiful thing."

Although she feels like it's still a long shot, Jones has her fingers crossed that she'll win California's presidential award next year, one of her biggest goals. "I want to meet Obama!" she said with a laugh.

Clarification, 7/28/11: This article originially stated that there is an algebra and geometry sequence at Longfellow Middle School. The 2011-2012 school year is the first year geometry will be offered.