Algebra Academy Expansion to Reach 25% of ESL Students

The Chamber is setting a goal to expand the Mike Hauser Algebra Academy from 60 to 300 students per year, reaching 25% of the ESL 8th grade students in Sonoma County in an effort to boost graduation rates and ensure an educated future workforce in our area.

The program will increase in steps, with 2014 seeing 150 area students enrolled including 30 in Healdsburg -- to date the program has only served Santa Rosa schools.

Feedback from the education community has both strongly endorsed this expansion and stressed the importance of having the Chamber and the business community run the program. A variety of organizations support this effort including Santa Rosa City Schools, Sonoma County Office of Education (SCOE), Roseland Prep, Healdsburg School District, Santa Rosa Junior College, and the John Jordan Foundation.

Launched in 2007, the Algebra Academy was the vision of the late Mike Hauser. He understood the importance of ensuring an educated and trained workforce for the businesses in Santa Rosa and realized that, if we fail to increase the graduation rates of students for whom English is a second language, we will lose any real hope of maintaining and growing that workforce.

Since one of the key precursors for high school graduation is mastery of algebra, he reasoned that giving students for whom English is a second language a head start with a summer program that combined algebra with real world experience in local companies would help us improve that graduation rate. Now, six years later, his vision has been proved true as 60 students have participated in and benefited from the Mike Hauser Algebra Academy each year.

Programs such as the Mike Hauser Algebra Academy exemplify the Chamber's ongoing commitment to workforce development and its importance for our member businesses. Our business community's future success is dependent on the workers' skills, and the Algebra Academy is one means for the Chamber to directly and dramatically improve the skills of our future workforce.