Hope High School student Comfort Dentot uses a graphing calculator during a quiz in her algebra class.

The Providence Journal / Andrew Dickerman Andrew Dickerman

PROVIDENCE — Brown University President Ruth Simmons has made a $25,000 personal donation to help purchase graphing calculators for the entire ninth-grade class at Hope High School.

In an interview yesterday, Simmons said that she has long been fascinated by the idea of personal philanthropy and said she really wants her personal dollars to go toward something meaningful in the Providence public schools. When Texas Instruments approached her about its Algebra in Motion project, Simmons thought, “Why not do this in Providence?”

“Brown wants to raise an endowment to support public education in Providence,” she said after yesterday’s news conference at Hope High School. “I wanted to make sure that my contribution was in line with what the university wants to do.”

Texas Instruments, in partnership with Brown, has provided 350 graphing calculators, enough for every ninth-grade algebra student, their math teachers and volunteers from the Swearer Center for Public Service at Brown University. Simmons paid for more than half of the calculators and Texas Instruments covered the rest.

The calculators are mini-computers that allow students to perform a variety of algebraic functions, from quadratic equations to graphs.

Hope High School is the first school in New England to participate in the Algebra in Motion program developed by Texas Instruments. In Texas and Ohio, students who routinely used this technology improved their understanding of math concepts and boosted their math scores, according to Texas Instruments.

After the speeches, four high school students put their new calculators to use, converting projectile rates into graphs and measuring the area of a triangle.

“Some people think this is controversial,” said Sean Geoghegan, a math teacher at Hope. “But the world is changing. All of our Brown students know how to use this technology and today’s high school students will be asked to do the same.”

Yesterday, Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline, who joked that he is “math phobic,” said that this is the beginning of a strong partnership between “a great university, a great high school and a great company.” And Arthur Petrosinelli, one of three principals at Hope High School, praised Simmons and Texas Instruments for helping Hope on its road to academic recovery.

Last year, Brown University began to outline specific areas in which the university could make a difference in the public schools, specifically in math and science instruction. The discussion is part of a larger commitment by Brown to improve public education in Rhode Island, specifically in Providence. Last fall, the 17-member Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice wrote that one of the most meaningful ways for Brown to take responsibility for its past is to improve the quality of education, especially in the urban districts.

Brown has since promised to devote millions of dollars to improving public education in the Providence area, including a $10-million endowment to create an education fund for the city’s children.

Besides providing 15 volunteers to serve as teaching assistants at Hope, Brown covered the cost of replacing math teachers while they were trained to use the new technology. The university, through its Urban Education Policy Program, will also assess the effectiveness of the program. Meanwhile, Texas Instruments paid for 30 hours of professional training for Hope’s math teachers.

lborg@projo.com