Jaime Escalante: The Calculus Teacher Who Changed American Education

Jaime Escalante, the math teacher immortalized in the movie Stand and Deliver, died earlier this week. But he leaves an astonishing legacy behind.

By Kathryn Hawkins. Posted on April 01 2010

Any teacher would probably agree that high school is a tough crowd. But when math teacher Jaime Escalante stepped into East Los Angeles’ Garfield High School in 1974, he was so disheartened by his students’ poor attitudes towards education that he almost quit then and there. Luckily for them, though, he decided to stick it out: before long, the humble math teacher from Bolivia had brought about one of the most dramatic academic transformations the world has ever seen.

Escalante, who died of bladder cancer on March 30th, did what many thought to be impossible: he taught sophisticated calculus concepts to inner-city teens, many of whom had never shown any interest in the academic world before. Even though school administrators believed Escalante should water down his teachings and gear them towards low-achievers, Escalante felt that the students weren’t lacking—their lessons were the problem.

In 1979, Escalante created an Advanced Placement Calculus class, and required students to solve a math problem to enter the classroom each day. Though few students were interested in taking such a rigorous course, Escalante convinced them of their potential, telling them about the high-paying jobs in engineering and other subjects that they would be eligible for if they did well. In the first year, he had just five AP calculus students, but he made a big impression on them.

“I’ll teach you math and that’s your language,” he told them. “With that you’re going to make it. You’re going to college and sit in the first row, not the back, because you’re going to know more than anybody.”

These students, who were mainly from poor, Mexican-American families, had never had anyone believe in them the way that Escalante did. They were eager to prove him right—and they did.

That first year, two of the five students in Escalante’s class passed the A.P. calculus test, a rigorous exam that is given to just 2 percent of high-achieving students all over the country. Although that level of success was remarkable on its own, Escalante’s students in the following years showed even more groundbreaking results: by 1982, 18 of his students had passed the test. For any school district, this level of achievement was remarkable—but for an urban, impoverished school in Los Angeles, it was completely unheard of.

The Educational Testing Service caused a stir over the surprisingly high results, claiming that Escalante’s students had cheated. But when 12 of the students were retested, they passed the test again. There was no cheating going on. Just great teaching.

Escalante’s success was due to his passion for the subject, and his willingness to go to any lengths necessary to get his students involved. He made calculus’ abstract formulas comprehensible by comparing them to sports moves. If a student had trouble understanding a concept, he would work with the teen until late in the evening, and drive the student home when he’d finally mastered it.

It didn’t take long for Escalante’s achievements to get him on the national radar: in 1988, the movie Stand and Deliver, a fictionalized version of his classroom experiences, was made.

As for Escalante’s students, many went on to top schools including MIT, Harvard, and Yale, becoming top students there. And now that their teacher is gone, many have reunited to honor his memory.

45-year-old Elsa Bolado, a former pupil, is now an elementary school teacher herself.

“Teaching is an art form,” she told CBS. “There’s a lot of practitioners and very few artists. He was a master artist.”

Learn more about Jaime Ascalante:
Watch Stand and Deliver
Read about Ascalante’s methods in Reason Magazine

Filed under: Features, Heroes, History,

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