Jaime Escalante: Remembering The Best Teacher in America

On March 30, 2010, Jaime Escalante, the best teacher in America, passed away.  Mr. Escalante immigrated from Bolivia to America to become the best teacher, at one of the worst performing high schools, in America.  With a few committed teachers, he taught calculus to students at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles from 1974 to 1991, and proved that poor inner-city students could achieve success on national standardized tests if teachers and students were committed to success.  His triumphs were memorialized in the 1988 film, Stand and Deliver. 

Mr. Escalante studied science and mathematics in Bolivia knowing that these skills would be useful to him when he immigrated to the United States in 1963 speaking no English.  He studied math at night while working at a computer company during the day.  He ultimately earned his mathematics degree from California State University, Los Angeles, and began teaching at Garfield High that same year. 

Escalante began a calculus advanced placement (AP) class in 1979 even though the administration wanted him to gear his classes to poorly performing students.  He clashed with the high school administration for many years over his establishing advanced classes.  An assistant principal threatened to fire him because he came in too early, left too late, and failed to seek the administration’s permission to raise funds for the student’s AP tests.  In the private sector, success would have been widely copied; in the public school system it was seen as a threat, until a new, innovative principal took over at Garfield.  The new principal and Escalante worked together to overhaul the math curriculum to encourage students to try to achieve success in advanced math classes. 

What started with five students taking the AP exam (and two passing), the program grew to 73 students in 1987 passing the AB AP calculus exam, and 12 passing the BC AP exam.  In 1988, a book and the movie Stand and Deliver appeared.  The Garfield principal who supported Escalante went on sabbatical, and as Escalante’s stature soared, the administration under the new principal began to undermine his position.  The other teachers saw competition and Escalante weakening their bargaining position by showing that teaching even larger classes was feasible in the teacher were dedicated.   By 1990, the math department chairmanship was taken away from him.  His enrichment program in math had grown to over 400 students, and his class sizes were sometimes in excess of 50 students, above the teacher’s union limit of 35.  In 1991, over 500 Garfield students were taking AP exams, in math and other subjects.  However, due to the administration and teacher union pressures Escalante left Garfield High School. 

Garfield’s math department declined after Escalante’s departure and never recovered.  During his tenure, his students did not just do well in math, but they improved and scored well in other subjects as well, and the students began entering the University of Southern California and California State University, Los Angeles in disproportionate numbers compared to other East Los Angeles High Schools. 

Escalante’s legacy is not just one of dedication to educating our young citizens, it is also about how public bureaucracies and teacher unions stifle innovation and success.  Yes, there are excellent teachers in our schools, but rigid work rules, and tolerance of consistent failure plague the public schools in the United States.  We should find more Jaime Escalante’s and give them a free hand to remake the public school system.