Forget Michael Jackson, forget Keith Ledger, forget Farah Fawcett. They were all pretenders ; JaimeEscalante was the real deal.
Escalante died a few days ago amid far too little media coverage. Born in Bolivia, he moved to the US in 1964. When he got to the US, he could not speak English but he learned it fast. He studied at night at Pasadena City College and earned an AA degree in Biology and eventually a BS degree at Cal State Los Angeles in Mathematics.
He first worked in the private sector but eventually got a teachers job at Garfield High School. Determined to change the status quo, Escalante had to persuade the first few students who would listen to him that they could control their futures with the right education (as opposed to the Ethnomusicology studies that some were suggesting).
Escalante continued to teach at Garfield High, but it was not until 1979 that Escalante instructed his first calculus class. By 1981, the class had 15 students, 14 of whom passed.
In 1982, Escalante came into the national spotlight when 18 of his students passed the Advanced Placement calculus exam. The Educational Testing Service found these scores to be suspicious, because all of the students made the exact same math error on problem #6, and also used the same unusual variable names. Fourteen of those who passed were asked to take the exam again. Twelve of the 14 agreed to retake the test and did well enough to have their scores reinstated.
In 1983, the number of students enrolling and passing the A.P. calculus test more than doubled. That year 33 students took the exam and 30 passed. By 1987, 73 students passed the A.P. calculus AB exam and another 12 passed the BC version of the test.
1988 saw the release of a book Escalante: The Best Teacher in America by Jay Mathews (ISBN 0-8050-1195-1) and the movie Stand and Deliver ( a very good movie) detailing the events of 1982. During this time he shared with them: "The key to my success with youngsters is a very simple and time-honored tradition: hard work for teacher and student alike". In my mind he introduced the first “charter school” principles.
By the way, he was opposed to bilingual education. Apparently he thought that our immigrants needed to learn the English language to be successful.
We will miss him.
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