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Jaime Escalante, the brilliant public school teacher immortalized in the 1988 film, "Stand and Deliver," died this week at the age of 79. With the help of a few dedicated colleagues at Garfield High in East Los Angeles, he shattered the myth that poor inner-city kids couldn't handle advanced math. At the peak of its success, Garfield produced more students who passed Advanced Placement calculus than Beverly Hills High. In any other field, his methods would have been widely copied. Instead, Escalante's success was resented. And while the teachers union contract limited class sizes to 35, Escalante could not bring...

It is with great sadness, heavy heart, and moist eyes that I pass on the news to you that Jaime Escalante died today in Reno, Nevada while undergoing cancer treatment. Escalante has been one of my heroes since my days covering education in Los Angeles for the LA Daily News in the early 1990s. He was 79.

California Gubernatorial Candidate Arnold Schwartzenegger has tapped 72 year old Compton, Ca. Advanced Placement Calculus teacher Jamie Escalante to advise him on education issues.Mr. Escalante is known for the 1987 film 'Stand and Deliver' which details his career teaching college math to East Los Angeles High School students.

'Stand And Deliver' Teacher Signs Up With Arnold LOS ANGELES -- The teacher made famous by the movie "Stand and Deliver" has signed up with Arnold Schwarzenegger's gubernatorial-recall election campaign as an educational adviser. One the same day that the state's AFL-CIO union agreed to endorse Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante's "No on Recall, Yes on Bustamante" strategy, Schwarzenegger campaign picked up one of its own. The Los Angeles Times reported that Jaime Escalante, the East Los Angeles calculus teacher whose ability to turn poor teenagers into top students inspired the movie, has agreed to advise Schwarzenegger on education issues. There...

July 2002 Stand and Deliver Revisited The untold story behind the famous rise -- and shameful fall -- of Jaime Escalante, America’s master math teacher. By Jerry Jesness Thanks to the popular 1988 movie Stand and Deliver, many Americans know of the success that Jaime Escalante and his students enjoyed at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles. During the 1980s, that exceptional teacher at a poor public school built a calculus program rivaled by only a handful of exclusive academies.It is less well-known that Escalante left Garfield after problems with colleagues and administrators, and that his calculus program...