Escalante Will Still Stand and Deliver at Garfield

Famous calculus instructor Jaime Escalante has changed his mind about leaving Garfield High School and will continue teaching there for at least two more years.

Escalante, who said three weeks ago he would resign from the school, possibly as early as June, said Friday he had a change of heart after meeting with school district officials and receiving more than 500 letters and calls from former students and concerned community members.

“Everything is cool now,” the 59-year-old Escalante said in an interview. “For the time being, I will stay here. This is where I belong and the kids appreciate what I do.”

Escalante, whose success at teaching calculus to inner-city Latino students at the East Los Angeles school inspired the 1988 movie “Stand and Deliver,” had announced he would leave Garfield because of frustration with parents who do not value academic achievement, as well as lack of recognition from other teachers and inadequate administrative support.

“All those things accumulated, and I decided it was time to pack my bags and be on my way,” said Escalante, who has taught in the Los Angeles Unified School District for 16 years.

Garfield Principal Maria Elena Tostado said she is “happy he is staying.”

A key factor in his decision to stay at Garfield, Escalante said, was his supervision of a National Science Foundation program at East Los Angeles College, which draws about 1,000 students every year. The program teaches mainly low-income Latino students accelerated mathematics, science and English, and also trains teachers in Escalante’s methods.

“If I left, I couldn’t do the program,” he said, adding that 85% of its students “are from East L.A., mainly from Garfield. If I left the school, I would loose my recruitment network and I would have to give preference to my new job.”

The Bolivian-born educator is finishing the first year of a three-year contract for the program at the college and said he does not feel it is right to leave now. “But I cannot predict what will happen” once that commitment is fulfilled, he said.

Escalante said he had received a number of job offers in the past three weeks, including teaching positions at USC and Pasadena City College, as well as several offers from private businesses. President Bush and Gov. George Deukmejian also offered him unspecified federal or state jobs involved with education, he said.