ELAC News articles
March 14th, 2007
Escalante Story 2007
Escalante Math Program Director Fernando Fernandez with program
founder, Jaime Escalante.
Angelo Villavicencio helps one of his students with pre-calculus. A
teacher with the Escalante Math Program since 1986, he has received many
awards including ARCO’s Jaime Escalante Award in 1989, 1990 Teacher of the
Year at Garfield High School and the Simmons Foundation’s Advanced Placement
College Board Award in 2001.
Successful Escalante Program Adds More Classes for Summer 2007
Last summer we enrolled 2,500 students in the Escalante math program.
Completers developed math and study skills that are the ticket to acceptance
to university programs.
Fernando Fernandez, Director: ELAC Escalante Math Program
“I really love math,” says Norberto Sanchez who was 12 years old when he
enrolled in East Los Angeles College’s Escalante Math Program. “My brother
is an engineering student at Cal State LA and he brings me to ELAC everyday.
It’s cool to go to college for classes. I like to reprogram my computer
games when I’m not studying for my math classes. I plan to go to MIT when I
graduate from high school.”
Norberto took Algebra II during the summer so he could accelerate and complete the sequence of math classes (Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, Trigonometry and Math Analysis) at the rate of one class per year through four years of high school enabling him to take calculus during his senior year.
Escalante students who complete two classes qualify for a second advanced placement (AP) Calculus course at their high schools and increase their grade point averages because they earn five points for a grade of A in an AP course versus four points in a regular course and are more desirable to universities.
The primary objective of the Escalante Math Program is to engage
inner-city youths in a demanding academic regimen of pre-college and college
mathematics so they can improve their chances of being accepted to
university-level math and science programs. The concept was developed by
mathematics instructor Jaime Escalante in 1980 while teaching at Garfield
High School. His innovative total immersion mathematics program was the
subject of a feature motion pictured entitled Stand and Deliver, which
starred Edward James Olmos who also attended ELAC.
East Los Angeles College adopted the program in the 1990s and invites
students from middle and high schools to start the program when they are in
the seventh grade with pre-algebra or basic math. Students are primarily
Asian and Hispanic and women account for 58% of enrollment. The mathematical
“boot-camp” is offered four hours per day, five days a week during the
summer.
Classes are designed to cover one year of high school mathematics (two semesters) in seven weeks. Two standardized tests are given during the program to ensure course content is fully covered. All students take the UCLA math readiness exams before they finish the program and the results are used to evaluate the Escalante curriculum and recommend the student for the next level. Students who do not receive a passing grade are encouraged to retake the equivalent course at their high school.
“The program has been enormously successful and continues to expand,” comments Fernando Fernandez, program director and former Garfield High School math instructor. “We hire first-class teachers who are not only skilled math instructors, but are committed to student success. Tutoring is a critical component of the program. We are also teaching students study skills so they can cope with the fast pace typical of college classes. Our tutors are usually former students who have gone on to university programs and return to help Escalante students during the summer. They are role models as well as tutors.”
Anabel Tover enrolled in the Escalante Program when she was in the tenth
grade at Roosevelt High School. She took Algebra II so she could accelerate
her math sequence and then took Trigonometry the following summer so she
could take calculus as a high school senior. She entered UC Berkeley as a
biology major but has returned to East Los Angeles to tutor Escalante
students during the summer.
“The Escalante program prepared me for fast-paced university courses,” she
explained. “It’s a good thing that I was well prepared scholastically
because I was homesick during my freshman year and had to live in several
places because I couldn’t get university housing. If I had trouble studying,
I would have never made it.”
“Last summer we offered the Escalante program at 20 locations and were
able to serve 2,500 students,” claims Mr. Fernandez. “This summer we are
adding an afternoon session at ELAC’s Rosemead Educational Center because
our morning classes are full. Our committed faculty and tutors are
responding to a community need to encourage inner-city students to continue
their education.”
Enrollment in the program is free of charge and includes use of books and
calculators provided by community and corporate donations given to the East
Los Angeles College Foundation. Phone 323-267-3761 to enroll in afternoon
Summer 2007 classes at ELAC’s Rosemead Educational Center (formerly Dan T.
Williams Elementary) located at 2444 Del Mar Avenue, Rosemead.