Jaime Escalante: An educator who stood and delivered for kids | Kevin Johnson

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Jaime Escalante: An educator who stood and delivered for kids

I just learned that a great American educator, Jaime Escalante, lost his battle with cancer. I am saddened by the loss of this remarkable educator, and wanted to take a minute to reflect on his contributions to students. Through his students' remarkable success on the AP Calculus exam, Escalante proved that poor and minority kids could perform at the very highest levels academically.
Our community must take this lesson to heart. Until we truly believe that ALL Sacramento students can learn--regardless of background or zip code--we will continue to suffer from crippling achievement gaps in our city and region.
While most people know that Edward James Olmos played Escalante in the movie "Stand and Deliver," fewer people know that Mr. Escalante ended his teaching career as a math teacher at Hiram Johnson High School. Mr. Escalante retired from teaching several years ago, but I took a minute today to look at the current student results at Hiram Johnson.
As I reviewed the reports, I was blown away to learn that last year at Hiram Johnson, only one out of every three ninth grade students could read at grade level. Looking at the math results, I saw that only 15% of the students who took the end of course Algebra exam were proficient or above.
Superintendent Jonathan Raymond has identified Hiram Johnson as a priority school for next year. I fully support his vision and efforts to turn around Johnson and six other failing schools. Escalante told his students: "Determination. Plus discipline. Plus hard work. That is the path." The adults in Sacramento need to follow that path as we make difficult decisions and commit to truly put the interests of children first.
Jaime Escalante spent the last few months of his life in Sacramento with his son. As Sacramentans, we must take up his struggle for educational equity. Education is the civil rights issue of our time. I ran for Mayor to improve education for students in Sacramento and I will be calling on all of us in the coming year to step up and make a difference for our children.