Jaime Escalante

Pictured on a 'forever' USA commemorative postage stamp issued 13 July 2016. Price on day of issue was 47¢.

Pictured on a 2-boliviano commemorative postage stamp issued by Bolivia 20 January 2011.

By 1987, Garfield High's A. P. calculus program had outpaced Beverly High's.

In 1982, so many students passed that the Educational Testing Service invalidated the scores, believing that the students had cheated. Most of the pupils retook the test and passed, making Escalante a national hero. In recognition of his incredible achievements, Escalante was awarded the United States Presidential Medal and the Andres Bello award by the Organization of American States.

In 1980, seven of his students passed the test. A year later, 14 students passed the test.

In 1979, two of his students passed the A. P. test.

In 1976 he began teaching at Garfield High School, in east Los Angeles, California, where drugs, gangs and violence were facts of daily life. Despite these obstacles, Escalante was able to motivate a small group of students to take the AP calculus exam.

Jaime Escalante was born to two Bolivian schoolteachers who taught in a small Aymara Indian village. After 9 years of teaching in Bolivia, Escalante moved to the United States in 1964, and worked as a busboy, a cook, and an electronics factory technician. He attended the Universidad de Puerto Rico, later moving to California and studying at Pasadena City College, earning a degree in Electronics.