Stand and Deliver

Originally a motion picture released by Warner Brothers, this Oscar-nominated drama is the compelling true story of a dedicated East Los Angeles teacher who surmounts overwhelming odds in his quest to turn inner-city students into whiz kids. When Jaime Escalante leaves a career in engineering to teach high school math, he is assigned to a barrio school with a reputation for gangs, drugs and dropouts, an ill-funded school that is also in imminent danger of losing its accreditation. Still, his quirky sense of humor, antics and offbeat teaching methods mesmerize and motivate his students. Escalante sets the tough goal for his students to take the AP Calculus Test. They all pass! However, the Educational Testing Service invalidates the scores because of the unusual similarity of wrong answers. Reluctantly, the students agree to retest. This play chronicles the real-life efforts of a teacher who stopped at nothing to support and defend his students. Stand and Deliver serves as a love letter to Latin American excellence and perseverance.