Who is Jaime Escalante?
Jaime Escalante was a well-known Bolivian educator. Jaime Escalante started teaching mathematics to troubled students in a Los Angeles high school and quickly rose to prominence for successfully guiding a large number of them through the advanced placement calculus test.
Jaime Escalante- Birth, Parents, Siblings & Education
Jaime Escalante was born on December 31, 1930, in La Paz, Bolivia, to Zenobio Escalante and Sara Escalante, both elementary school teachers. He was the youngest of three siblings, the other two being sisters and one being a brother.
He received his early education at San Calixto, a prestigious Jesuit high school where he developed a strong interest in mathematics and engineering.
In the 1960s, he left Bolivia in search of a better life in the United States, eventually earning an Associate of Arts degree from Pasadena City College in 1969.
He enrolled at California State University, Los Angeles, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1972.
He eventually received teaching credentials from both California State University and Florida State University.
Net Worth of Jaime Escalante? Salary, Earnings
Jaime Escalante’s net worth is $1.9 million.
Relationship, Married Life, Boyfriend/Girlfriend
Jaime Escalante met Fabiola Tapia at Normal Superior and the couple married on November 25, 1954. Fernando was born in 1969, and Jaime Jr. was born in 1955.
On March 30, 2010, he died of bladder cancer in Roseville, California, at the age of 79.
He was laid to rest in the Rose Hills Memorial Park at Whittier Lakeside Gardens.
Body Measurement- Height, Weight, Hair Color
Jaime Escalante’s height is unknown.
Jaime Escalante- Professional Career
Escalante was hired as a teacher at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles, California, in 1974.
He found himself in a difficult situation when he was assigned to teach mathematics to troubled students at a rundown school rife with violence and drug use.
Rather than tailoring his classes to low-performing students, he offered to teach advanced placement calculus to them and launched an advanced mathematics program with only a few students.
When his then-largest class of 18 students took and passed an advanced placement calculus test in 1982, he gained national attention. On the other hand, the students were accused of cheating on the test, to which he reacted angrily.
He suspected the results had been tampered with because they came from Hispanic students at a low-income high school.
When some of the students agreed to retake the test, they were rewarded when they passed the second time.
Over the next few years, his calculus program grew, but he received threats and hate mail from a variety of sources.
By 1990, he had lost the chairmanship of the mathematics department. The following year, he left Garfield and went to work at Hiram W. Johnson High School in Sacramento, California.
However, he did not appear to be as successful in his new position as he had been in his previous one, and he retired from teaching in 1998.
After several years of preparing teenagers for the AP Calculus exam, he returned to Bolivia and began teaching at the ‘Universidad Privada del Valle’ in 2001.
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Social Media
His social media handles are unknown.
Quick Facts of Jaime Escalante
- Born into a family of educators, he discovered his true passion was teaching and decided to follow in their footsteps.
- He is best known for his work as a math teacher at Garfield High School, where he inspired a group of students to excel in advanced algebra, trigonometry, and calculus
- His net worth is $1.9 million.
- On March 30, 2010, he died of bladder cancer in Roseville, California, at the age of 79.
- The 1988 Hollywood film ‘Stand and Deliver’ was inspired by his life and times as a teacher, as well as how he impacted the lives of his students.
