It Take Ganas: Jaime Escalante's Secret to Inspired Learning

Great teachers are typically unknown beyond the immediate circle of their students, colleagues, and families. That was not the case with Jaime Escalante. Escalante taught calculus with outstanding success at Garfield High, in a tough Hispanic neighborhood of East Los Angeles. Escalante's success was portrayed in the 1988 film Stand and Deliver, for which Edward James Olmos, who played Escalante, received an Oscar nomination. At its height, Escalante's program at Garfield say 85 students pass the Advanced Placement calculus test, more than any but a handful of high schools across the nation.

Stand and Deliver ended on a high note, celebrating Escalante's achievements. But few people know what happened thereafter. Escalante's brilliant math program didn't survive his departure in 1991. Within a few years, math scores at Garfield settled back into the realm of low expectations.

What happened? It Takes Ganas reviews how Escalante achieved his unprecedented success, which remains unmatched. But it also recounts the largely untold story of entropy and inertia that quickly returned Garfield to the status quo. Most importantly, this book asks, and answers, what it would take to replicate Escalante's success.

The answer turns out to be surprisingly straightforward, though not easy. The key is an unwavering desire to do what needs to get done on the part of teachers, administrators, students, parents, and everyone involved. In other words, Ganas.