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''Stand and Deliver'' is a 1988 American
drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...
directed by
Ramón Menéndez Ramón Menéndez (born January 21, 1950) is a Cuban-American film director and screenwriter. He is best known for writing and directing the 1988 film '' Stand and Deliver''. His other film directing credits include '' Money for Nothing'' (1993) ...
, written by Menéndez and Tom Musca, based on the true story of a high school mathematics teacher,
Jaime Escalante Jaime Alfonso Escalante Gutiérrez (December 31, 1930 – March 30, 2010) was a Bolivian-American educator known for teaching students calculus from 1974 to 1991 at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles. Escalante was the subject of the 19 ...
. For portraying Escalante,
Edward James Olmos Edward James Olmos (born February 24, 1947) is an American actor, director, producer, and activist. He is best known for his roles as Lieutenant Martin "Marty" Castillo in ''Miami Vice'' (1984–1989), ''American Me'' (1992) (which he also dir ...
was nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Actor The Academy Award for Best Actor is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role in a film released that year. The ...
at the
61st Academy Awards The 61st Academy Awards ceremony, organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 1988, and took place on Wednesday, March 29, 1989, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, beginning at 6:00&nb ...
. The film won the
Independent Spirit Award for Best Feature The Independent Spirit Award for Best Film (or Best Feature) is one of the annual Independent Spirit Awards, presented to recognize the best in independent filmmaking, it was first awarded in 1985 with Martin Scorsese's film '' After Hours'' being ...
in 1988. The film's title refers to the 1987
Mr. Mister Mr. Mister was an American rock band from Phoenix, Arizona, active from 1982 until 1990. The band consisted of Richard Page (musician), Richard Page on lead vocals and bass guitar, Steve George (keyboardist), Steve George on keyboards/backing v ...
song of the same name, which is also featured in the film's ending credits. In 2011, the film was selected for preservation in the United States
National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation, each selected for its historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB’s inception i ...
by the
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".


Plot

In the early 1980s, Jaime Escalante becomes a mathematics teacher at James A. Garfield High School in
East Los Angeles East Los Angeles ( es, Este de Los Ángeles), or East L.A., is an unincorporated area in Los Angeles County, California. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 118,786, a drop of 6.1% from 2010, when it was 126,496. For statistical purpo ...
. The school is full of
Latino Latino or Latinos most often refers to: * Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America * Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States * The people or cultures of Latin America; ** Latin A ...
students from working-class families whose academic achievement is far below their grade level. Two students, Angel and another gangster, arrive late and question Escalante's authority. Escalante demonstrates how to multiply numbers using one's fingers and appeals to the students' sense of humor. After class, some gangsters threaten Escalante. After school, he stops the gangsters from fighting. He then introduces himself as a 'one-man gang' with the classroom as his domain. Escalante tells the students that he's decided to teach the students
algebra Algebra () is one of the broad areas of mathematics. Roughly speaking, algebra is the study of mathematical symbols and the rules for manipulating these symbols in formulas; it is a unifying thread of almost all of mathematics. Elementary a ...
. At a meeting, Escalante learns that the school's accreditation is under threat, as test scores are not high enough. Escalante says that students will rise to the level that is expected of them. Escalante gives the students a quiz every morning and a new student joins the class. He instructs his class under the philosophy of ''ganas'', roughly translating to "desire". Escalante tells other faculty that he wants to teach the students calculus. He seeks to change the school culture to help the students excel in academics, as he has seen the untapped potential of his class. Other teachers ridicule him, as the students have not taken the prerequisites. Escalante states that the students can take the prerequisites over the summer. He sets a goal of having the students take
Advanced Placement Calculus Advanced Placement (AP) Calculus (also known as AP Calc, Calc AB / Calc BC or simply AB / BC) is a set of two distinct Advanced Placement calculus courses and exams offered by the American nonprofit organization College Board. AP Calculus AB cove ...
by their senior year. The students sign up for the prerequisites over the summer. There is no air conditioning, but Escalante is able to teach the class, giving them oranges and telling them to focus so they can get good jobs and take vacations. In the fall, he gives the students contracts to be signed by the parents; they must come in on Saturdays, show up an hour early to school, and stay until 5pm in order to prepare for the AP Calculus exam. Two weeks before the students' exam, Escalante is teaching an ESL class to some adults. He suddenly clutches at his torso in pain, stumbles into the hallway, and falls. A substitute teacher is found for the students while Escalante recovers in the hospital, but the substitute teacher is a music teacher. Soon after, Escalante escapes from the hospital and shows up at school to continue teaching. After taking the exam, the students head to the beach and celebrate. All 18 students who took the exam pass it. At a meeting to congratulate the students, a plaque of appreciation is presented to Escalante. To the dismay of both Escalante and the students, the
Educational Testing Service Educational Testing Service (ETS), founded in 1947, is the world's largest private nonprofit educational testing and assessment organization. It is headquartered in Lawrence Township, New Jersey, but has a Princeton address. ETS develops var ...
questions the students' exam scores. Escalante finds an anonymous letter of resignation in his school mail and has to walk home that evening, as his car has been stolen from the school parking lot. Dismayed, he confides in his wife that he regrets having taught the students calculus, because they did well but nothing changed for them. The boys of the class show up at Escalante's house; they have fixed up his car as a way to thank him. Escalante meets with the investigators from Educational Testing Service, argues with them, but ultimately offers to have the students retake the test. Despite having only one day to prepare, all the students pass, and Escalante demands that the original scores be resubmitted.


Cast

*
Edward James Olmos Edward James Olmos (born February 24, 1947) is an American actor, director, producer, and activist. He is best known for his roles as Lieutenant Martin "Marty" Castillo in ''Miami Vice'' (1984–1989), ''American Me'' (1992) (which he also dir ...
as
Jaime Escalante Jaime Alfonso Escalante Gutiérrez (December 31, 1930 – March 30, 2010) was a Bolivian-American educator known for teaching students calculus from 1974 to 1991 at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles. Escalante was the subject of the 19 ...
*
Estelle Harris Estelle Harris (''née'' Nussbaum; April 22, 1928 – April 2, 2022) was an American actress and comedienne, known for her exaggerated shrill, grating voice. She was best known for her role as Estelle Costanza on ''Seinfeld''. Her other roles in ...
as Secretary * Virginia Paris as Raquel Ortega * Will Gotay as Francisco "Pancho" Garcia *
Ingrid Oliu Ingrid Oliu is an American actress. She played the role of Guadalupe "Lupe" Escobar in '' Stand and Deliver'', voiced Renee Montoya in '' Batman: The Animated Series'', and co-starred as Estela Garcia in the film ''Real Women Have Curves ''Rea ...
as Guadalupe "Lupe" Escobar *
Carmen Argenziano Carmen Antimo Argenziano (October 27, 1943February 10, 2019) was an American actor who appeared in over 73 movies and around 100 television movies or episodes. He was best known for playing Jacob Carter on ''Stargate SG-1''. He had recurring role ...
as Jesse Molina *
Rosanna DeSoto Rosanna DeSoto (born September 2, 1950) is an American actress who has performed in films and television. She is best known for her roles in ''Stand and Deliver'', for which she won an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female, and in '' ...
as Fabiola Escalante *
Vanessa Marquez Vanessa Rosalia Marquez (December 21, 1968 – August 30, 2018) was an American actress. She was primarily known for her recurring role in the first three seasons of '' ER'' as nurse Wendy Goldman, as well as her role as Ana Delgado in the 1988 b ...
as Ana Delgado *
Lou Diamond Phillips Louis Diamond Phillips ( born Upchurch; February 17, 1962) is a Filipino-American actor and film director. His breakthrough came when he starred as Ritchie Valens in the biographical drama film '' La Bamba'' (1987). For ''Stand and Deliver'' (198 ...
as Angel Guzman * Karla Montana as Claudia Camejo *
Lydia Nicole Lydia Nicole (born Lydia Fernandez) is an American actress, comedian, writer and producer based out of Los Angeles, California. Her career in the entertainment industry began in 1972 with the Inner City Broadcasting Corporation at New York City ...
as Rafaela Fuentes * James Victor as Ana's Father * Mark Eliot as Armando "Tito" Guitaro * Patrick Baca as Javier Perales *
Andy García Andrés Arturo García Menéndez (born April 12, 1956), known professionally as Andy García, is a Cuban-born American actor, director and musician. He first rose to prominence acting in Brian De Palma's ''The Untouchables'' (1987) alongside ...
as Ramirez


Historical accuracy

The film is accurate in that students in Escalante's class had to retake the test, and all who retook the test passed. The movie gives the impression that the incident occurred in the second year Escalante was teaching, after students from his first year took a summer session for the calculus prerequisites. In fact, Escalante first began teaching at Garfield High School in 1974 and taught his first Advanced Placement Calculus course in 1978 with a group of 14 students, and it was in 1982 that the exam incident occurred. In the first year (1978), only five students remained in the course at the end of the year, only two of whom passed the AP Calculus exam. Writing in ''
Reason Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, ...
'', Jerry Jesness stated, "Unlike the students in the movie, the real Garfield students required years of solid preparation before they could take calculus... So Escalante established a program at
East Los Angeles College East Los Angeles College (ELAC) is a public community college in Monterey Park, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. It is part of the California Community Colleges System and the Los Angeles Community College District. With fourteen communiti ...
where students could take those classes in intensive seven-week summer sessions. Escalante and rincipal HenryGradillas were also instrumental in getting the feeder schools to offer algebra in the eighth and ninth grades." In 1987, 27 percent of all Mexican Americans who scored three or higher on the AP Calculus exam were students at Garfield High. Escalante himself described the film as "90 percent truth, 10 percent drama". He said that several points were left out of the film. He pointed out that no student who did not know multiplication tables or fractions was ever taught calculus in a single year. Also, he suffered inflammation of the gall bladder, not a heart attack. Ten of the 1982 students signed waivers to allow the
College Board The College Board is an American nonprofit organization that was formed in December 1899 as the College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB) to expand access to higher education. While the College Board is not an association of colleges, it runs a ...
to show their exams to
Jay Mathews Jay Mathews is an author and education columnist with the ''Washington Post''. Career Mathews has worked at the ''Washington Post'' writing news reports and books about China, disability rights, the stock market, and education. He writes the ''Cla ...
, the author of ''Escalante: The Best Teacher in America''. Mathews found that nine of them had made "identical silly mistakes" on free response question six. Mathews heard from two of the students that during the exam, a piece of paper had been passed around with that flawed solution. Twelve students, including the nine with the identical mistakes, retook the exam, and most of them received the top four and five scores. Mathews concluded that nine of the students did cheat, but they knew the material and did not need to. Mathews wrote in the ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' that the Ana Delgado character "was the only teenage character in the film based on a real person" and that her name had been changed.


Reception

On the
review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
website
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, the movie holds a score of 90% from 61 reviews. The website's consensus reads, "''Stand and Deliver'' pulls off the unlikely feat of making math class the stuff of underdog drama -- and pays rousing tribute to a real-life inspirational figure in the bargain."
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
has given the film a score of 77 out of 100 based on 11 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


Accolades


Legacy

In December 2011, ''Stand and Deliver'' was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
and selected for preservation in the
National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation, each selected for its historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB’s inception i ...
. The Registry said the film was "one of the most popular of a new wave of narrative feature films produced in the 1980s by Latino filmmakers" and that it "celebrates in a direct, approachable, and impactful way, values of self-betterment through hard work and power through knowledge." The film is recognized by the
American Film Institute The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees. Leade ...
as #86 on its 2006 AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers list. In 2016, the United States Postal Service issued a 1st Class Forever "Jaime Escalante" stamp to honor "the East Los Angeles teacher whose inspirational methods led supposedly 'unteachable' high school students to master calculus."


See also

*
1988 in film The following is an overview of events in 1988 in film, including the highest-grossing films, award ceremonies and festivals, a list of films released and notable deaths. Highest-grossing films The top 10 films released in 1988 by worldwide gro ...
* AFI's 100 Years... 100 Cheers *
List of American films of 1988 A list of American films released in 1988. ''Rain Man'' won the Academy Award for Best Picture. A B-C D-G H-K L-M N-Q R-S T-Z See also * 1988 in American television * 1988 in the United States References Extern ...
*
Mathematics education in the United States From kindergarten through high school, mathematics education in public schools in the United States has historically varied widely from state to state, and often even varies considerably within individual states. With the adoption of the Common Co ...


References


External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Stand And Deliver 1988 films 1988 drama films 1988 independent films 1988 directorial debut films 1980s coming-of-age drama films Hispanic and Latino American drama films American biographical drama films American coming-of-age drama films American high school films American independent films Films about mathematics Films about race and ethnicity Films directed by Ramón Menéndez Drama films based on actual events Films scored by Craig Safan Films set in Los Angeles Films set in 1982 Independent Spirit Award for Best Film winners Mexican-American films United States National Film Registry films Biographical films about mathematicians Biographical films about educators American Playhouse 1980s English-language films 1980s American films