Buried Treasure

Jaime Escalante became famous teaching advanced mathematics to poor students at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles. A book was written about him, President-elect George Bush mentioned him during his campaign, and he was even the subject of a movie. But, with typical modesty, Escalante points out that his success in the classroom would not have been possible without support from a principal who believed in the potential of his students.

That is why it was big news--not just in Los Angeles but across the nation as well--when the man who ran Garfield High when Escalante launched his dramatic teaching experiment, Henry Gradillas, was shunted into an obscure administrative job deep within the bureaucracy of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Gradillas left Garfield in 1987 to finish his work toward a doctoral degree. But when he returned to the district last August, he was put to work overseeing school asbestos inspections. To outsiders it looked as if he were being underutilized at best and being sent into academic exile at worst.

Los Angeles school officials are understandably defensive about the negative publicity that Gradillas’ new job generated. They say that it was temporary until a more suitable administrative position for Gradillas became available. But, in the meantime, State Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig offered Gradillas a job at the state level, and he agreed to take it.

In an effort to maintain Gradillas’ ties to Los Angeles, local officials are now negotiating with Honig to share him with the state education department on a temporary basis. That is an acceptable solution for now. But principals like Gradillas are every bit as important as teachers like Escalante, so the sooner Gradillas is back in Los Angeles, doing what he does best, the better off the city’s schools will be.