Garfield High Math Program

I was surprised that your staff writer failed to contact me, the current head of the Mathematics Department at Garfield High School, before publishing the article on our advanced placement mathematics program (“Math, Minus Escalante, Suffers,” Oct. 23).

It is true that the proportion of students passing the first-year Advanced Placement calculus examinations has regressed. It is also true that losing Jaime Escalante was a heavy blow to our program. However, the percent of students passing the second-year Advanced Placement calculus examinations has actually increased since Escalante left (Jaime achieved a greater passing rate in only two of the seven years he taught a full second-year calculus class at Garfield). Also, Garfield is one of only a few high schools in Los Angeles (and the only one in the East L.A. area) to even offer a second-year calculus course. Students from other schools spend their first period at our school to take this course and then return to their various home schools.

It is also a fact that the proportion of students passing the first-year Advanced Placement calculus examinations has gradually decreased since the first few years of the program (including during the Escalante era). The reasons are not simple and are only partially explicated below.

As was mentioned in the article, students continue to arrive less well prepared. And our students really do miss their mathematics teacher. Yet, the students at Garfield High are wonderfully motivated. Nevertheless, Garfield is currently the only high school in the Los Angeles Unified School District on a four-track schedule. This means we are teaching many calculus (and other) students their groundwork for the course during August in, mostly, non-air-conditioned classrooms. Other students on our campus begin in July, complete the course months before the exam, and have scant opportunity to review. In addition, there have been administrative lapses regarding teachers of mathematics. Such blunders are among the reasons that three of our calculus teachers have left Garfield High School.

During the beginning years of the program Escalante selected his students from among the best at Garfield. Now all students are encouraged to attend Advanced Placement mathematics classes. Escalante’s pupils were required to attend Saturday sessions. No funds now support these extracurricular learning activities.

Too, the impending pay cuts and strike have had a negative impact on teachers morale and, consequently, upon students.

STU ADLER, Chairperson, Department of Mathematics