of why, in inner-city schools and elsewhere, approximately 50% of teachers leave the profession within the first five years?
Was Jaime Escalante a true improvement in the system? Or not? Was he an exemplary teacher?
Was he a model of change? Or was he a one-of-a-kind flash in the pan?
Was he an example of how change happens in public schools? An example of why education will not improve, despite the best efforts of the best teachers?
Are standout, brilliant teachers like Escalante the answer to a distressed educational system? “Savior” teachers like Olmos’s Escalante, Sidney Poitier in “To Sir with Love,” (1967) or Michelle Pfeiffer in “Dangerous Minds” (1995) all make for good drama. They sell tickets to the movie theater to moviegoers who