staff writer, Washington Post
Staff writer for the Washington Post and author of Escalante: The Best Teacher in America
PROFILE
Jay Mathews
Guest
FROM Jay Mathews
Which Way, L.A.?
Legacy of the Teacher Who Made Students Stand and Deliver In 1988, the film Stand and Deliver made a celebrity out of a Bolivian-born calculus teacher at LA's Garfield High School. Edward James Olmos played the starring role of Jaime Escalante, who died yesterday of cancer at the age of 79. Jay Mathews was LA bureau chief for the Washington Post in those days, and he had written a book called Escalante : the Best Teacher in America. We remember this giant of education with Mathews, colleagues and former students.
To the Point
New Orleans, Charter Schools and the Education Reform Charter schools are being touted as the free-market alternative for parents whose kids are stuck in failing institutions, especially in inner cities. In the aftermath of Katrina, with 53% of its public-school students enrolled in charter schools, New Orleans has embraced so many charter schools it's become "ground zero" for the entire movement. It's the logical place for this week's conference of the National Alliance for Public School Charters . We ask New Orleans' superintendent and others what works and what doesn't. Are entrenched bureaucracies being overcome? Are teachers' unions coming around? Most important: are charters upgrading student achievement?
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