From Jaime Escalante to KIPP

During his presentation today, Washington Post education journalist Jay Mathews drew a line, and a distinction, between the work of lauded math educator Jaime Escalante and the KIPP charter school program founders Dave Levin and Mike Feinberg.

Escalante, whose unconventional teaching style was made famous in the movie Stand and Deliver, believed that anyone willing to work hard could succeed in advanced-placement classes. During his tenure at Garfield High, the troubled east L.A. school was a beacon for math achievement for Mexican Americans. In 1987, 26 percent of all Mexican Americans passing the AP Calculus test in the entire United States were Garfield High students. But although Escalante changed the lives of his students, he wasn't able to change the system.

Twenty-five years later, Mathews believes Levin and Feinberg are changing the system through KIPP charters. Adapting some of Escalante's methods, as well as the motivational style of mentor Harriet Bell, Mathews says the KIPP founders have mobilized a new generation of teachers, as well as reinvigorated established teachers, with their mission of education equity.

Mathews believes the system is changing because more people than ever before are acting on the belief that ability to learn is not limited by income or ethnicity. Do you see these systemic changes, too?