"At a tough school, someone had to take a stand...and someone did.

Together, one teacher and one class proved to

America they could...". Jaime Escalante is a mathematics teacher in a school in a hispanic neighbourhood.
Convinced that his students have potential, he adopts unconventional teaching methods to try and turn gang
members and no-hopers into some of the country's top algebra and calculus students.

Based on a true story, this low budget theatrical masterpiece opens with the background of
Eastern LA. In an environment that values a quick fix over education and learning, Jaime A.
Escalante is a new teacher at James A. Garfield High School determined to change the system
and challenge the students to a higher level of excellence. Leaving a steady job for a lowly
position as a math teacher in a school where rebellion runs high and teachers are more focused
on discipline than academics, Escalante is at first not well liked by students, receiving numerous
taunts and threats. As the year progresses, he is able to win over the attention of the students
by implementing innovative teaching techniques, using props and humor to illustrate abstract
concepts of math and convey the necessity of math in everyday lives. We all use math every day,
a value that Escalante successfully instills. He is able to transform even the most troublesome
teens to dedicated students, ready to learn. While Escalante teachs math 1A, basic math, he
soon realizes that his students are capable of more than the expectations set forth by the school
board. Despite concerns and skepticism of other teachers, who feel that "you can't teach
logarithms to illiterates", Escalante nonetheless develops a program in which the his students
can rise to take AP Calculus by their senior year. This intense math program requires that
students take summer classes, including Saturdays, from 7 to 12, tasking for even the most
devoted and committed students. While other students spent their summers "barefoot and
pregnant", these math enthusiasts were learning complex theorems and formulas. The vast
contrast between home life and school life, however, begins to show as these teens struggle to
find the balance between what other adults expect of them and the goals and ambitions they
hold for themselves. With Escalante to help them, they soon find the courage to separate from
society's expectations for failure and rise to the standard to which Escalante holds them to, a
standard of success. Taking the AP Calculus exam in the spring of their senior year, these
students are relieved and overjoyed to be finished with a strenuous year. After receiving their
scores, they are overwhelmed with emotion to find that they have all passed, a feat done by few
in the state. Later that summer, a shocking accusation is made. The Educational Testing Service
calls into question the validity of their scores when it is discovered that similarities between
errors is too high for pure chance. Outraged by the implications of cheating, Escalante feels that
the racial and economic status of the students has caused the ETS to doubt their intelligence. In
order to prove their mathematical abilities and worth to the school, to the ETS, and to the nation,
the students agree to retake the test at the end of the summer, months after their last class.
With only a day to prepare, there is high stress to show that they have what it takes to make
something of themselves. After the retake, these students truly stand and deliver when they all
pass the exam again, showing they deserve all they have achieved.-The Numerators.