Trabuco HS: All's well that ends well - OC is Not Stand and Deliver County

All's well that ends well - OC is Not Stand and Deliver County

August 6, 2008

Stand and Deliver, starring James Edward Olmos is based on a true story set in East 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 in Los Angeles County, California determined to buck the system, Escalante challenges his students to a higher level of achievement.

Despite concerns and skepticism of other teachers, who feel that "you cannot teach advanced math to illiterates", Escalante nonetheless develops a program setting higher expectations where students take AP Calculus by their senior year.

After taking the AP Calculus exam, Escalante's students are overwhelmed when they find out they have all passed, a feat done by few in the state. Later that summer the Educational Testing Service (ETS) 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. But in order to prove to the ETS, and to the nation that the scores were not a fluke, the students agree to retake the test. In this case, the students are given only one day to prepare. The students all pass the test. No celebrity attorney, no lawsuit, no media coverage.

The Orange County version of Stand and Deliver is quite different. In this case, not only is cheating by certain students confirmed, but cheating allegation can perhaps be substantiated based on cheating studies: ETS threw out 385 students' AP exams last month after school officials discovered numerous testing irregularities. A total of 690 exams were invalidated.

As a result of the ETS' actions, a coalition of affected parents and students, backed by a certain celebrity attorney, sue ETS arguing that the environment was conducive to cheating - never mind that at all times, each and every student had a choice to make: Cheat, stand and deliver, or walk out, for instance.

The coalition recently lost the case against the ETS but the Trabuco High School principal has now been demoted, and students are back retaking the AP Tests.

All is well that ends well, or is this much ado about nothing?



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