Stand and Deliver
Seminar 2 Film Application Paper
Stand and Deliver Stand and Deliver is a true story of Jaime Escalante, the East Los Angeles mathematics teacher who challenges the systems and stereotypes to raise the standard of life for his inner city students. Escalante became an advocate for change and initiated, stimulated, and facilitated change in his school. As an internal OD practitioner, Escalante used the pathfinder style to evoke a high degree of effectiveness and high degree of student and faculty satisfaction, believing that greater effectiveness is possible when all members are involved and problem solving is done through teamwork (Brown, 2011). Escalante’s approach used collaborative problem solving and challenged the underlying patterns of student behavior. He challenged the group norms, member roles, and the leadership and authority in the Los Angeles school system. As the OD practitioner, Escalante had to identify the issues which created the need for change. The issues were: * Overcrowded classrooms * Lack of qualified teachers * Lack of funding for equipment like computers * Non-English speaking students * Lack of respect for administration * Groups of gangbangers in, and around the school * Minority students * Non-belief in students abilities * Racism The pressing concern became the issue of the school losing its accreditation if the student’s math scores didn’t improve on state exams. Escalante diagnosed the problem and presented his action plan to the faculty administrators. He believed that students “would rise to the level of your expectations” and all we needed were gonads (desire) to succeed. Escalante devoted an overwhelming amount of time to preparing the students for the exam by teaching them basic math. He went over and beyond standard expectations by dedicating even more of his personal time and effort to tutoring the students as well as teaching them calculus. He believed in the
Stand and Deliver Stand and Deliver is a true story of Jaime Escalante, the East Los Angeles mathematics teacher who challenges the systems and stereotypes to raise the standard of life for his inner city students. Escalante became an advocate for change and initiated, stimulated, and facilitated change in his school. As an internal OD practitioner, Escalante used the pathfinder style to evoke a high degree of effectiveness and high degree of student and faculty satisfaction, believing that greater effectiveness is possible when all members are involved and problem solving is done through teamwork (Brown, 2011). Escalante’s approach used collaborative problem solving and challenged the underlying patterns of student behavior. He challenged the group norms, member roles, and the leadership and authority in the Los Angeles school system. As the OD practitioner, Escalante had to identify the issues which created the need for change. The issues were: * Overcrowded classrooms * Lack of qualified teachers * Lack of funding for equipment like computers * Non-English speaking students * Lack of respect for administration * Groups of gangbangers in, and around the school * Minority students * Non-belief in students abilities * Racism The pressing concern became the issue of the school losing its accreditation if the student’s math scores didn’t improve on state exams. Escalante diagnosed the problem and presented his action plan to the faculty administrators. He believed that students “would rise to the level of your expectations” and all we needed were gonads (desire) to succeed. Escalante devoted an overwhelming amount of time to preparing the students for the exam by teaching them basic math. He went over and beyond standard expectations by dedicating even more of his personal time and effort to tutoring the students as well as teaching them calculus. He believed in the