Stand and Deliver

“At a tough school, someone had to take a stand...and someone did. Together, one teacher and one class proved to America they could...”

Nobody at Garfield High can say why a math teacher would bother with a room of gang members and kids written off before they arrive. Jaime Escalante (Edward James Olmos) sees the potential in them anyway, and Ramón Menéndez follows him as he drills them through algebra and then calculus by unusual means. Under it all sits one plain claim: a student will rise to the level somebody expects of him.