Calculus Test Scores Drop at Garfield; Film is Blamed

Following a year of intense publicity over a movie that put Garfield High School calculus teacher Jaime Escalante in the national spotlight, the East Los Angeles school that has produced stunning scores on the annual advanced placement calculus exam received disappointing results this year.

Fifty-five of the 119 Garfield students who took the rigorous mathematics exam in May received a passing score of 3 or higher on a scale of 1 to 5, according to College Board figures, which Garfield Principal Maria Elena Tostado provided Thursday. That represents a passing rate of 46%, a sharp decrease from last year’s 65%.

A passing score on an advanced placement test entitles a student to college credit at most universities.

This year’s percentage is the lowest that Garfield, which serves a poor community where few parents have college educations, has attained in the nine years it has offered the exam, but more students took the test this year than in any previous year except 1987.

‘Went a Little Down’

“We went a little down, but that’s OK, considering all the confusion and activity we had all year long,” said Tostado, referring to the stream of visiting educators, dignitaries, reporters and TV crews that disrupted Escalante’s classes almost daily during the weeks leading to the March release of the critically acclaimed movie, “Stand and Deliver.” “I still think that’s outstanding.”

The Warner Bros. film told the story of Bolivian-born Escalante’s phenomenal success in teaching calculus to a small group of academically lackluster Garfield students in 1982 and their eventual triumph over accusations that they cheated on the advanced placement exam.

Escalante, who is in Bolivia visiting relatives and promoting the movie, could not be reached Thursday. But Tostado said Escalante blamed the lower pass rate on the movie. “He said the kids saw the movie so many times they thought passing the test was going to be as easy as the movie made it out to be. (He said) they didn’t know it was so much hard work.”

The celebrated instructor said in an interview with The Times a week before the test was given that constant interruptions caused by visitors--who included Vice President George Bush and his wife, Barbara--were distracting and that “the kids are paying for it.” Students said the visitors took up too much of Escalante’s time and made it difficult for them to concentrate on lessons.

The number of Garfield students taking calculus and passing the difficult test generally has increased since 1979, when the course was first offered, according to figures provided by Tostado. Four out of five pupils, or 80%, passed in 1979, and 84 out of 129, or 65%, passed in 1987.

According to Harlan Hanson, director of the advanced placement program for the College Board, Garfield offered both beginning and advanced calculus and did exceptionally well on both exams compared to other schools nationwide. Garfield ranked sixth in the nation among schools that had passing scores on the beginning calculus exam and 59th among schools that that had passing marks on the advanced calculus test.

“That’s 59th out of several thousand,” said Hanson, who could not give the exact number of schools that gave advanced placement calculus exams this year. “That is by no means anything to be ashamed of. What they’ve got going is great.”

Overall, 443 Garfield students in 12 subjects--Spanish language, Spanish literature, art, government, biology, computer science, calculus, European history, American history, English literature and composition and physics--took advanced placement exams this year, and 60% earned scores of 3 or better.

The number of Garfield students taking advanced placement courses is rising, with more than 500 of its 3,000 pupils already enrolled in classes for the coming school year, Tostado said.

Citing figures provided by the College Board, which oversees the exams, the principal said Garfield ranks 33rd out of 8,247 public and private high schools nationwide in the number of advanced placement tests administered. The College Board’s Hanson said he believes Garfield is the only inner-city campus among the top 33 schools.

“We used to have to beat the byways to get kids to take these classes, but now we don’t have enough teachers” to meet the demand, Tostado said, referring to waitings lists of students who want to take European history and a new combination history-English advanced placement class.

Next fall, the school will add chemistry to its advanced placement offerings, which will place Garfield among the most academically rigorous high schools in the Los Angeles school district.