Jamie Escalante was born on December 31, 1930, in La Paz, Bolivia, he was born to two teachers. This might have explained why he cam to the United States in 1960 to seek a better life in education.  He had to earn another college degree before he could return to the classroom.  In 1974, he began to teach math at Garfield High School in LA.  He had to teach students that no longer were believed in or believed in themselves.  Despite this, Escalante helped these ones to live up to there potential.  This class took a calculus placement test in 1982 and passed.  The testing company, however, did not believed that the students cheated. However, this worked out fine, the students did not cheat due to the teaching of Escalante. 

             Escalante has received many awards for his contribution to the field of education, including the presidential Medal for Excellence and he was inducted into the Nationals teachers hall of fame in 1999.