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EDUCATION • MINORITIES IN EDUCATION

“Henry Gradillas laid the groundwork that enabled administrators, counselors, and teachers to work together in order to make Garfield High School a school with a future.”

—Jaime Escalante, from the foreword

“Gradillas’s guiding principle is academic excellence, and he has the formula to achieve it!”

—Eileen Miranda Jimenez, member, West Covina Unified School District Board of Education,
Garfield High School class of 1986

“Every principal and school board member who is looking for practical and effective ways of addressing the challenges posed by the toughest urban schools should read this highly readable book.”

—J. E. Stone, Ed.D., president, Education Consumers Foundation

“A dedicated and enthusiastic professional with a great capacity for understanding and working with youth.”

—Paul Possemato, former LAUSD High Schools Superintendent

“Standing and Delivering is on the required reading list for anyone wishing to gain greater insight into the context and setting for the Escalante miracle. No one else is as qualified to provide perspective on the backstage supports that accompanied one of the most endearing educational success stories of modern times.”

—Omar Del Cueto, former Garfield High School principal

“Gradillas was the most successful principal that I have ever known. He has no equal.”

—Don Mroscak, former head counselor, Garfield High School

“Stand and Deliver was a great film, but it did not have time to tell the story of the hero principal, an ex–Army Ranger with a huge heart, who made Jaime Escalante’s achievements possible. Gradillas took charge of Garfield High School just as the cheating charges dramatized in the movie were making headlines. He was the first to realize that the doubt and tension would soon turn to triumph and that Garfield would become one of the most important symbols of education reform the country has ever produced. Here for the first time is Gradillas’s thrilling story and his practical advice for today’s educators hoping to give their students the same challenges he and Escalante so successfully gave theirs.”

—Jay Mathews, Washington Post education columnist;
author of Escalante: The Best Teacher in America

HENRY GRADILLAS has served education as a teacher and administrator in California and Michigan and as a speaker and consultant throughout North America. He lives near Ashland, Wisconsin, where he continues to work as a tutor, substitute teacher, and court interpreter.

JERRY JESNESS has taught English, English as a Second Language, Spanish, special education, and social studies in his thirty-year education career. His writing has appeared in Harper’s, Reason Education Week, Teacher Magazine, Principal Magazine, Intellectual Capital, Texas Education Review, and several newspapers.