'KNOWLEDGE IS POWER' ESCALANTE URGES LOCALS TO HELP KIDS FIND DREAM.

Byline: Naush Boghossian Staff Writer

Wearing the newsboy cap that came to identify him after the movie ``Stand and Deliver,'' teacher Jaime Escalante gave an eager group of educators and business leaders lessons in algebra Tuesday at an Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley education forum.

``Knowledge is power,'' he told the crowd, emphasizing the importance of algebra in today's digital world.

Using a Sharpie pen and a big easel with sheets of paper, Escalante began giving lessons in positives and negatives, multiplying equations and short cuts to multiplying numbers.

He wrote 95 times 97. Rather than using the typical multiplication model, he would teach his kids that 95 is five short of 100 and 97 is three short. Five times three is 15 - the last two digits of the answer - and 100 minus eight is 92 - the first two digits, thus achieving the answer: 9,215.

``Check the answer. I'm never wrong,'' he cracked in a low, raspy voice, sounding at times like a South American ``Dirty Harry.'' ``Take a good picture, take a good picture,'' he said, repeating what he would tell his students when explaining how to solve math problems. ``That's going to be on the test, and I know you can do it.''

More than 100 local educators and business people had gathered to discuss ways they could work together to improve student achievement in the Los Angeles Unified School District, including raising graduation rates.

Bob Collins, the LAUSD's chief instructional officer of secondary education, said the district is working hard to create new programs, implement education reform and provide resources to help students struggling to stay afloat.

The goal, he said, is to reduce what they believe is a 25 percent dropout rate and to have each student receive a diploma.

``Any way you want to cut it, the dropout rate at LAUSD is too high,'' Collins said. ``That's a tremendous drain on the economy of the San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles.''

The LAUSD has implemented a new attendance-tracking system in which parents are notified on a period-by-period basis if their child is not in class, he said. All middle and high schools also have new dropout counselors to monitor student performance and keep students in the system.

``It's to ensure at-risk students don't fall through the cracks, and in high school to make sure kids stay in the ninth grade,'' he said. The LAUSD loses the bulk of its students between their freshman and sophomore years.

The LAUSD is also in the process of changing the middle-school curriculum, which will be fully in place in fall 2007, as well as creating a new career technical education program. And to keep parents engaged, officials have created individualized graduation plans for all students, plans parents need to approve every year.

Educators at Tuesday's meeting urged local business leaders to give their time and resources to help struggling kids at nearby schools.

About 5,900 LAUSD seniors have yet to pass the California High School Exit Exam - required to graduate - and any participation will help get those students to pass, said Marsha Coates, principal at Lake Balboa's Birmingham High School.

Sixty of the high school's seniors still have to pass the exam, and with 35 students per teacher at the test preparation courses, students need more personalized attention, she said.

``I'd like to bring people with good math skills to come in from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. and do work with small groups of kids,'' she said. ``We also need to give hope to them that there are jobs out there for them, reasons to graduate.''

Escalante repeated during his speech the word ``ganas'' - Spanish for desire - urging teachers and administrators to cultivate the dreams of students, not their desires for iPods and other material objects.

Noting the challenges faced by children from the barrio - poverty, parents who haven't attended college - he said teachers need to believe in their students for them to achieve results.

``Children can learn to overcome any burden placed on them just by ganas,'' he said. ``Once you have ganas, you can do it.''

Naush Boghossian, [phone]

naush.boghossian(at)dailynews.com

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Famed teacher Jaime Escalante offered his advice to Valley leaders Tuesday while discussing the High School Exit Exam that students must now pass to graduate.

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer