Screen:

...One often thinks given a subject like this that we have seen it all before...

...As Olmos's passionate pursuit of excellence from the barrio makes clear, these are not choices, but equally valuable goals...

...Having left a high-paying corporate job, he is a first-year teacher-explaining perhaps his initial reserves of humor to conquer all...

...This is no Rocky Meets Goodbye Mr...

...Others think learning is sissy (Olmos: "Tough guys do fried chicken for a living...

...He is all the more incensed, therefore, at the implicit racism of officials at ets, pointing out that they wouldn't be so convinced of cheating if the same scores came from Beverly Hills...

...I like Stand and Deliver, but it might be nailing ETS on a minor count...

...You have two strikes against you," Olmos tells his charges, "your name and your complexion...

...Still, regardless of the racial or cultural bias issue stressed by some ethnic groups, improved scores in any area are part of what Albert Shanker and other educators of diverse backgrounds decry as "test mania...

...but a high school curriculum built around the exclusive pursuit of higher test scores has led too many teachers to complain they are no longer teaching content, but test-taking, or "preparing for the test...

...With its heroic but realistic treatment of a teacher, the film also stands as an important cultural hallmark of a nation at risk (but will 1989 bring us, as so many candidates promise, "an education president...

...The subject is Beyers Naude, the Dutch Reformed minister, who, although raised in the white enclaves of apartheid and originally a biblical apologist for it, grew to detest the system and has ended up a leading South African dissident...

...Still, Stand and Deliver may be taken by some as further proof of the need for nonstop testing and test-prepping...

...Stand and Deliver concerns Advanced Placement Tests, which fortunately include long-answer formats, not just multiple choice...

...Olmos combines deep passion for education with a hip knowledge of pop culture...

...The stress comes from his fierce energy in class, mostly involving the wit he uses to overcome students' resistance to learning...

...TOM O'BRIEN...

...It was produced by Robert Bilheimer, Ronald Mix, and Kevin Harris, who directed it for Worldwide Documentaries...

...Starring Edward James Olmos, formerly of "Hill Street Blues," the film concerns the inspirational real-life story of efforts by a Hispanic math teacher to persuade his students to care enough to learn so that they can escape the cycles of poverty and degradation...

...Chips: Stand and Deliver is well-written, crisply edited, and astutely acted, not just by the lead but also by a supporting cast of young actors (Lou Diamond Phillips, Rosana de Soto, and others) who make this, perhaps, the best school film in decades...

...Some of his students can hardly understand English...

...When a friend invites him on his boat, he says, "No, man, I get seasick in the rain...

...And credit writer/director Ramon Menendez with a great heart and ear in catching them...

...Any teacher or school system is deficient which ignores the import of either, and fails to tolerate the unstable but productive balance required in pursuing them...

...It is a powerful portrayal of real faith in social action...

...Helpful in counteracting this is an excellent documentary, The Cry of Reason, from the South Africa Media Center in San Francisco (415-621-6196), a film designed for distribution to television or, at very low rates, interested church groups...

...then a documentary like The Cry of Reason comes along and reawakens the mind and conscience...

...In self-interestedly and profitably encouraging this illusion, ETS may have far more to answer for than its possible ethnic bias...

...Now in his seventies, Naude is a minister in a black church, and much of the documentary footage shows him with his congregation-an image of the interracial harmony he tirelessly promotes...

...Written by Ramon Menendez and Tom Musca, and directed by the former and produced by the latter, Stand and Deliver is a presentation of American Playhouse Theater, and its theatrical quality is evident in the strong, vibrant screenplay...

...Also on the tape are: his speech last year at Georgetown University on American support of apartheid...

...Here is a strong, real, and positive image of a teacher as a guide, helper, and figure of forceful inspiration...

...But the story in the film is ten years old, when things were less advanced...

...Olmos teases, then gets them solving algebra equations with "x" and "y" number of gigolos...

...As a result of his math teaching, Escalante has steadily increased his students' test scores over the last decade...

...Olmos plays Jaime Escalante, a teacher at Garfield High School in the East Los Angeles barrio...

...But math is the great equalizer...

...Olmos creates his role through counterpoint: with balding hair and a halting gait, he comes across at times as physically frail...

...Many of the girls are just interested in their own sexual power ("Is it true intelligent people make better lovers...

...Alas, not entirely true...

...As Olmos puts it: "They've lost their confidence in the system they're finally qualified to enter...

...The film's upbeat tone doesn't spoil our sense of their pain, even betrayal, over the charges...

...Nevertheless, Stand and Deliver may feed certain illusions about educational improvement...

...The film represents a major improvement for the image of teachers in movies, corresponding to the greater concern for their professional status, morale, and pay...

...Stand and Deliver was the spring's high quality sleeper hit-a film at once upbeat and unsentimental, dominated by teenagers but emotionally adult...

...in a neutral area like math, it would seem pushing for improved scores would have no cultural bias, or, as Olmos implies, might even play to a Chicano strength...

...In the middle of the film, he stumbles weakly down a stairway in a convincing "mild" heart attack from stress, or "teacher burn-in" as one young Ms...

...Stand and Deliver also addresses head-on two core issues in the current education debate: how to combine excellence and equality of opportunity...

...As with La Bamba and The Milagro Beanfield War, Stand and Deliver is a strong Hispanic film, reflecting the increased marketing and political power of that community...

...In particular, teachers complain that test-prepping is building a nation of short-answer experts, quick on cognition and intellection, but not in independent and critical thinking, problem solving, ethical judgment, or creativity...

...a few want to make ready money at odd jobs rather than graduate (Olmos: "Wouldn't you rather be designing cars than repairing them...

...and, of course, the horror of the shantytowns and the physical assaults to which South African blacks are condemned...

...Would that more teachers had such gifts...

...interviews with Desmond Tutu, Alan Boesak, and T. S. Farisa-ni of the Evangelical Lutheran Church...

...It is true, better test scores are indicative of improvement in some skill areas...

...Improved scores may help students get into a better college...

...The film's crisis involves Advance Placement Tests in calculus, in which Olmos's students do so well that the Educational Testing Service charges cheating...

...Olmos had tried to inspire his students with racial pride, pointing to the mathematical genius of the Mayas and telling them it was "in their blood...

...It is a welcome relief from the caricature stereotypes of teachers in many comedies-from teenpix such as Breakfast Club, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Porky's, High School, Summer School, and Teachers to "adult" films such as the autobiographies of Woody Allen, which always manage to include a destructive image of a teacher in every portrait of his persecuted youth...

...Since ETS is a force of very dubious value in American education, it's a joy to watch it take some lumps in the film's concluding segments...

...or Sehorita) Malaprop accidentally but aptly calls it...