Jay Matthews
Encyclopedia
Jay Mathews is an author, education columnist and blogger with the Washington Post. Mathews attended Hillsdale High School
in San Mateo, California
, Occidental
and Harvard College
and is a Vietnam veteran
. He started at the Post in 1971, writing news reports and books about China, disability rights, the stock market, and several educational topics. Mathews won the 1999 Benjamin Fine Award for Outstanding Education Reporting for both features and column writing. His Class Struggle blog is on washingtonpost.com. He writes at least two columns a week for the newspaper.
Mathews's book Escalante: The Best Teacher in America traces Jaime Escalante
's career from his native Bolivia
to Garfield High School
in East Lost Angeles
, where he taught advanced mathematics courses to disadvantaged high school students, mostly Latino. Escalante's story was the subject of the film Stand and Deliver
, which starred Edward James Olmos
.
Class Struggle: What's Wrong (and Right) with America's Best Public High Schools, was published in March 1998. It explored elite American public high schools and criticized the selection process that offers Advanced Placement Program
(AP) studies to only the top students. His national ranking system for high schools, the Challenge Index
, formerly in Newsweek, runs on washingtonpost.com as the High School Challenge. Other books explore the growth of International Baccalaureate programs, the Ivy League admissions system and the rise of the KIPP charter schools.
He and his wife Linda Mathews, former New York Times national editor, ABC news producer and USA Today enterprise editor, have three children. One son, Joe Mathews, is also a journalist doing books, articles and events on California affairs and is married to Wall Street Journal reporter Anna Wilde Mathews.
Hillsdale High School (San Mateo, California)
Hillsdale High School is a public high school in San Mateo, California serving grades 9–12 as part of the San Mateo Union High School District...
in San Mateo, California
San Mateo, California
San Mateo is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area. With a population of approximately 100,000 , it is one of the larger suburbs on the San Francisco Peninsula, located between Burlingame to the north, Foster City to the east, Belmont to the south,...
, Occidental
Occidental College
Occidental College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college located in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1887, Occidental College, or "Oxy" as it is called by students and alumni, is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges on the West Coast...
and Harvard College
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
and is a Vietnam veteran
Vietnam veteran
Vietnam veteran is a phrase used to describe someone who served in the armed forces of participating countries during the Vietnam War.The term has been used to describe veterans who were in the armed forces of South Vietnam, the United States armed forces, and countries allied to them, whether or...
. He started at the Post in 1971, writing news reports and books about China, disability rights, the stock market, and several educational topics. Mathews won the 1999 Benjamin Fine Award for Outstanding Education Reporting for both features and column writing. His Class Struggle blog is on washingtonpost.com. He writes at least two columns a week for the newspaper.
Mathews's book Escalante: The Best Teacher in America traces Jaime Escalante
Jaime Escalante
Jaime Alfonso Escalante Gutierrez was a Bolivian educator well-known for teaching students calculus from 1974 to 1991 at Garfield High School, East Los Angeles, California...
's career from his native Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
to Garfield High School
Garfield High School (Los Angeles County, California)
James A. Garfield High School is a public, year-round high school founded in 1925 in East Los Angeles, an unincorporated section of Los Angeles County, California. The school was made famous by the film Stand and Deliver about a teacher named Jaime Escalante...
in East Lost Angeles
East Los Angeles, California
East Los Angeles is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in Los Angeles County, California, United States...
, where he taught advanced mathematics courses to disadvantaged high school students, mostly Latino. Escalante's story was the subject of the film Stand and Deliver
Stand and Deliver
Stand and Deliver is a 1988 American drama film, based on the true story of high school mathematics teacher Jaime Escalante. Edward James Olmos portrayed Escalante in the film and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.-Plot:...
, which starred Edward James Olmos
Edward James Olmos
Edward James Olmos is an American actor and director. Among his most memorable roles are William Adama in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica, Lt...
.
Class Struggle: What's Wrong (and Right) with America's Best Public High Schools, was published in March 1998. It explored elite American public high schools and criticized the selection process that offers Advanced Placement Program
Advanced Placement Program
The Advanced Placement program is a curriculum in the United States and Canada sponsored by the College Board which offers standardized courses to high school students that are generally recognized to be equivalent to undergraduate courses in college...
(AP) studies to only the top students. His national ranking system for high schools, the Challenge Index
Challenge Index
The Challenge Index is a method for the statistical ranking of top public high schools in the United States by Washington Post columnist Jay Mathews...
, formerly in Newsweek, runs on washingtonpost.com as the High School Challenge. Other books explore the growth of International Baccalaureate programs, the Ivy League admissions system and the rise of the KIPP charter schools.
He and his wife Linda Mathews, former New York Times national editor, ABC news producer and USA Today enterprise editor, have three children. One son, Joe Mathews, is also a journalist doing books, articles and events on California affairs and is married to Wall Street Journal reporter Anna Wilde Mathews.
Published works
| Year | Title | Pages | Publisher | ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | One Billion | 448 | Ballentine | 0345298950 |
| 1985 | China and the U.S. | Foreign Policy Association | 0871240947 | |
| 1986 | Sino-American Relations After Normalization: Toward the Second Decade | 63 | Foreign Policy Association | 0871241056 |
| 1988 | Escalante: The Best Teacher in America | 322 | Henry Holt & Co. | 0805011951 |
| 1992 | A Mother's Touch: The Tiffany Callo Story | 265 | Henry Holt & Co. | 0805017143 |
| 1998 | The Myth of Tiananmen and the Price of a Passive Press | 12 | Columbia Journalism Review | Digital eBook |
| 1998 | Class Struggle : What's Wrong (and Right) with America's Best Public High Schools | 320 | Three Rivers Press | 0812931408 |
| 2003 | Harvard Schmarvard: Getting Beyond the Ivy League to the College That is Best for You | 304 | Three Rivers Press | 0761536957 |
| 2005 | Supertest: How the International Baccalaureate Can Strengthen Our Schools | 237 | Open Court | 0812695771 |
| 2009 | Work Hard. Be Nice. | 328 | Algonquin Books | 9781565125162 |