Rafe Esquith
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Rafe Esquith is an American teacher who taught at Hobart Boulevard Elementary School, in
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,
California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
, from 1984 until his resignation in 2015. Many of his students, who were all from a community of poor and immigrant families, started class very early, left late, and typically achieved high scores in standardized tests. Esquith has authored books about teaching and his annual class Shakespeare productions were featured in the 2005 documentary ''
The Hobart Shakespeareans ''The Hobart Shakespeareans'' of Hobart Boulevard Elementary School is a 2005 documentary film that tells the story of the inspirational inner-city Los Angeles school teacher Rafe Esquith whose rigorous fifth-grade curriculum includes English, m ...
''. His teaching honors include the 1992 Teacher of the Year, for The Walt Disney Company's American Teacher Awards, a Fellowship from
Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...
,
Oprah Winfrey Oprah Gail Winfrey (; born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954), or simply Oprah, is an American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and philanthropist. She is best known for her talk show, ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', br ...
’s $100,000 "Use Your Life Award", ''
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’s'' "As You Grow Award",
National Medal of Arts The National Medal of Arts is an award and title created by the United States Congress in 1984, for the purpose of honoring artists and Patronage, patrons of the arts. A prestigious American honor, it is the highest honor given to artists and ar ...
, and Esquith was made an honorary
Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
.


Life and career

A 1981 graduate of
UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
, Esquith began teaching in 1982 at Ivanhoe Elementary School. Two years later, he moved to
Hobart Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...
, the second-largest elementary school in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. Most of the school's 850 students come from Central American and
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n families. According to a 2005 report on ''National Public Radio'', 90 percent of his students were living below the poverty level, and all were from immigrant families, with none speaking English as a first language.Trudeau, Michelle
"Inner-City Teacher Takes No Shortcuts to Success"
April 26, 2005, story, ''National Public Radio'' website, retrieved September 5, 2009
The dynamic agenda and intensive curriculum that Esquith had previously applied at Ivanhoe proved to be challenging for his pupils at Hobart. Thus, Esquith was resolved to prove that the students of Hobart were no less capable than those anywhere else, but rather their expectations had not been set high enough. Esquith's fifth-grade students consistently score in the top 5 to 10 percent of the country in standardized tests. Many of Esquith's students voluntarily start class at 6:30 each morning, two hours before the rest of the school's students. They volunteer to come early, work through recess, stay as late as 6:00 pm, and come to class during vacations and holidays. Each April, Esquith’s students perform one of
Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
's plays as ''The Hobart Shakespeareans''. They have opened for the
Royal Shakespeare Company The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and produces around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, St ...
, have appeared at the
Globe Theater The Globe Theatre was a theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 by Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, on land owned by Thomas Brend and inherited by his son, Nicholas Brend, and gra ...
in
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, were hired by Sir Peter Hall to perform ''
A Midsummer Night's Dream ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a comedy written by William Shakespeare 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One subplot involves a conflict amon ...
'' at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles, and were the subjects of the 2005 documentary ''The Hobart Shakespeareans''.


Controversy

In March 2015 Esquith was placed on leave pending an
LAUSD Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is a public school district in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is the largest public school system in California in terms of number of students and the 2nd largest public school district in ...
investigation into allegations of misconduct in his classroom. In June Esquith's lawyer Mark Geragos filed a formal complaint against the district, a precursor to a lawsuit. Geragos says that while the district has not clearly outlined the allegations against Esquith, after an "'initial' investigation was found to be meritless, LAUSD has taken it upon itself to manufacture new ways to attempt to defame Mr. Esquith.” LAUSD superintendent Ramon Cortines has said "there are serious issues that go beyond the initial investigation." LAUSD later revealed that the investigation had been expanded to include the unsubstantiated allegations of sexual abuse of a student in the 1970s who was 8 or 9 at the time, when Esquith was a teenager and employed with an afterschool program at Westside Jewish Community Center. The alleged victim said he did not report the abuse to LAUSD until 2006, and the district then reported them to
LAPD The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially known as the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the municipal police department of Los Angeles, California. With 9,974 police officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the third-large ...
. No charges were filed at the time. In October 2015 the school board voted unanimously to fire Esquith. Documents later obtained by the ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' via the
California Public Records Act The California Public Records Act (Statutes of 1968, Chapter 1473; currently codified as Chapter 3.5 of Division 7 of Title 1 of the California Government Code) was a law passed by the California State Legislature and signed by then-governor ...
included documentation of email communications with students deemed inappropriate by LAUSD. Soon after Esquith filed a $1 billion class-action lawsuit against the LAUSD on behalf of 2,000 teachers. The lawsuit came after multiple allegations claiming the school district had fired teachers on the brink of retirement in order to save money on retirement benefits. In September 2017 the Los Angeles Unified School District settled the lawsuits with Esquith for an undisclosed sum. As part of the settlement it was agreed that Esquith would receive lifetime health benefits and the satisfaction that the settlement included language intended to better protect the rights of teachers accused of wrongdoing. The settlement went on to state that, "Mr. Esquith has tendered his resignation, effective October 31, 2015, and L.A. Unified has retroactively accepted it."


Books

*''There Are No Shortcuts'' (2003) – published in 2003, this book is a required reading for EDCI 205 (Exploring Teaching as a Career) at
Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...
. *''Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire'' (2007) *''Lighting Their Fires: Raising Extraordinary Children in a Mixed-up, Muddled-up, Shook-up World'' (2009; ) – a slim (208-page) book is addressed to parents but organized around a class trip to Dodger Stadium, with sections revolving around concepts including Punctuality, Focus, Decision Making, Taking Pride in What You Do, Selflessness, Humility, Patience, and Teaching Kids to Grow. * ''Real Talk for Real Teachers: Advice for Teachers from Rookies to Veterans: "No Retreat, No Surrender!"'' (2013; )


References


External links


The Hobart Shakespeareans
Official Website *


News Articles



"Better Teachers, Not Tinier Classes, Should Be Goal" 2Mar2009
NPR
"Rafe Esquith Offers His Fiery Teaching Methods" 22Jan2007
NPR
"Inner-City Teacher Takes No Shortcuts to Success" 26Apr2005 {{DEFAULTSORT:Esquith, Rafe Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American education writers Members of the Order of the British Empire Writers from Los Angeles University of California, Los Angeles alumni United States National Medal of Arts recipients American male non-fiction writers Schoolteachers from California 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American male writers