Mrs. Ali 6th-8th Grade Accelerated Math Teacher

About the Teacher

NAME: Mrs. Khadija Ali

SCHOOL: Holy Family Cathedral School

CLASS: 6th-8th Accelerated Math

SCHOOL PHONE: (714) 538-6012 e-mail: kali@holyfamilyk8.org

 •	 
MARK RIGHTMIRE, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Muslim teacher at Catholic school? It adds up
May 26, 2011|By FRANK SHYONG
At 11 a.m., the silence in Khadija Ali's advanced math class is broken only 
by squeaking markers, creaky sneakers on jigging feet and the drone of the AC 
battling 90-degree heat.
Finally, Ali's voice rings out:
"Show!"
Six whiteboards hit the air.
Ali inspects their work: "Correct. Correct...
"Not correct."
Nick Peabody, 14, forgot to simplify his answer. She takes him through the 
explanation and, moments later, they launch into the next problem — one of 
dozens these middle-schoolers will complete in this 60-minute period, and 
just a fraction of the pages of problems they'll get for homework over the 
upcoming spring break.
All that work pays off.
Ali's advanced math students at Holy Family Cathedral School in Orange have 
dominated the Mathfax national competition since she was hired in 2002. For 
eight years running, Ali has put a student in the top 10. This year, nine of 
the top 10 competitors were Ali's students.
 
 
Margaret Harlow, principal at Holy Family, describes Advanced Math 
thusly: "It's another zone in there."
Ali's students have gone on to the Ivy League and some are on their way to 
becoming engineers or scientists. And other educators at Holy Family talk 
about her class as if it's a kind of minor miracle.
But to get there, Ali, a Muslim teacher at a Catholic school, has managed a 
miracle of her own.
Though conflict over perceptions of the Muslim faith have touched as close to 
home as Disneyland and UCI and the Villa Park town plaza, a different 
narrative has emerged at Holy Family Cathedral – two cultures finding harmony 
amid strife.
To get there, they needed a common denominator. They found it in Ali.
•••
The only hint that Holy Family Cathedral School has arguably one of the best 
math programs in the country is in the dozens of plaques that occupy most of 
the wall to the right of Ali's whiteboard. What's the secret?
Ali's accented voice reveals it crisply.
"Discipline."
In India, where Ali was educated, discipline is key to academic success — and 
academic success is key to everything else.
With 40 kids packed in a class, if there was no discipline, no one learned. 
If you didn't learn, you couldn't pass the exams that weed out most students 
trying to get into good high schools and universities.

Advertisement
 
OC REGISTER>ARTICLE COLLECTIONS
•	
o	
o	
(Page 2 of 3)
Muslim teacher at Catholic school? It adds up
May 26, 2011|By FRANK SHYONG
Only a sliver (in 2005, just 7 percent) of India's college-age population 
gets in to universities. In a nation where about a third of the population is 
poor and hunger remains rampant by Western standards, education is, quite 
literally, a matter of survival.
Graduating from that system (University of Mumbai) helped make Ali the most 
intimidating teacher at Holy Family.
Just six kids get into her advanced math class. To get there, they must score 
above 80 percent on a test that Ali obtains from Cal State Fullerton.
"I have to make sure that they can handle the work," Ali says.
And the work is unceasing. Ali calls her teaching style 'drill and skill.' 
Next to her desk, there's a cart sagging with the weight of binders full of 
transparencies and teaching materials.
 
"She doesn't just give you homework... she makes you learn it," says former 
student Brittany Duhn, now a sophomore at Foothill High School in Tustin.
"She's small, but intimidating."
She's also caring.
Justine Mationg didn't pass Ali's entrance test the first time she took it. 
Or the second.
But after a summer spent working with Ali, Mationg passed the test and got 
into Advanced Math, where students work as a team, often explaining problems 
to each other.
This year, at 14, she won the Mathfax competition.
•••
In 2002, when she interviewed for the job at Holy Family, Ali came qualified. 
She had 26 years of experience, and had been nominated Teacher of the Year in 
her previous job, at John Muir Middle School in Los Angeles.
Principal Harlow says Ali was exactly what she was looking for.
But she also knew Sept. 11 was still fresh on the minds of every American, 
and that she had to consider the possibility that some parents wouldn't like 
the idea of entrusting the best minds at the school to a Muslim teacher.
"I had some concerns," Harlow says.
The fear even reached Ali in the parking lot on the day of her interview. She 
left her hijab in her car.
But Harlow says she was interested in another lesson. She didn't want Holy 
Family to be a sheltering, monocultural school, the kind she'd seen 
elsewhere. And, after talking with her priest, Harlow took the risk.
"We should teach children to respect everybody. That's part of Christ's 
message too."
 
Copyright © 2011 Orange County Register Communications. All Rights Reserved.



The following was published on 12/30/2011 in Orange County Register.

O.C.’s amazing people stories of 2011

10 of 12


In 2002, Khadija Ali interviewed for the job of a math teacher atHoly Family 
Cathedral School in Orange. Educated in India, she had 26 years ofexperience. 
But she was a Muslim. And Sept. 11 was still fresh on the minds ofevery 
American. The day of the interview, she left her hijab in her car.Principal 
Margaret Harlow liked her. She talked to her priest, and took therisk. "We 
should teach children to respect everybody,” she said. “That'spart of 
Christ's message too." Initially, some were wary. But soon, Ali,in her hijab, 
was cheering on students at softball games and cooking Indianfood on Olympic 
Day. And now, for eight years running, Holy Family students whotake her 
rigorous class have dominated the MathFax national competition. Atlunch, Ali 
performs her daily prayers. But, later in the day, she might attendMass, too, 
as part of a school function. She is quick to point out thatchapters in the 
Quran discuss Jesus and Mary. "We are all children ofGod," she says.

Read story here
May 27, 2011-OCRegister

MARK RIGHTMIRE, TEXT BY FRANK SHYONG