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 Episode 1 — The Common School
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Marie Edwards - Former Student, Gary, Indiana: I cried the entire first day I was in kindergarten. They had to call my brother down to make me happy, and by the second day I came home and said, I am going to be a teacher.
James Anderson - Former Student, Eutaw, Alabama: I had the last name of Anderson. And I knew the teacher would always call on me first, she’d get her roll book and said, OK, we have to spell these 25 words. Anderson, come to the front of the room. Spell all 25.
Diane Ravitch - Former Student, Houston, Texas: The football games were a big thing and the cheerleaders were a big thing. I have a lot of very fond memories of my days in school - It was fun.
 Episode 2 — As American as Public School
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Nick Lemann - Author, The Big Test: If you are a person who gets high I.Q. tests scores, very high, top one percent, America will find you, they will come to your door, they will give you a scholarship and they will put you on the road to success.
Ford TV Ad:
Mother: Oh Ellen darling, we’re all so proud of you.
Father: This is a great day for me, having my daughter graduate an honor student. Oh Ellen, just a moment, look over here…
Nick Lemann: So you know, hooray, that is very good for those people. But the trouble with the I.Q. movement, among many troubles, is there's a tendency to say, ‘oh we can write off everybody else.’
Henry Nava - Former Student, Los Angeles Schools: I remember being given a few tests, but I was never told, we were not told what the purpose was. We thought they were some type of analysis of students or something…
Julian Nava - Former Student, Los Angeles Schools: I remember just being tracked into shop courses, so I guess I didn't test very well…
 Episode 3 — Equality
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JULY 2, 1964 - Newsreel with Commentator V.O.:
Announcer: Congress passes the most sweeping civil rights bill ever to be written into the law, and thus reaffirms the conception of equality for all men. Five hours after the House passes the measure, The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is signed at the White House by President Johnson.
Jay Heubert - Author, Law and School Reform: There was a carefully thought out strategy involving a carrot and a stick. The Civil Rights Act said, among other things, that states and school districts could lose their federal funding if they refused to desegregate their schools. The Civil Rights Act, then, was the stick, the threat of losing federal funds. The carrot was a significant increase in federal funds that came in the form of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.
 Episode 4 — The Bottom Line
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Chester Finn - Asst. Secretary, Dept. of Education under President Reagan: Well the best argument for choice is to enable poor people to have the same rights and opportunities that rich people already have by virtue of being rich. I mean rich people exercise school choice. They move to where they want to buy a house, because of the schools or they send their kid to a private school. It’s poor people who typically get trapped in bad schools and can't afford to do anything about it.
Jonathan Kozol - Author, Savage Inequalities: They’re proposing a voucher of a couple thousand dollars which at best would allow a handful of poor children or children of color to go to a pedagogically marginal private school. The day that the conservative voucher advocates in America tell me that they would like to give every inner city black, Hispanic or poor white kid a $25,000 voucher to go to Exeter, I will become a Republican.
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