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SCHOOL
CRUSADE: A Tale of Urban School Reform
Part 1-The Dream
Part 2-The Reality
Introduction...
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One
out of every three American students attends an urban public school.
We spent three years filming "School Crusade" in Philadelphia, but
our documentary is by no means simply a local story. What we learned
from our time in the "City of Brotherly Love" can be applied to almost
every city in America.
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shortcomings of urban education resonate nationwide in low test scores,
high drop-out rates and funding below that of surrounding suburban
areas. Each year half a million students drop out of school, and most
come from large cities. Many city students face obstacles which further
complicate their education poverty, drug abuse, crime and teen pregnancy. |
| David Hornbeck
came to Philadelphia as superintendent of schools in 1994 proclaiming
his belief that "all children can achieve at high levels." Untested
as a superintendent and even as a classroom teacher, he devised
a comprehensive plan called "Children
Achieving," to save the city's failing system. His hope
was and is that "Children Achieving" would serve as a reform
model for urban education across the nation. |
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Other
school boards are following Philadelphia's lead, looking to innovative
reform methods and often times non-traditional superintendents to
raise their statistics. Seattle has hired an untested superintendent,
a major general in the United States Army with a 30-year military
career. Minneapolis hired a business executive as school chief, an
approach it subsequently abandoned. Chicago has effectively put its
schools in the hands of the mayor.
Other urban districts have adopted a controversial, "last ditch" effort
to restructure consistently low performing schools. "Reconstitution"
calls for the total shake up of a school by forcing teachers to transfer
elsewhere. In essence, the superintendent takes over the school, appoints
a principal and begins the work of drafting a new educational "constitution."
San Francisco, Cleveland, Baltimore, Houston, Chicago and New York
have implemented this dramatic measure with varying degrees of success
and resistance. |
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In
Philadelphia, for example, the teachers union filed a successful suit
against the school district after Hornbeck tried to reconstitute two
high schools. After three years, it is too early to tell if David
Hornbeck's "Children Achieving" can be an educational cure for urban
schools. |
Right
now, Philadelphia is facing an economic crisis of major proportions,
even more severe than when Hornbeck arrived. What is obvious, however,
is that if solutions for urban school problems are not found, or if
we turn our backs on city schools, we are as a nation in peril.
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| Original
Airdate: September, 1997 |
  
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