- New Documentary by Barbara Kopple Looks at the Creation of a New "Small School" -
What happens when the Department of Education decides to create a new "small school" inside one of New York City's most dangerous public high schools? This story of the first years of the High School for Contemporary Arts takes an intimate and dramatic look at students, teachers, and parents as they struggle to make their school everything they dreamed it could be.
SMALL STEPS: CREATING THE HIGH SCHOOL FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS, produced by Barbara Kopple and directed by David Becker, airs Thursday, September 6, 2007, 10:00-11:30 p.m. ET (check local listings) on PBS. When the filmmakers first began production in 2003, the high school dropout rate in the Bronx was roughly 70 percent. After inheriting a history of unsuccessful reforms, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg gained control of the school system and promised major changes. Bloomberg's high school reforms focused on replacing failing traditional schools with theme-based "small schools." There are now more than 140 small schools throughout New York, and many more throughout the U.S. Small schools initiatives are taking root in cities such as Houston, San Diego, Cleveland, Boston and Seattle. Whether or not this nationwide transformation will prove a long-term success remains to be seen. The small school experiment resonates in the lives of everyone featured in SMALL STEPS. Fourteen-year-old Nnamdi Amenechi comes from a creative family and hopes to follow in his parents' footsteps. The year before filming began, Nnamdi's mother passed away. After years of home schooling, he entered the public school system for the first time. The artistic focus, small size and community environment envisioned by the High School for Contemporary Arts seem like a perfect fit for Nnamdi, but the location inside the notorious Evander Childs High School comes as a shock to both Nnamdi and his father. Fellow freshman Jamal McLelland shares Nnamdi's passion to succeed in the arts. As one teacher puts it, High School for the Contemporary Arts was created for students like Jamal -- creative and talented, but with a unique learning style that may put him at risk of "falling through the cracks" in a traditional school. Despite the challenges ahead of him, Jamal hopes to develop his skills as a poet and visual artist. For the first time, he's looking forward to the start of the school year. SMALL STEPS follows Jamal and Nnamdi, as well as teachers and principals, from day one of high school through graduation. Viewers meet their parents, spend time with the students at home and in their neighborhoods, and follow the ups and downs of their high school experience, getting a ground-level view of the challenges, hopes and dreams of everyday people struggling to provide the opportunities these students deserve. The filmmakers chose to chronicle the High School for Contemporary Arts because of its ambitious, innovative and creative approach to education and its goal to prepare students for careers in the arts. When the school year begins, however, the reality of public education in the Bronx hits hard. The teachers and students face a range of challenges -- computers envisioned in every classroom are tied up in the bureaucracy; dedicated but inexperienced teachers struggle to keep control in their classes; and basics such as office supplies and textbooks take months to arrive. The students do what any teenagers would do. They push the boundaries, become frustrated with their teachers, fight and begin to lose sight of their goals. Instead of bringing out the best in the students, the chaotic environment seems to do the opposite. SMALL STEPS captures a school in the midst of crisis. But that wasn't the only story going on at the High School for Contemporary Arts. Viewers also see intimate moments with the students, who open up in poetry classes and in one-on-one sessions with teachers. Throughout the film, the viewer sees the impact that a teacher's confidence, parent's involvement and fellow student's collaboration have on the students. Nnamdi impresses everyone with a powerful performance in a school production of the Oresteia. Jamal opens up to his English teacher, sharing deeply personal poetry in which he confronts his fear over the violence in his neighborhood and sadness over his distant father. The impact of the small, nurturing environment begins to be felt by both students and the teachers. By the time the first school year ends, all High School for Contemporary Arts students are using cutting-edge software to create music and visual arts. The rhythms and beats the students produced have been remixed by composer Skooby Laposky to create the soundtrack for SMALL STEPS. Despite its difficulties, the success of the first year is measurable. Throughout the Bronx, fewer than 50 percent of students ever make it to sophomore year. The High School for Contemporary Arts beats the odds, advancing more than 85 percent of their students to year two. In June 2007, the first class of the High School for Contemporary Arts graduates in an emotional ceremony at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. Both Nnamdi and Jamal proudly accept diplomas with tears streaming down their cheeks. Nnamdi points to the heavens and the first graduates of the High School for Contemporary Arts throw their caps into the air. For these inspiring students and the teachers and parents who stood by them, it's an unforgettable moment. In all, nearly 70 percent of the students graduated -- more than twice the average for the Bronx. The issues presented in SMALL STEPS: CREATING THE HIGH SCHOOL FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS reflect those that America's public education system faces today. With classrooms overcrowded, students performing below their grade level and federal funding favoring high performing schools that don't necessarily need as much help as their low performing counterparts, public schools are struggling. New York City's plan to break up underperforming high schools into small, theme-based schools offers an innovative alternative to the failing school system its elected officials inherited. Despite the significant early obstacles the High School for Contemporary Arts faced, this small school has changed the lives of its students and shows great promise for the future. Underwriters: Carnegie Corporation of New York, National Endowment for the Arts and The Fledgling Fund.
|
