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Our PBS Documentaries> Making Schools Work - Program HighlightsBack >MAKING SCHOOLS WORK No topic worries American families more than the quality of our schools. In 1983, a blistering report warned that our schools were failing. Ever since, we've been searching for solutions. Four presidents have made education a high priority, driven by the demands of a high tech economy, global competition and the poor showing of our students on international tests. Sixteen years ago, we were told the U.S. would become "world champions" in math and science. Instead, our 15-year-olds scored below average on international tests in 2003; our 4th graders scored lower than 11 other countries in math and our 8th graders scored lower than 14 other countries. Such disturbing results have spurred the U.S. to greater ambitions for its schools. From World War II into the mid-1980s, America was content to prepare some 25% of our children for college and put the rest on a general education track that often led to nowhere. Our system was mass education for a mass production economy. But the new economy demands much higher performance from all - from health technicians and computer programmers to factory workers using computer-guided machines and clerical workers processing insurance claims. If we don't want to export jobs overseas, we have to jack up the quality of education for everyone. In fact, some schools and communities have done just that - raising quality significantly. MAKING SCHOOLS WORK with Hedrick Smith takes a rare look at educational success stories, not just for a school here and there but for more than a million kids from inner cities to rural America. We take you into classrooms from coast to coast to see how some American communities are making schools work. There's no magic formula; they all use different strategies. But the common denominator is results – lifting scores and closing achievement gaps. Our two-hour program, initially broadcast on Wednesday, October 5th at 9:00 pm on the PBS must-carry schedule, examines four school reform models with excellent results – an elementary reading program; a charter middle school; a program targeted at troubled communities; a high school program connecting applied and academic learning. It also shows district-wide reforms in Charlotte, New York City's District 2, and San Diego. Experts comment on what works and why. With 92,000 schools and 47million students, America cannot afford to reform its schools, one by one. We must scale up with high quality education. So leading educators urge us to learn from schools that work, to multiply their gains, and to refine and improve their methods. For even the best are not perfect. But they offer an escalator upward for most of America's children. Visit the MAKING SCHOOLS WORK Websiteat www.pbs.org/makingschoolswork MAKING SCHOOLS WORK has a comprehensive website located on the well-traveled PBS site. Our website reinforces and extends the stories and concepts from the broadcast and provides multiple resources for web-users who want more information on what works in education and why. The website includes additional material on the reform models and district strategies highlighted in the show along with interview transcripts with key reformers. It features "lessons learned" from these examples as well as essays on other hot topics like equity, accountability, the dropout problem, teacher training and components of effective reform. For communities that want to know more about school reform, there is a section with resources and information including:
Webcast Symposium at the National Press Club The symposium was a live webcast event. It is available for instant replay at www.pbs.org/makingschoolswork and through South Carolina Educational Television at www.knowitall.org.
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