180 Days

You can't improve our educational system without focusing on the lowest-performing schools.

We have a 1.1 billion dollar budget in D.C. Public Schools.

The real question is how are we making it a priority to focus on the areas that need it the most?

This is everybody that died from '09 through 2010.

It's my rest in peace wall.

One of my friends, Desmoine, that was like my brother, he took this guy iPhone, and they shot him.

That's when I changed my life around.

(RUFUS) Before DC Met, I failed four or five courses this is because lack of attendance, suspensions.

I really did not like class at all.

(MINOR) We were all horribly shocked when we saw that we had a 7% proficiency rate in math.

It actually dropped by 50% from the year before.

So, chemical reactions occur all the time.

As a matter of fact.

(ASHFORD) Smythe is what you would call a textbook first year teacher, nervous, all over the place.

I'm not even quite sure that the students even know what a chemical reaction is.

You guys are the first graduating class of the Washington Metropolitan High School and that is a big deal.

(applause) That's exactly right, Ring that bell.

(bell rings) Congratulations, you have been accepted to Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina.

(RAVEN) Ah!

It's that feeling.

(knock on door) (WITHERSPOON) Hello.

I wanted to talk to you about Danielle.

She's missed a lot of days from school.

I think our kids are just responding to so many crises, so much trauma in their lives that it definitely impacts them.

(DELAUNTE) My mother she was sick from breast cancer.

And now that she passed it's just her kids in the house.

My favorite tattoo is the portrait of her.

It's actually the picture on the front of her obituary.

(MINOR) What happens to our students if nobody pays attention to them?

Sometimes we forget that we're in a system that's in the middle of an educational reform.

Right.

It's almost as if we are at war.

"180 Days: A Year Inside An American High School" (NPR HOST) The Obama administration policy is the Race to the Top Program, it links teacher evaluations to student performance on standardized tests.

What's wrong with that notion?

(DIANE RAVITCH) First of all, the tests are not designed to be measures of teacher quality.

They're measures of whether students have learned.

Sometimes that's the fault of the teacher and sometimes it's because the student is homeless, the student is hungry.

I mean there are all kinds of issues that get involved in how students perform on standardized tests.

(ANDREW ROTHERHAM) What too frequently happens with this conversation about poverty is people just want to throw up their hands.

The reality is poverty is an issue.

It's an extremely challenging issue, but schools can do much more to address it than they do today.

(PRESIDENT OBAMA) If a school is struggling, we have to work with the principal and the teachers to find a solution.

You got to give them a chance to make meaningful improvements, but if a school continues to fail its students year after year after year, there's got to be a sense of accountability.

(MINOR) Good morning, good morning.

All right.

We're going to go ahead and get started.

This morning we have the long-awaited let's-talk-about DC CAS meeting.

In DC, the students take a DC CAS, comprehensive assessment system.

This will be the 3rd year that our school tests.

Our school has not made AYP since they started testing.

So let's look at this paper.

For ELA in 2010 it was 26%.

Last year it was 19%.

For math in 2010 it was 14%.

Last year it was 7%.

Our goals this year: 35% proficiency in ELA and 25% proficiency in math.

These are higher percentages than we have ever achieved.

So I'm asking you to do something that the school has not done for the past two years.

Why?

'Cause we can.

Smythe, did you have a question?

Yeah.

The 25% proficient in math, is that set by someone?

Or is that like we should get to 25% 'cause we're awesome?

We are awesome, but the way that it happens, at the start of every year principals have a meeting with the chancellor, right.

So I go in front of the chancellor and she's like, "Hey, your data stinks."

"Well, clearly, chancellor, I don't want to stink."

(MINOR) To a certain extent until we take the test, it's the school's job to prove that we can do things to yield positive scores or high scores.

And in the event that we fail to do so, the control obviously can be taken from us.

Well it's .5 higher than... (MINOR) While there are thousands of indicators of success or thousands of things that can happen on a daily basis that are representative of the great things that happen in a building, for some folks, it's just looking at the CAS numbers.

So it's a pretty big deal and we have one time to get it right.

I'm pulling the kids for the DC CAS pullout.

(FEMALE STUDENT) Come on.

Pull out.

(MINOR) This year we took a more aggressive approach toward remediating skills for CAS.

We tested each student and ascertained their deficits.

Then we grouped students together based on like strengths and like weaknesses.

And each staff member was assigned two different pull-out groups.

Hi.

Is James here today?

(HART) Oh, no, hon, he's suspended.

(MINOR) The students were pulled out of their elective courses and they worked with staff members on specific sub-skills.

(FEMALE TEACHER) That's really the question there.

(DODAH) The biggest point is being able to apply the information from one place to the other.

Today in pull-out we're going to talk about essays and compositions.

Each person needs to put at least one thing.

Let's go.

Even if you think you might be wrong.

Put it up there.

Come on, come on.

Alright, this week we recently learned of a change in the DC CAS test.

Before they simply gave you a prompt and you had to write.

Now they are going to give you a reading passage and ask you to respond in the form of an essay.

Pull-outs are a blessing and a curse.

They can have great impact.

They can snatch that student who's hanging by one finger and allow them to put five fingers up and grab hold to the bar completely.

And we won't really know the impact of the pull-outs until we receive the results of the test.

(MAYES) It takes a lot of work to be a soldier, right, Alexis?

Alexis?

(ALEXIS) Hmm?

What does it take to be a soldier?

You have to go to war.

What would you carry if you had to go to war?

(ALEXIS) Who me?

(MAYES) Yes you.

(MAYES) The students that I service in pull-out some of them don't have the foundational skills they need in order to do what I'm asking them to do.

And I think the automatic reaction to that is to simply check out.

I don't think it's a lack of caring.

I think they want to succeed.

I think it's a matter of, "Can I do it?

And who will help me to do it and how will they help me to do it?"

What else brings soldiers home?

Is it just the gun?

Is it just the vest?

What brings a soldier home?

(STUDENT) Their family.

(MAYES) Their family.

So they carry their family even when they're away at war.

All eyes on me when I walk in.

(RUFUS) Before DC Met, I was at Cardozo Senior High School.

I failed maybe four or five courses while I was there.

I was into music so I was passing that.

That was the only good grade I actually had, an A.

People see my report card and they would look at it and go, "Wow.

All these Fs and the A in that one class.

What's going on?"

(RUFUS) Good morning.

(FEMALE) Good morning.

(RUFUS) My mother was sick.

She was diagnosed with lung cancer.

I was kind of just dealing with that.

For a lot of our kids, I think that they grow up in the society of, "Get over it."

And in the get-over-it society you don't process your feelings.

You just kind of you're supposed to just get over it.

And so a lot of them don't really always recognize the impact that it has.

So a lot of our kids just get stuck.

And a lot of people don't ever look at, you know, what's going on with that kid?

What's that kid thinking about?

What are they processing?

Like with Rufus, everything in his life changed.

You have a kid that goes from, you know, having a two-parent home and then life throws him a horrible curve ball of his mother having cancer.

You know, being 15, 16, losing your mother, very next week his family was evicted because the house was in their mother's name and his father was unemployed so he couldn't support them.

(RUFUS) It is what it is.

When I get on the horse I just like to stay on it.

And if you ask me how I was doing?

I would say, "I'm doing a hell of a job."

It's kind of hard because going through different things at one time of your life, I kind of just like to, you know, roll with the punches.

(WITHERSPOON) I remember him saying that when he left his apartment, he really couldn't take anything with him except for his clothes.

Like, "I couldn't take my dresser or my furniture."

And for kids that's a lot of loss at one time.

Some kids when they've had these significant losses in their lives and have not successfully processed their feelings or received therapeutic services for them you do start to see behavior problems.

(fire alarm &sirens) (commotion) Come, come out this way!

(DISPATCHER) Engine 6 and fire investigator respond, over.

(fire engine sirens) (PA) At this time all students and faculty should be evacuating to the basketball court.

(DISPATCHER) A student set a fire in a trashcan at 300 Bryan Street Northwest.

(fire sirens) Minor, M-I-N-O-R. (MALE DISPATCHER) It's out right now.

(WITHERSPOON) You guys see the behaviors.

Whether it's sexual behaviors, whether it's criminal behaviors, whether it's gang related, they will put themselves in a line of fire.

They will intentionally do things to put themselves in risk.

So I think that it's important for us to take out time to look at how we can partner together to help our students to be safe.

Last week, Miss Hart and I sent out a needs assessment for our students.

In overwhelming numbers a lot of the kids indicated that they have had past thoughts of suicide.

Between now and last week we have sent at least four kids to the hospital for psychiatric evaluations.

And we're still going through the pile.

Our students have death and have responded to death, have been involved in death, affected by death in overwhelming numbers.

A lot of our kids just have really poor coping skills.

It's important for kids to have a reason to live, to be engaged in other things.

A lot of our kids when they have sports and things like that, that really helps them to have a way to challenge some of this anger stuff that they have, some of the issues that they're dealing with every day.

It gives them an outlet.

(BRAGANZA) So think about where your place is on the stage right now.

(cheering) (BRAGANZA) Prior to this I taught in a middle school and it's definitely been a learning process transitioning to teaching high school here in D.C., especially at DC Met, an alternative school.

(cheering) (BRAGANZA) Dealing with truancy, dealing with students that are pregnant, dealing with students that are incarcerated and then come back to school really taught me to look at my role as a teacher in so much more than just my instruction in the classroom.

(stomping and clapping) It's more how much I have to do to engage students and their families in order to really ensure that each student is successful.

(cheering) Hello.

Hello.

Hello.

I need this?

(ALL) Yes.

'Cause there's so many families here.

Hey, hey, good afternoon.

How you guys feeling?

So, welcome, families, parents, guardians, aunties, uncles.

The purpose of tonight is for you to spend a little bit of time with the amazing staff members who work with your children.

You will spend about ten minutes in each of your child's classes.

Okay, you need to find out Tiara.

Okay so Dr. Kronn, right?

We did him.

(TIARA) At first I wanted to be a doctor.

I wanted to be an OB/GYN, obstetrician/gynecologist.

Then I wanted to be a detective.

And I was like, "No, I don't want to be a detective.

I want to be a crime scene investigator."

"No, I want to be a forensic scientist."

And a lawyer.

It's a lot of things that I wanted to do, but I don't really know what led me up to wanting to be an FBI field agent, but now I'm starting to get really interested in it and I see myself going off to college.

(TEACHER) Welcome nice to see you.

We spoke two days ago I think.

(SHARON) Yes we did.

Look, ma.

Look what she brought me all in one day.

Imagine all this could have been A's.

That's okay.

That's great progress.

(MOTHER) Okay.

Thank you so much.

Have a good evening.

We want to focus on what it's about, what it is truly about, the bigger picture, the overarching idea.

'Cause I'm going to be up here on Tuesday.

I would like to sit in her class.

No, you will not, ma.

I enjoyed that because I got a chance to find out exactly what my child was doing, you know, and how they was explaining her grades and, you know, how they were explaining her homework.

And they said that she's a great student and very smart student so I was impressed today.

(TIARA) My mother has always been there for me, especially like making sure I had everything I wanted as a child.

My mother has seven boys, two girls.

She has to take care of all these kids on her own.

She has to do everything on her own.

She can't come home and say, "Honey, I had a rough day.

Can you do this for me?"

She can't do that.

You all have a nice evening.

Thanks a lot.

(TIARA) If I could get a scholarship to pay for school, that would lift a lot of burden up off her.

(JOHNSON) The most important thing is that you just start talking to your mom because financial aid is a time when you and your mom become best friends and you start communicating with each other about how we're going to do this and how we're going to do that because the reality is you and her are both applying together for you to go to school.

So you're going to have to communicate with your mom.

(SHARON) She'll be right at the dining room table sitting there doing it and I'm coming right over her shoulder and watch you.

(TIARA) No.

(SHARON) Yes, I am.

These are the schools that you look at down here and then pick your top four.

(SHARON) Uh-hmm.

(JOHNSON) So you checked Virginia State.

You're already applying to Virginia Union and... (TIARA) I wanted to go to, I was going to either apply to Virginia, Virginia State.

(JOHNSON) Okay.

So that's on here.

Morgan State 'cause it's a state school and it's close.

(SHARON) Where is that?

Baltimore?

(JOHNSON) Uh-hmm.

Norfolk.

South Carolina State definitely.

(SHARON) Okay.

The last part of submitting the application is your personal statement.

So I want you to start all of these online.

We got a deadline.

(JOHNSON) Seriously for real Tiara.

Right now is a serious situation.

Like I know that you're calm and everything and I'm like being calm, but we are at a critical juncture.

You do not have an acceptance.

That is a serious problem.

We got work to do.

I don't pick schools by the name, all that.

Whatever school's going to give you the most money so that you don't have a financial burden and you can graduate, that's the school that we're choosing.

You have four scholarship applications that you have not done.

(SHARON) Uh-hmm.

You have one application that's partially done.

Virginia Union is a private school.

It is very expensive.

So you'll probably get in, yes.

(SHARON) All right.

But paying for it, that's where the issue's going to come in because if you... That school is like $30,000.

How are you going to pay for that if you are not doing any scholarships?

How are you going to pay for that?

(SHARON) I don't have no $30,000.

When you told me you don't want to take out any loans.

There's no reason why you can't get these scholarships Tiara.

Like you have higher than the required GPA.

You can get this money.

(barking) One, two, three, four... (SHARON) Well, I know you're going to be working hard because I'm going to be on your tail now because putting in these college applications are very, very important and with your smartness, you know, you know what to do.

(TIARA) I don't have my... (SHARON) Didn't I tell you how to write your social security number?

I told you to put the first five and block out the last four with an "X"mark.

Why?

Because that's how you do it if you don't want everybody to know your social security number.

But I don't mind the college applications, but stuff like...

I showed you last night on a piece of paper how to do it.

Ma, okay.

Why is the ink pen not working?

This is something that supposed to have been done.

You can't wait until the last minute to do this.

Time is not waiting.

So basically what we said is that their prom and their yearbook are separate from their senior fees.

Right?

Right.

Right.

And you.

Do you want to keep it that way?

( Yeah.

Keep it that way.)

'Cause they have different due dates.

They have different due dates.

So it's 200 for senior dues, $40 for prom.

$40 for a yearbook.

That's about $300.

At this time, all senior class students, twelfth graders, please report to Ferguson Hall.

Class of 2012.

They're going to come up with a lot of money.

We're going to have to do some fundraiser.

All right.

So we're going to get started.

Thank you all for your patience and cooperation as we've been trying so diligently to make this a memorable year for you and make sure that you guys have a fun senior year.

We have been meeting to actually plan your prom.

We have been working super hard to try to keep the cost down for you guys.

We know that this is your senior year and you going to have to not only pay for like prom stuff but even those of you who go get your hair done, if you decide to get a limo for prom.

We've kept all of that into consideration.

So we've tried to make everything as cheap as possible.

We even decided to do as many things as we can ourselves taken out of our own pockets.

A single prom ticket is $90.

If two of you are going it's $180.

Alright.

So there's a question about where the prom will be.

This price is based on having the prom on the Odyssey it's called?

The Spirit of Washington.

We want it to be something nice for them.

Very memorable.

Right.

Very memorable because they do...

I don't know.

I kind of feel like a lot of our kids in the population that we have, they have not had a lot of the experiences that at this point in their life you would think that they would have.

And then on the other end of the spectrum, they've had some experiences that some adults have not had.

So...You know, so you I really, I mean we, I know I can speak collectively for our school and us as the staff, I really, really, we really want them to have something nice.

Very nice.

Right about here is where you would have a gentleman that welcomes everybody.

He's going to take their tickets.

You do have your own buffet.

You have your own dance floor here.

You have your own DJ booth there and he will play requests.

Whatever they want to hear he'll definitely play that.

I think it's very elegant and very classy and I think once we add our touch to it, it will just even be even better.

DCMet's in the house.

(laughter) (plane taking off) (REPORTER) A year and a half after Washington, DC and its high profile school chancellor Michelle Rhee parted ways, the policies that earned her national attention as a tough visionary reformer are under scrutiny.

The teachers' union wants to revoke a performance evaluation policy that had been presented as a national model.

A cheating scandal has cast some doubt on DC's impressive gains in test scores.

(NEWS ANCHOR) Test scores have jumped significantly since 2007 when major reforms did begin in D.C.

Even still, less than half of the students in D.C. public schools right now are reading and doing math at their grade level.

Our children are not learning and we have a responsibility and an obligation to ensure that we provide them with a quality education.

Not only in D.C. but across this country.

(applause) (LITTKY) This conference is really going to be about the sharing of ideas.

We're not just the idea people.

We're not the academician.

All of you are people that have taken your ideas and put them into action.

I ask this question in my workshop, "What's worth fighting for, for you?"

We all have to know what are we going to go to the wall for?

What do we really care about?

One of our principals, Casey, from Kansas City, she's not here tonight.

She got fired.

And she got fired because among all the other things that were going on, they were demanding that her students have uniforms.

She felt with all the problems going on in her school, that went beyond the line for her and she fought it and fought it and lost that situation.

And I'm very proud of her for that.

She's going to come out on her feet, but that was important to her and she fought for that.

So I always just keep wanting to say to us how do we fight for what we really care about?

Let me tell you a little bit about my background.

My mother's a single mother.

She never graduated high school.

She didn't even know what a high school textbook looked like.

She had her first kid when she was 13 years old.

But to be honest with you, my mom is my partner in education.

She's my partner in life.

And that is the number one person in my life.

(applause) And I graduated from San Diego Met.

The first to go to college out of all her kids and basically almost the first person in my family to ever graduate college and have that in my future.

(applause) (PETERSON) So clearly your data is critical.

And you had the biggest gains in reading I'm assuming?

Reading was great, but then our math took a little longer but it ended up just about the same place.

It sounds great.

You find out what sub-skills you need to address and you have the entire school chip in to drill down on those sub-skills.

But from the day that you send out the paper to the day that you sit down and look at that next to the test scores, what literacy strategies did you deploy in your class?

(DENNIS LITTKY) The figures I saw were one every 13 seconds a student drops out.

And if you're talking for an hour, you know 300 kids have dropped out while you're sitting there talking about changing schools.

So you got no time.

Many students don't get the basics early so that they're reading and math on a standardized test are not great.

All right.

You should not get me going on standardized tests because they are most highly correlated with the education of your mother.

Probably 95% correlate with the richness of the community having the highest scores.

Been that way for the 40 years of my work.

If that's the case, that's the part of poverty that keeps the kids from scoring in these kind of tests.

I have no magic answer except all this great millions of dollars to close the gap between the rich and the poor ain't going to do it.

It's not about the testing.

(MINOR) As you know, Perren and I went to San Diego last week.

There was a lot of work that occurred those three days.

So day 1.

Charles, Ashley and Chris were three different students who graduated from San Diego Met, so they gave these great speeches about how the Met changed my life.

Ashley said, "I'm the first person in my family to graduate from high school and go on to college."

So, having said that, which of the following do you believe is most important in changing the lives of our students?

If you believe A, the academic classes that the school offers is the most important factor in changing students' lives, please raise your hand.

If you believe the answer is B, raise your hand.

If you believe the answer is C, raise your hand.

If you believe the answer is D, raise your hand.

If you believe the answer is E, performance on standardized tests, raise your hand.

It's interesting to me that we all raised our hands and we all unanimously said relationships are the most important things that we cultivate in this building.

Given all of the students that you have in your class, who do you think will stand before a group and thank you?

Hmm (cheer practice) Then it's one 1, 2, down, up, you come down.

As much as all of my friends and family made fun of me when I said I was coaching cheerleading because I'm not your typical cheerleading type.

So the back of my V will be back there.

The front of my V will be here.

I think that coaching has enabled me to work with students for a common purpose with something outside of academics.

And then that's really helped me as a teacher realize how important it is to develop the whole student.

(stomping and cheering) And to realize how important it is to develop a student that's not only strong in math and strong in English and strong in social studies but also a student that can work well with others; a student that can come back after, you know, facing a frustration; a student that doesn't shy away from challenges.

So being a coach has really shown me that.

One, two, down, up.

Whoa.

(MINOR) This year we're doing something a little different for the students who are in the testing cohort, we're going to start our March madness, DC CAS marathon with a pep rally.

We asked the cheerleaders to perform so we took some of their famous chants and changed the words up so that they talk about passing the CAS.

They're really excited.

(cheering) Let's go, clap, clap.

Let's pass, clap, clap.

Proficiency, clap, clap, on DC CAS.

Go pass the CAS.

(CHEERLEADERS) Go pass the CAS!

Is that too hard?

(cheering) And if you feel alright let me hear you say, yeah, yeah, yeah!

How many intructional days do we have before you sit down and take the CAS?

Twenty-six.

Twenty-six.

You guys represent the 161 folks who will take the CAS test.

You guys will essentially determine the fate of this school for the next year.

Everybody at this table stand up.

Last year of all of the kids who took the CAS, about this many demonstrated proficiency in reading.

That's out of everybody in this room.

(MINOR) There are 26 days left before CAS occurs.

We need the teachers to understand there is not one minute to waste.

We need the kids get that and put their best foot forward.

So that's kind of what we're talking about, right.

At the end of the day the adults had to sit down and we had to say, What is it that we're doing and what can we do better?

So that everybody in the room can stand up.

But it's not just us.

It's not just writing a bomb lesson plan so that you get it.

It's about you taking personal responsibility for the test that you take.

Every six weeks you participated in a test.

That's kind of to get you ready for the CAS.

On the last test Rufus demonstrated that he had four out of five standards so we should give Rufus a shout-out.

(cheering) Lincoln University was founded in 1854.

Lincoln was an institution that was giving out degrees while slavery was still occurring.

Our school is a part of the underground railroad.

We're about 20 miles away from the Mason-Dixon line.

They would always say that if you were able to make it to Lincoln University, you'd be free.

So, walking around this campus, we have alumni such as Thurgood Marshall, who walked these same grounds.

Have you guys heard of Langston Hughes?

Yes.

He's also a Lincoln University alumni.

I'm Tiffany Perry.

I'm admissions counselor.

About 90% of our students do live on campus.

So, the students do get to know each other.

And the faculty and staff we do get to know the students.

You're not going to be just a number here.

You're a name, a face, a personality.

It really is a family-oriented environment.

To my left, your right is Rendell Hall.

Behind me and where we going to walk through right now is the academic quad.

(TIARA) Lincoln is great.

It's small and it's far enough but not too far, where my mom can't, you know, reach out to me.

(TOUR GUIDE) What you'll take in here is your freshman year experience class.

(TIARA) It's pretty nice, and I pray to God, like, I get in.

(TOUR GUIDE) I'm a family based person so Lincoln University is perfect for me.

Just so you know, Miss Perry, the Lincoln University rep is over there.

So for those students that completed the applications that have all their little stuff ready, she's taking you one-by-one.

Okay.

It's free today so please, if you have your stuff, go over there and sit down with her.

(TIARA) Hello.

(HART) They filled out their applications beforehand.

I prepped their transcripts and I made copies of their SAT scores and then they had one-on-one visits with the admissions counselor.

(TIARA) What are all those numbers?

I'm calculating your GPA.

And then she actually determined on the spot if those students were accepted.

Young lady, first congrats, you're accepted.

We're going to take it a step further.

Congrats, you got a scholarship.

For real?

High five.

Yes.

And you hand in everything you need to hand in, you're straight.

And you got a scholarship for tuition and fees.

So the only thing you got to pay is room and board.

(EXCITED) Yes!

Thank you, yes.

Oh my goodness.

I just got into Lincoln and not only did I get in, I have a scholarship.

It pays for my tuition.

So all I have to pay for is room and board.

So I will be going to college for free.

I'm so excited.

I am very proud because we had eight students actually get accepted on the spot.

Congratulations Tiara.

(TIARA) Thank you.

(MINOR) Congratulations.

(HART) And then we had three other students who were accepted and also received scholarships.

But Tiara, she got the biggest scholarship.

She got $15,000 because of her GPA and her test scores.

(celebrating) I cannot wait to tell my mom because she's going to be really relieved.

So, you know, she won't have a lot of financial burden on her.

Not to mention I have a sibling like coming right after me.

(SHARON) When I came to the school to take care of some business, I just noticed the sign and I was so, you know, happy I went running in the building telling everybody about it, but they already knew.

And then Miss Minor, the principal, said, "Did you see your daughter outside on our bulletin board out here?"

And I came out here and I was just so proud of Tiara.

Go, Tiara.

Yay.

(laughs) (WITHERSPOON) All teachers and staff can report to 307.

Thank you.

(MINOR) Alright.

I want to go over what the week leading to CAS will look like.

I want you to make sure that you enjoy your spring break and you have a good time.

Relax well and have all the fun in all of the universe.

But know that when you come back, we are in the home stretch, right.

We have CAS as soon as we walk in the door.

Then we need to focus on getting those seniors out of the door.

And all of the activities that happen with, with, with graduation.

So the year is not yet over.

I know that some of us may be counting down, but I need you to stay energized.

I need you to stay hopeful.

And I think that the kids will really try their best.

(SMYTHE) Come on, bring it in.

Here's what I need you all to understand, no matter where you are on the field, if that ball gets behind you, you turn around and you go.

Ready?

Nice throw, Jamanique.

Ahhhh!!

(GRUNTS) (SMYTHE) You will listen to me.

Ok.

If you're rounding first base and I say go, go, go.

Then you just keep going.

(SMYTHE) I said eat it, god.

Ugh!

This is going on Facebook.

We're on the map.

Second base.

Josh, you have to cover.

We're ready to go.

You know what game you got?

(MINOR) We just got back from Spring Break, so this is our reintroduction into the academic atmosphere and our prep for the CAS.

It's our final countdown and then we'll jump right into testing.

So all this week, we're prepping for the CAS.

Right.

Because you know we start the CAS next Tuesday.

So you guys will have four days of review, prep, and games.

So here are your questions, so remember they got to answer the questions first... time, you'll answer questions, your question has to be answered correctly, whoever does it first that team gets the point.

Let's go!

So, when I give you guys a piece of paper, you can show your work on there.

When you think you're done, raise your hand or whatever.

Say, "Ms. Owens, I got it."

It's like bingo.

I'm going to check the answers, if you don't have it I'll say keep going until you get it right or until one of you get it right first.

(DELAUNTE) Aight.

You're going to have a few questions.

Every question you get correct we'll add two seconds to the amount of time you have, in order to put one of these in your mouth and stack six sugar cubes on top of it.

(MINOR) You got to answer the quesitons to play the game!

(MCNAIR) You said what?

(STUDENT) D. D as in?

D as in dat's not the right answer.

(MINOR) So the kids are practicing with different CAS-like questions and then they earn points based on how successful they are in the minute-to-win-it game.

I think that we're getting some good test prep and practice in there and the great thing is that they're starting to help each other.

That sense of community will go really, really far in this school.

(STUDENTS) Oooh!

Everybody rotate to the right!

A few kids have tried to take a shortcut and just guess the answer, but, you know, our method is find out why you got your answer.

Okay.

Well, keep going.

Read.

If you can tell me why you got the answer, then you can move on, but we don't want kids taking shortcuts.

So we going to have what?

(STUDENT) Negative nine Y.

Negative nine Y.

Plus?

(STUDENT) Thirty-three.

Thirty-three.

(STUDENT) Plus 2Y.

Plus 2Y.

(STUDENT) Equals 12.

Is equal to 12.

Well, what's the answer?

It's D. I said D the first time!

But I need you to understand why these answers are correct.

You're not going to fail this test on my clock.

(MINOR) Ladies and gentlemen, can I have your attention?

The problems this afternoon are math problems.

So find yourself a table and play hard.

Two separate equations.

So how would I say three pens, two notebooks is $12?

How would I write an equation for that?

What does an equation mean first of all?

Is Tetris math?

Is Tetris math?

Let's move to the next table!

Come on get them up.

Two 1000, three 1000, you can't help her.

Eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.

Good job.

Good effort .

(PETERSON) We're going to give our MVP awards.

Alright.

The third person in Ms. Beale's MVP awards Delaunte Bennett.

This is that MVP right?

Uh huh.

I earned it.

We did some math.

But they turned it into, like, games.

So, that made it more interesting.

Like if you get the math or English right, you get to play a game and they made the games fun though.

(MINOR) The DC CAS is important because it outlines the basic skills that a student should have.

No one wants to be a tenth grader who can't read.

No one wants to be a ninth grader who can't complete basic algebraic skills.

Aside from the fact that the DC CAS will put our school in a specific box or our score card will read a specific way, at the end of the day, it's a set of skills that we want the students to have.

It's a set of skills that the students need for their life.

This is our job, but it's their life.

Today, I am joined by our chancellor.

I asked her to redouble our efforts and to take whatever steps were necessary to accelerate improvement, to raise graduation rates, and to help more students move beyond mere proficiency to advanced levels of achievement.

(KAYA HENDERSON) We have a very unique opportunity to build on the successes that we've already accomplished in terms of getting to be a functioning organization.

Around making some promises to our stakeholders, and delivering on those promises in terms of outcomes for student achievement.

We called upon the people who care about DCPS the most and resoundingly what the community said they wanted was a school system that provided a world-class education to their young people in school buildings that were safe and modern that would prepare them for college, career, and life.

How we going to get these truant kids in here to test?

They are on the test cohort and she gave me the list.

I was about to say who's on the list?

9th and 10th.

Who else did you say was out?

Gabriana was out.

She's pregnant too.

Raymond ran away.

Anthony's locked up, right?

(MINOR) We have a list of names that aren't just names.

We know the kids.

Right?

We know the issues, then you look at their attendance and you see well, oh, this child's on the test cohort and she has 72 absences this year.

And aside from all that, she can't read.

So when you start to associate the harsh realities of the kids who are on the test list and then in the back of your brain you go well out of this whole list of 161 kids, somehow I have to figure out a way to get at least 35 percent to be proficient in reading, it can become a bit daunting.

35 percent may as well have been 100 percent because all of the names on the list, all of the students who take that test, everybody has a different story.

(applause) (screaming) I didn't really know what I was getting into because I was never a cheerleader.

Never a cheerleader in middle school, high school, college.

Never did it.

But when a bunch of students were interested in cheerleading, Miss Minor approached me and said, "Are you willing to help?"

And of course I'm willing to help.

If there's students that are passionate about something, I wanted to get involved.

Ladies and gentlemen come on put your hands together for DC Met!

(cheering) (cheering) (BRAGANZA) Over the course of their year you've seen a lot of resiliency from the students.

So I've hoped that they've learned that okay, you might not do well at the beginning, you might struggle, you might even fail something, but that's not the end of the world.

That you can come back from that, that you can regain any ground that you've lost, and that you can make a fresh start for yourself even if you have to work a little harder.

And in fourth place, DC Met!

(cheers &applause) (BRAGANZA) So thank you for all your hard work this season.

I think it's been very impressive to be the first team to be able to bring home a trophy to the DC Met trophy case.

It's awesome that this will be here for years to come.

(cheers) (TIARA) DC Met is better because the teachers are actually like trying and our principal like every time I see her, she's always doing something that could benefit the students.

And a lot of the times adults don't think that we can see that, but we can see that.

(WILEY) Hi.

How you doing?

All right.

How are you?

How's it going?

It was going good.

All right.

We're going to go into Principal Minor's office.

Okay.

When I get called into the principal office, is that?

It needs to be addressed.

It needs to be addressed?

Yes ma'am.

Dun dun, dun dun.

(laughter) Hey, Ms. Minor.

(MINOR) Hey, love.

Let's go back.

So you want me to call her down?

( Yes please.)

Please pardon this interruption.

Tiara Parker, please report to the main office.

Thank you.

Okay then.

(WILEY) I've been as the students to bring in their financial aid award letters.

So everyone has been telling me that Tiara had got the scholarship, which is great.

Turns out when I looked at it... (TIARA) Hello, what's up?

(WILEY) That that was not the case.

So I called the school and they said that Tiara needed 900 on her SAT.

She had the GPA.

She missed it by 20 points.

So she has an 880 and she needed a 900.

She told me that she made a mistake.

She added the wrong scores together and because she added the wrong scores together, she wasn't eligible for the Presidential Scholarship, which was the full tuition.

So here's my thing.

They made a mistake.

This happened in January.

Tiara stopped applying to colleges since January.

That's her first choice.

So my thing is it's 20 points, they can't make an exception?

(WILEY) She acknowledged that they did make a mistake and she said that they could offer her the Alumni Endowment Scholarship, which was 4,000, which is $11,000 short of the original 15,000.

And so what I did was I called my supervisor and she looked it over as well and she's like, "Because it says conditional, it's not really too much more that I can do," but she said that she could kind of advocate for her and see.

But what we are trying to do is see if she can possibly take the test again to hopefully get a score of 20 points higher and then possibly become eligible again for the scholarship.

(SHARON) I want to help her, you know, as much as I can.

But just to say I can pull that kind of money.

Just like that.

(MINOR) Right.

Let's have a realistic conversation.

How much money were you getting from other schools?

I wasn't, I wasn't getting anything.

(MINOR) So how much money do you have?

Nothing.

So we need to look at the amount that you can take out in loans and the amount that tuition would cost.

So you have to start building a plan around that.

And we'll help you figure out how to do it.

(TIA All the stuff that I thought I had I didn't have.

Now it's kind of a letdown because that $15,000 scholarship is what won me over to go to that school and now that they say I don't have it, I think it makes me kind of sad 'cause I was hoping on that, but... (KROHN) D again.

There's that middle finger.

Six string, second fret.

Third and second.

(guitar strumming) (KROHN) The importance of arts for kids is absolutely monumental.

(So try that out.)

The arts, as far as I'm concerned, really open up doors for children that may not be as successful academically and it gives them that opportunity to be successful.

It's also just a great refuge for a lot of students.

Good, now remember on the G if you're finding that you are ever getting that little (guitar twang) what do you remember?

(STUDENT) I'm not pushing down.

Exactly, we're not pushing down hard enough.

So, if you're getting that sound, that you don't think its sounding really good, put a little more pressure on those fingers.

Many principals do see art and music teachers as basic.

I've even had principals tell me flat out, "You are a glorified babysitter.

(Your trying to switch from that G to the D.) Make sure the kids don't kill themselves.

Whatever you do in your classroom, I could care less about."

However, DC Met does not have that.

We have an administration that loves the arts.

(PETERSON) I think it was overall, considering where they're coming from and where they're going, a great place.

I do know that you had an objective on the board.

I do know that and having talked to you helps me understand better that that's more of an overarching objective that you had.

I believe you told me that each student has more of an independent (Yes) objective that they're working on.

(KROHN) Very much so.

(PETERSON) If I'm individual student A, would I know that my objective for me is to hold my hands properly?

Yes.

I do about 4 assessments in a class and, after each assessment, it is: ok, so student A you've been working on this, this and this.

When I assess you for the second time, this is what I need to see.

I need that student when I come back it's going to be, okay show me that hand position.

Show me what I asked you to work on.

So what I'm going to do is give you a 3 on this one.

But I'm also going to make a suggestion for you for future reference.

I know it might not be something you do everyday but say ok, class, our objective for the class is x, y, z.

Be reminded, student A, your objective for today is this.

Student X your objective for today is this.

And maybe even have that chart on the wall somewhere.

(KROHN) All right.

Mess around a little bit with A minor, E minor.

Because we're going to do something with this today.

Our job and our privilege is to make sure that our students are effective.

While they're in school and when they leave school.

If we're not doing our job and we're not attempting to change how we can better effectively do that job, then we're not giving these children what they need.

Yep.

Sixth string and this one fourth string.

"Dead and Gone" Too long. Back home. "Dead and Gone" Too long. (MINOR - PA) Teachers and students, please pardon this interruption.

Rufus McDowney, please report to the main office.

Rufus McDowney, please report to the main office.

Thank you.

And you are?

Miss McDowney.

Oh.

His sister?

His cousin.

Cousin, oh.

I'm Miss McNair.

the attendance counselor.

Here you go.

And this his transcript and everything?

Hey Chaz.

She in the office?

That's my cousin.

I'm staying with her.

(MINOR) At the end of third quarter Rufus was withdrawn from DC Met and it was heartbreaking for all of the adults in the building.

(PETERSON: How you doing ma'am?)

How you doing?

I'm Perron Peterson.

I'm the Assistant Principal.

I spoke to you earlier.

Right how you doing?

What's up P?

(How you feeling?)

(RUFUS) I'm all right, I'm all right.

(You sure?)

(RUFUS) Yeah I'm straight.

(MINOR) So your thought is that having him close to where he lives to go to school is going to help him...

He was fine here, but it wasn't working out with transportation and curfews You came into D.C. and did what you wanted to do?

(RUFUS) Something like that.

Got to live by the choices we make.

We do.

We do.

Unfortunately.

(MINOR) From the first day that I met Rufus to the day that I hugged him before he left, I saw him grow.

I'm a little sad about it actually.

The feeling's mutual.

Rufus has always been kind of laid-back.

Rufus has a great, a brilliant mind about him and Rufus knows how to make good decisions.

Rufus has dealt with so much that the fact that he got up and walked into this school building in and of itself was a huge, huge triumph.

Hey, Anderson.

Some bull(bleep) Anderson.

We got to go through all the bull(bleep) all over again you already know.

It's going to be interesting.

Very.

When she told me I'm transferring, I said, "What you mean?"

"I'm transferring you, your school."

I said, "All right.

"I'm like wow, this is some... Then I got to the point I wanted to (bleep) some (bleep) up.

That's why I had to leave out.

I told her my cards out on the table.

Academic-wise I'm going to do what I supposed to do regardless of where I'm at.

You hear me?

She, she hearing from all my teachers you're doing fine.

Look at my report card.

I'm doing fine.

(Yes you are.)

You hear me?

I'm doing fine.

I can't do it Anderson I'm not trying to start over with all these new teachers trying to get know people and having them trying to understand me because I'm not on that with everybody.

It's only certain people you know what I mean?

I'm not off that with everybody.

So but you got to be strong enough to not give up.

If you do anything for me, just don't buck.

Be patient.

All right?

This (bleep) crazy, Anderson.

We have, we have made him love himself so much now that I just don't get it.

If I had my way, he wouldn't go nowhere.

Legally there's nothing we can do.

Legally there's nothing we can do.

Rufus rapping along to "Dead and Gone" (MINOR) We know that if we had more time with Rufus, we could have seen greater successes in him and that's not to say that he won't be successful at his new school.

But you take ownership because the kids come to us as these blank canvasses and we work and we work and we work and they become this amazing portrait, but Rufus is only half done.

"Dead and Gone" This is Mrs. Williams from the Washington Metropolitan High School calling.

We are testing all this week and next week and Diamond is not in attendance at the present time.

We need to have her here.

It is very crucial that she comes to school and sit for the exams.

If she's running late this morning, she will be able to sit for the afternoon makeup session.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to give us a call.

(SMYTHE) Especially as the school we are, we could not afford to get bad test scores.

So we just rammed this information into these kids' head.

Just take the test, do the best you can, but show up.

We have given out all testing materials.

They're all signed out, secure, and accounted for.

(ASHFORD) The students are now moving to their testing locations.

Faculty and staff are moving to their zones where they will be monitoring the test.

Are you the test chairperson?

I am.

(What's your name again?)

Tameka Ashford.

This one says, "I achieve."

I believe that your brain will get a little something extra.

(ASHFORD) Hey, all!

All of these rooms where these teachers are, these are the rooms where students will be split.

(MINOR) When you have a school that has notoriously had bad test scores, you want to be able to say, "No, our kids are smart.

No, our kids can do it."

So we decided to pour all of the efforts that we possibly could in to make that statement to not so much even to central office but so the kids could get it.

(ASHFORD) You can go ahead and pass out your test booklet and answer sheets.

There should be no talking.

Carefully break the seal on your test book and open your test book to page one of the reading test.

Now open your answer booklet to page one.

Are there any questions?

You may begin.

(ASHFORD) I have all of my testing books accounted for and locked away.

(PETERSON) Go on and make the announcement now.

At this time testing is concluded.

Students, you have two minutes to transition.

Thank you.

(PETERSON) At this time, can all custodians please report to room 209.

Can all custodians please report to room 209.

I hope that we will move mountains, but we may not, but we know that that would not be for a lack of trying.

Um, end of statement.

(door shuts) (NEWS ANCHOR) D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray's campaign treasurers pleaded guilty to federal charges including obstruction of justice.

Envelopes stuffed with fraudulent money orders prevented the public from knowing that one campaign was secretly financing another.

Another day, another refusal to talk about the growing scandal surrounding his 2010 campaign for mayor.

Another campaign aide to D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray is facing federal charges.

Breaking news right now.

Kwame Brown, the Chairman of the D.C. City Council has resigned after being charged with lying about his income on loan applications.

Mayor Gray went on to say that he's determined to continue carrying out the people's business.

Mayor Gray would not talk at all about whether or not he should resign.

(PA) Good morning, everyone.

The morning meeting's going to start in one minute slash right now in 307.

(laughter) (MINOR) All right.

We're going to go ahead and get started.

I don't know of an easy way to talk about budgets because it's a harsh reality, but we jump in and we do the work.

The budget is due in two days.

And then the mayor submits the budget to the city council.

So those are just things to remind yourself of.

So these are some of the required staffing as set forth by the district.

You have to have a principal, instructional coach, social worker, half-time psychologist, a special education teacher, and a special education aide, two custodial foremen, two RW5s, a .3 ELL teacher, and 10.7 general education teachers.

So this budget is saying that we should have ten teachers.

I get that this is a difficult time, right.

I get that folks are walking around on eggshells because you don't know if your position will be here next year.

There's absolutely nothing comforting I think that I could say to that.

This district in and of itself yields a little bit of stress because while I can't petition my position off the chart, I serve at the will of the chancellor.

They never tell you.

There are no indications that they're going to end your contract.

One day they just either show up at your school with boxes or they call you down to central office and they say we're going in another direction.

So as much as it may seem like I am calm because I am absolved of budget cuts, it's not really true.

It doesn't have to be me who's standing here.

And I certainly don't have great test scores or great attendance to keep me in this position.

Just believe me when I say if I need to sit you down and have a conversation with you about the future of your job, it will happen.

I don't do things in the dark.

That's not how I live my life.

We work in conjunction to make a model that we believe will best meet the needs of the kids and it has absolutely nothing to do with the person.

(MINOR) It's a crappy time of year when everybody feels like they're being overly scrutinized and at any moment someone can get fired.

And when you have a family environment, it's sometimes hard 'cause it's like you're voting someone off the island or kicking out a family member.

So sometimes it's hard for a teacher to really grasp the fact that it's more so the function and not the person in the position and what the function can do to help the kids in the building.

Everything will be just fine.

(SMYTHE) I don't like these conversations.

I know.

You got about 30 of these more to go.

(MINOR) He so cute.

(PETERSON) Take my water and go.

(laughter) Thank you.

I will repeat myself for everybody who was not paying attention.

"Do Now"on the board says, "Describe gravity.

Who discovered it?

And which objects have it?"

(MINOR) Smythe was a new first year teacher and he came in knowing that he was going to have to work hard.

And he had to be really, really honest with himself and just come to the table ready to bare all and he did that.

And I think that because he trusted the process and because he trusted the staff members he's seen some really, really good successes.

And he has done well.

So, it's perfect because I can introduce "Mr. Smythe's Law of Dating."

Alright.

So, somebody walks up to you in the hallway and says, "yo, I'm attracted to you."

So, what do you say?

Alright, here's what you actually say.

"You're damn right I am.

Don't you have mass?"

Say, "I don't know maybe."

"Well, I have mass, too.

Now, if we both have mass, then there's a force of attraction between us.

So, not only, (laughter) so not only are you attracted to me, but I'm attracted to you."

But, if they say, "Wait, you know what tell me more."

That's the person you should be talking to.

Alright, I have on the board our objectives by the end of next week.

(Are you excited?)

(SMYTHE) Uh, a little bit.

How do you feel your lesson went?

I thought it went well.

I think at least for the first 10 or 15 minutes I was spot on.

I think the lesson was good.

(MINOR) All right.

So we're going to go through each of the indicators.

So the first TLF indicator is a well-organized objective-driven lesson.

Our score for that was a four and let me tell you why it was a four.

The difference between a three and a four in this case is yes, you had the kids, they were totally into it.

They were stupid dumb excited, but then the kids were able to explain or articulate what they were going to learn and what they had learned before and how it fit in.

So you did this really great job of getting them amped.

You set the stage in a well-orchestrated, anticipatory set and it was really cute.

(SMYTHE) Thank you.

(MINOR) In cycle one you got a three.

So we moved from a three to a four so you're making good progress.

Just make sure that you remember the point is for the kids to get out of it what they're supposed to learn and then be able to articulate that to you.

Instructional time, three.

You got a three the first cycle from us.

You use your time well.

Your transitions were a little rocky.

I think you can continue to work on the transitions, going from the warm-up to going to the actual guided practice.

You couldn't really tell which was which.

I can work on that.

(MINOR) So we got agendas for a reason, right.

That structure is going to go far.

(SMYTHE) I don't know what our budget's going to be next year.

I don't know what the schedule's going to look like.

There's a lot of unknowns.

I still don't have a really good idea of who's staying and who's going.

(MINOR) So your final score was a 3.44, which I think is pretty awesome.

(laughs) Thank you, Smythe.

Keep up the good work.

(ASHFORD) This morning we wanted to take some time out to just celebrate each other.

We're going to have a bunch of sweetness, a bunch of calories, a bunch of happiness, and then we'll go out and see what we can do with the kids when they get here.

All right?

Anybody?

Who wants to go first?

All right.

So, so I'm not good at thank you's and speeches or nothing so I'm just going to, I'm going to go with what I got.

I want to thank Mr. Simmons, my buddy.

Mr. Simmons...

Anything for you Mr. Smythe.

(SMYTHE) It's all right.

(laughter) On one of the first days I met Mr. Simmons, he said to me, "We don't have problems, we have opportunities."

And every day I think of that.

Every day I say I really I enjoy all my opportunities.

Sometimes my opportunities send me home with a headache (laughter) but I still have, I still have opportunities and I've turned a lot of those opportunities to positive, to positive things.

So thank you, Mr. Simmons.

I appreciate it.

Thank you, Mr. Smythe.

(KROHN) Ready and you go.

music class (KROHN) This is my ninth year of teaching and unfortunately last year even being a highly effective teacher, I was excessed from my position.

My principal had to lay off seven different teachers and I was one of those teachers due to budget constraints.

What I found ironic was that we got our excess letters at the end of teacher appreciation week.

This year, as soon as I knew that we were going to lose money, the first thing is what positions will be cut.

And if I were an administrator, as much as I love music and the arts, (Remember one steady beat.)

I know full well that I would have to scale back my elective teachers.

So, I knew I was going to more than likely have to move on from DC MET.

I know that what I'm doing is having an impact positively on the children that I get to teach.

If I compare my feelings now to when I started out this year, I still feel that this is a great place for me.

If I could, in fact, stay here I would.

"What A Wonderful World" (dialing phone) (ringing) (SHARON) Hello?

Hi.

Mrs. Parker?

(SHARON) Uh-huh.

This is Kelly Hart calling from DC Met.

How are you doing?

Fine.

How are you?

(HART) I'm doing fantastic.

Is Tiara with you?

Yes.

Hold on.

I'm going to put you on speaker.

We both can hear.

Okay.

Tiara, you can hear me?

Yes.

All right, sweetheart.

So you know how I said I emailed Lincoln this morning?

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Well, at 2:00 today the admissions counselor, Miss Perry, the one that you met with who offered you the scholarship on that day.

All right.

She just emailed me back and she said...

I'm going to read you the email, okay?

(TIARA Mm-hmm) All right.

The admissions committee re-reviewed Miss Parker's file.

Due to her strong academic transcript and the fact that she took the ACT once and the SAT twice, we have decided to extend her the original scholarship she was offered, the university scholarship.

(cheering) Yes.

Oh, no.

I was making a total fool out of myself like ten minutes ago when I ran into the principal's office and Mr. Wiley's office.

Mr. Wiley's here with me too.

(WILEY) Hey.

Hey Mr. Wiley!

Yep.

So that includes the tuition and fees.

This was decided upon today and you should receive your official acceptance and scholarship offer in the mail shortly and she apolo... (cheering) And she apologizes for the confusion.

Isn't that amazing news?

Oh, yes!

Yes!

(cheering) I love it.

Whoo hoo!

Are you driving, Mrs. Parker?

(Thank you so much!)

Oh, no.

I am so happy because, you know, they made a mistake and they, they owned up to it.

(cheering) Okay.

I'm sorry.

Go ahead.

No.

That's okay.

I was just saying I'm glad that they re-reviewed it, took everything into consideration, and, you know, realized that they made a huge mistake.

And I'm just really glad that they made it right.

We took this to church with us on Saturday and I was telling my pastor and everybody about it and they just said, "We going to continue to pray about it."

Well, it worked, Mrs. Parker.

All right.

Okay, ladies, have a good night.

Have fun celebrating and we'll see you tomorrow.

(RAVEN) Well, we're at Bennett College.

I got my godfather with me.

It's a lot of girls out here.

It's an all-girl college.

I know!

(laughs) (RAVEN) I'm here for an overnight stay.

It's basically give you an overview of what you're going to expect when you come here.

We get to have like a classroom setting.

They have a lot of activities.

Alright, this is how going to happen.

We all sisters.

We gonna come together.

So then we're going to be friends.

r It's a great school overall, and you get that sister-like, sisterhood type atmosphere.

And I think it offers a lot here.

Everybody know once you graduate from high school, you go to college.

It's another step.

It's the next step until your career, your future, everything.

So, I don't want to hold on to nothing else that's in the past.

This is a new beginning of a new life.

I'm blessed as a mother to have a daughter that's so successful and about to go to college and just really doing everything.

I'm really proud of her.

I love you, Raven.

Thank you.

Don't you start crying.

You about to start crying.

She always crying.

She know I'm very sentimental.

And she emotional.

I'm very sentimental and through the struggle that my kids has been through, God has blessed me that they not out here doing nothing, selling drugs.

They are doing what they supposed to do and I'm, I truly have to say thank you, Lord.

Thank you for allowing me to live to see my daughter be 18 years old.

That's a blessing.

Some mothers can't stand here and look over their children and say thank you to let them live to see these years.

She has no kids.

She's, you know, she's wonderful as a daughter.

She's wonderful.

She could come see mommy a little more often, you know.

I've been busy.

Like...

But she's so into her activities and stuff so I understand that.

At one time Raven was I did find out that she had started, you know, messing around with marijuana and I stood fast as a mother and I told her that I would not accept that from her as my daughter, that she would make drugs a part of her life.

She knows what impact it played in my life and I always told my kids to do, I don't want them to do what I do, I want them to do better.

And that was my motto with my children from day one.

Always I want you to strive to be the best.

And she gave me what I asked for.

I'm a photo person.

I love to take pictures.

This was Raven when she was little.

That was my little angel there.

I think Raven was about eight.

(RAVEN) That's embarrassing.

Look what she used to put me in.

Look at that.

That just looks terrible.

I used to hate them bows like I hated them with a passion.

I asked her could she wear a skirt, you know, the day of her graduation for me, but, you know, I don't know what's going to happen with that so...

It ain't going to happen.

No, no, no.

No, no, no.

Men's Warehouse.

Here we are.

I'm going to get you a jacket.

My baby's getting ready for the prom and all that stuff.

I just don't know what to say.

I'm so happy.

We gonna head to the place to get your dress fitted.

Can you straighten that out?

I want this up here.

Hold still.

Ain't that cute?

(laughing) How y'all like my baby now?

Isn't that pretty?

(MINOR) The purpose of this meeting is for us to solidify the agenda for the senior meeting.

They're having a baccalaureate brunch, Donning of the Kente, an honors and rings ceremony, a passport ceremony, and graduation, right.

They are all their ceremonial activities.

That's five.

Then celebratory activities: they're having a picnic, a movie day, and then prom.

Have we secured the location?

We have to come up with 20%, which is $1,144.

And she said we have 'til tomorrow to secure it or she have other dates.

Have we collected money for prom?

No, because in the meeting we told them the senior fees had to be paid first.

And what's the total amount?

Five thousand eight hundred ninety dollars and 29 cents.

(MINOR) We have to push everything back 'cause we're saying we need their senior dues prior to that.

How many have paid that?

How much is that?

$200.

So you're looking at... You're looking at $380 to come up with in the next two weeks.

It's just not going to happen, but I feel comfortable saying to the kids that in order to have a prom, 30 of you guys, 30 out of 33 need to pay for two tickets.

It takes money and with the way that economics are, we know that a lot of the parents cannot afford these things.

Because I've only collected from about 5, 6, 7, 8.

(ASHFORD - PA) At this time.

Your faculty and staff will be coming down modeling for your viewing pleasure.

Please be respectful.

Be mindful of the fact that we are doing this to show you what is appropriate prom attire.

(students scream) So we want to have a good time, but we want to be very respectful in the process.

(PETERSON) Let's take one more for real, please smile everybody.

(MINOR) Don't move.

(MINOR) We really wanted this first prom to be representative of the senior class and unfortunately we didn't get those payments.

So in the ninth hour we decided that we had to have a student prom and that the adults just had to figure out what we were going to do given absolutely no budget, how we could create an environment that was prom-like for the students and make sure that we offered them the opportunity to have a senior prom.

We are truly using everyone in the school to pull this event off.

Everyone from the custodial staff to the art teachers to partners outside of the building.

We ready to rock and roll?

Let's get it on.

I am so proud of you Tiara, you know that.

This is the moment I start crying.

Because she's so pretty.

(PETERSON) Hey.

Goodnight everybody.

How you all doing?

Hey and welcome to the prom, 2012.

Of course you already see somebody had questions about if you can you eat?

Of course, it's your prom.

It's your food.

Go ahead and eat and have a good time.

Get your two-step on.

All right.

That's it.

(cheering) (TIARA) My prom night is going great so far.

Everybody's having a good time.

At first I was kind of scared to come to prom because I was like, "I don't know how to slow dance," and but lucky for me my date don't even want to dance.

So I don't got to slow dance.

Everybody who doubted DC Met about, "Oh, ha, ha, ha, y'all prom is going to be in a cafeteria," ha, ha, ha, it came out totally great.

Shout out to Miss Minor for putting everything together.

I appreciate her.

It was awesome.

I'm really excited.

It's a little after 12 and prom's over.

All of the stress, all of the anxiety is well worth it because it was a great night and I think the kids had a lot of fun and I'm just glad it's over.

One event down, eight more to go.

It's been a long day.

I had principal's academy this morning where I learned about four different math PDs that I have to produce before the end of the school year and there are 17 instructional days left.

So, yeah, it's still a lot of work to do, but there are 17 days left and I can make it for 17 days.

We have to send a finalized list of seniors who are still eligible to graduate to central office so that they can start processing diplomas.

Today marks eight days before final senior grades are due.

So what I am doing right now is going to each teacher to ascertain whether or not seniors have any inkling of an ability to still pass.

If they can still pass, then we'll send their name to central office and central office will print the diplomas.

I love the kid, but I'm pretty sure he hasn't done, I don't think he's passed.

Is internship going to make or break him?

(MINOR) That won't, but this will.

So if there's any inkling that they can still pass you say okay.

If there's absolutely no possibility, then you write F and initial.

Okay.

(GIBSON) And if no possibility, I'm leaving it blank?

(MINOR) No possibility, write F and initial.

She had apparently been out a lot with legal absences so she says, but I have yet to see... (MINOR) She not going to graduate.

Okay.

The question is could she do the work in the eight days we have left before you have to tell me unequivocally?

(Not really.)

(MINOR) Then it's an F. You have not done enough stuff in probability and statistics, U.S. History, and U.S. History?

U.S. History, yeah with Dent, after school.

Oh okay.

And you needed that to graduate.

So you have put yourself in a situation where you are three, three classes short and you can only take three classes in summer school.

There's a high chance that you'll fail Algebra 2 so you need to keep coming to school between now and June first.

We need to immediately register you in a probability and statistics summer school class.

And that will make you eligible to graduate in summer graduation.

Now, I want to see you at graduation.

I want to see you there.

Obviously I'm not going to give you a cap and gown and obviously you're not going to get a diploma, but you are invited to attend.

Because it's your people and you should be walking across the stage with them, but hopefully, you'll do what you need to do so that you can walk across the stage in the summer.

(phone dialing) Hello Perren Peterson.

(MINOR) Where are you?

(PETERSON) I'm walking upstairs.

All right.

I'm in your office.

I said 8: 10 because I was waiting for you.

(PETERSON) Alright.

Alright.

My voice quivered when I told Dodah.

You cannot cry.

I'm not going to cry I didn't need that 2 cents.

All right.

It's 8:09.

I don't want to hold the kids.

Good morning.

(TEACHERS) Good morning.

So I have a story to tell.

On Wednesday I got the call.

The call came at 12: 30 and the call said, "Minor, I need you at central office at 2."

And I said, "All right.

You need me to bring anything?"

"No.

Don't bring anything.

Just bring yourself."

So the awesome way that they do things in central office so I'm sitting in the waiting room knowing exactly what it is.

Before I go, I'm like, "Perren, who gets fired on a Wednesday?"

He's like, "Do you really think you're going down there to get fired?"

And I said, "Perren, Terry DeCarbo never calls without reason.

They definitely never call you to central office just to come."

So I go down there and then I got a letter of non-reappointment.

So what that means is that I will not be here next year.

So early on in the year I was like, "I am not being well-received."

I guess that's a good way of saying it.

My thoughts and their thoughts aren't matching.

It's not working out.

I don't need to be here.

And I had conversations with him.

I was like, "Kid, I'm out of here."

I'm not going to cry.

Not going to do what you think I'm going to do.

I did practice... Don't do it.

Damn it.

You knew it wa (PETERSON) I knew it.

(holding back tears) All right.

I am not displeased with the way that I ran the ship.

I believe that I did it with integrity and I believe that at the end of the day it was always about the kids.

So the thing is I've never lied the entire time that I've served as a principal and I'm not going to start now.

The story speaks for itself.

You guys know how many computers we have in the building.

You guys know how the budget was cut and how many teachers we'll have next year.

You know what that will do to class size.

I don't need to try to create a smear campaign because the school is a walking testament of what happens when you under serve a population.

Yeah, we have dedicated folks in here.

We have folks who I think the other day I looked to you guys, somebody said something about resources and I said, "These are the resources, these people who are sitting in the chairs."

So, yeah, we have amazing folks who come back and work and give their all every day.

End of statement.

But I will have you know that I will serve as principal of this fine institution until June 29th and it's business as usual, right.

We have a school year to close out and we have kids to graduate and we have functions to hold.

So that's what we'll do.

So I think it will be just fine.

To have a principal fired before DC CAS results could come out specifically with the fact that we implemented all of these great new strategies to increase our scores, they're not even giving us a chance.

I mean it doesn't look good that last year 7% of our students were proficient in math, but we didn't even get an opportunity to raise those scores.

They don't care.

You can't tell me they're putting children first because she's invested in children.

It's not about data.

It's not about a test score.

That's a bunch of crap.

(BARNES) Well, everybody in a position of authority has enemies, everybody.

You can please some of the people some of the time, but you can't please all the people all the time.

And long as everything she did she thought was right, then she shouldn't worry about enemies 'cause friendships don't win championships and right now we trying to win championships with these kids and not a whole bunch of friendships with people who don't care about them.

Congratulations.

What's this for?

(MCCLAIN) Cap and gown.

Oh, I can't find it.

Lord, I can't find it.

I got something you want.

I got something you need, don't I?

Come on, man.

I'm trying to get out of here.

I got things to do.

I'm on the road today.

You have eight.

Everybody has to have one.

If they don't have one, they can't get in.

I'm proud of you, baby.

Keep up the good work, girl.

Give me a hug, girl.

You're just something else.

Congratulations.

I'm proud of you, girl.

Aw, this is so nice.

You did it.

Come here.

(laughing) That is so sweet.

(PETERSON) Main office, come back.

(PA) Good morning, DC Met.

At this time your presence has been requested in 307.

Please make your way to 307.

Thank you.

(MINOR) Morning.

(Good morning.)

Should I introduce you guys?

That's Terry DeCarbo at the door and Richard Bachman in the colorful shirt.

(D You probably want to turn the camera off.

(DECARBO) I'm sorry to be the bearer of this news.

I know this is a shock.

This is not an indictment on Principal Minor.

She is a wonderful person.

This is a decision that the chancellor has made in the change of leadership.

I know change is hard.

(SMYTHE) I don't know if you'll actually take this back to the chancellor or not, but I'm a first-year teacher.

And at teacher orientation a student teacher asked the chancellor if this was the last time we would see her and she said, "No, no, no.

This is not the last time."

I haven't seen her once.

So please do me a favor.

My name is Jonathan Smythe and I haven't seen her once.

If she made a decision based on our school she hasn't told me.

(ASHFORD) What were the decisions based on?

Because as an instructional coach who's reflected, as an assistant principal who's reflected, as every professional in this room who's reflected, we want to know because we care about this school.

And we love Minor.

But you know why we love Minor?

Because she loves this school.

We don't like being on the failure list.

Nobody wants to be failing.

Nobody wants to have a high truancy rate.

We want to know but nobody will give us data in this data-driven district to find out why this is happening.

We don't know what to make better.

And changing a leader and not telling the masses what will make us better won't help anything.

(GIBSON) Why is there a big mystery?

Like why can't we know?

(DECARBO) The chancellor makes the decision.

(teachers react frustrated) (WITHERSPOON) When you guys look at data, do you look at the kids that come to us that are homeless, the kids that come to us that parents are strung out on drugs?

I mean do you look at all of the traumas that our kids come in with?

Our kids whose parents are HIV positive, that are dying?

How many of our kids whose parents have died in one school year and that they still are expected to come to school and test and do all these other things?

Who judges that?

Who determines oh, well, you know what, that doesn't matter?

Because if you don't deal with the social and emotional, these kids will not produce.

They will not be productive.

For a lot of our kids this is their home!

This is it!

And so I hope you guys recognize what you're doing when you take her away.

It is bigger than you.

These kids are, these are their lives.

(applause &cheers) So I appreciate you guys and even though we aren't all going to the same school, you know I want to keep in touch with all of you and I want you all to know that we are special.

We are the first graduating class of DC Met.

(applause) (ANNOUNCER) Tiara Parker (applause) Firstly, I would like to give thanks to my mother because to some she may seem overbearing and a little bit "creepy," "stalkerish,"but... (laughter) But I can honestly and wholeheartedly say that my mother does love me and she always comes through for me.

And I will be attending Lincoln University where I will major in criminal justice and minor in human services.

Yeah, help my people.

Thank you.

(applause) (TIARA) I have no siblings with me but my sister.

My brothers, a lot of them are incarcerated, but I was shielded from a lot of stuff.

I'm still going to be home for breaks and stuff.

To me, it seems like you could have one person telling you, "You can do it.

You can do it," but if you, but if you're surrounded around your other family members a majority of the time then eventually that's what you become if you let it get to you.

Majority of everybody in this building has went through some stuff that is probably shocking for someone their age to have been through and have made it through.

And I mean I've been through some stuff that I probably would probably never, ever share.

I'll probably take to my grave.

But I don't let that stop me.

For somebody at my stage in my career, I am unfortunately expensive for a lot of schools.

That's why me leaving every single year is very, very tough on me because I truly know that at some point or another I'm going to have a year where no school wants to pick me up.

I sent out probably close to 75 to 80 resumes for various jobs.

Out of those 70 to 80 I had approximately 15 or so interviews and out of those 15 interviews only one person actually offered me a job and that was Brent Elementary School.

Next year will be the first school that I've ever worked at which is considered to be a rich school.

I've always had to fight very, very hard to get resources for my students.

I have had to secure grants.

I've had to secure private donations.

This will be the first school that I will actually have a PTA.

I would have loved to have seen what this school could have been like musically over the next three to five years.

I think it's very sad that the kids next year are going to only get a part-time person.

So we got all the books off the second floor?

(SMYTHE) I definitely feel like I've grown.

I definitely feel like I've learned a lot.

We've got to take those books from that bookshelf and stack them outside.

All of them right?

All of them.

(SMYTHE) I'm more prepared for next year than I was this year.

But, man, words cannot describe how difficult it is to teach physics to someone who can't multiply.

Words cannot describe how difficult it is to have students write a one-page report on a chapter they read when they can't read.

I have to teach my course as I would with any other class.

The problem is I'm not dealing with any other class.

I'm dealing with a bunch of kids who are old enough to be in college; at the same time, their education has them back in fifth and sixth grade.

It is very tough to not get frustrated by it, I'm not frustrated at the students for not knowing that.

It's really frustrating that a system would pass a kid along because either they're too old to be in their same grade or because they think the next grade's going to deal with the problem.

So what are we doing?

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14.

Fourteen.

Okay.

(BARNES) The next book, D.C. Government, The City of Magnificent Intentions.

(MINOR) DC Met is a school in the alternative cluster in the District of Columbia for a reason.

The school is made for students who have been disengaged.

And with that comes a lot of stuff.

Thanks so much.

(MINOR) And it's the job of the adults to sift through the stuff and get the kids recommitted to their education.

That it?

Yeah that's it, thank you so very much.

(MINOR) But when you change your mind every day, when you change policy, when you change the way that you're teaching, when you change the folks who are teaching, the kids are the ones who have to deal with that change.

I don't know when we'll get it right and when we'll understand that stability is key in addressing the issues of the kids.

We came a long ways, didn't we?

Can ya'll believe it's here?

It's time to start walking for pictures.

Let's go.

One, two, three, smile!

Hold it.

(FEMALE) There you go smile, beautiful!

"Pomp and Circumstance" (RAVEN) We all are at the end of the road now.

(PETERSON) Raven Quattlebaum.

(cheers) (RAVEN) I can remember my first day here and I came in with the decision that whatever I do this year, nobody's going to stop me from graduating.

I had went through a lot this year.

We all have.

This year I can say at DC Met I made a family.

I just want to tell the staff of DC Met, thank you for everything you have done.

And to my fellow classmates, don't stop here.

Go and do more than this.

So to the class of 2012, my question is to you, are you going to play this game called life or get played in it?

I present to you the inaugural class of the Washington Metropolitan High School.

(cheers and applause) (MINOR) Graduates, you may turn your tassel.

(cheers and applause) "Pomp and Circumstance" (VINCENT GRAY) It's really delightful to be here today to talk about the progress that we're making in public education.

D.C. students continue to show steady progress academically and this year's DC CAS scores are a five-year high for the District of Columbia.

(applause) Today is a good day for DCPS and I am excited to be here.

We have a very specific goal of 70% proficiency by 2017.

Today we're at 44.7 points, that's about 26 more points in 5 years.

So while today is exciting we also know that the work it takes to dramatically improve our schools won't happen overnight and what I've learned if nothing else in this job I can't live or die by annual test scores.

This is about me, the struggle from the streets, striving for success trying to get out D.C. Thirty-five is where I'll be, chilling and hollering at B's.

Smoking tree, trying to keep the pain off of me.

I am a little nervous with her going out into the world, you know, being on her own, you know.

Being up under my wing is safe, but once she leave from up under this wing and she go other places, I'm hoping people will be a little friendly and, you know, try not to be too mean to her, you know, because it's a mean world.

I might pack my stuff and move and go where she is anyway.

So I'll be right there with her still.

(laughs) I got to keep this to remind me of the awesome prom.

"Dear Principal, I apologize for my behavior today."

All right.

The great thing, right, about packing is that you get to look at some of the stuff that the kids have made or given you throughout the course of the year.

There were a series of letters where the kids said, "Minor, we really want a cheerleading squad.

Minor, we really want a dance team.

Minor, we really want a library."

So I felt good about it, right, because I feel like everything that they ask for, they, they're, it was addressed.

"I'm writing about the requirements and expectations about Metropolitan High.

My complaint is why do we have to wear a uniform?"

That's cute.

So we let them pick their own uniforms.

"This school will one day be a true success, but the first step must be finding the majority of disciplinary problems and removing them."

He graduated.

He'll be awesome.

These we keep.

One tr