School As Subject: Four Student Documentaries about School Equality, Redesign, and College Access

“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” – William Butler Yeats

For the past several years, WKCD has supported student video projects as part of our Student Research for Action program. Two beliefs under gird this support. First, that young people have the capacity to reflect critically on the institutions and communities that touch their lives. And second, that video offers students an exceptional tool for asking their own questions, making their own observations, telling their own stories—and sharing them publicly.

In the four films shown here, students turn their lens on a subject close at hand: school.

Students at Brighton High School document stark inequalities between urban and suburban schools in Boston. In Enumclaw, Washington and Bronx, New York, students share the struggles that come with breaking large high schools into smaller schools. At another Bronx high school, Bronx International, immigrant students examine the obstacles in their path to college.

A grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation made these films possible.

The Problem We All Live With: Inequalities between Boston Urban and Suburban Schools

Students at inner city and suburban high schools want equally to go to college, but do they get the same preparation and academic opportunities? A leadership class at Brighton High School in Boston took on this question. They surveyed and interviewed students in three city and three suburban Boston schools to see how academic expectations and opportunities varied.

The students chose schools that were in the “middle of the pack,” avoiding the highest and lowest performing urban and suburban schools. Still, the disparities they uncovered were stunning.

With the help of a professional videographer, they edited hours of raw footage into a 22-minute video, “The Problem We All Live With,” that has turned heads across the country.

VIEW MOVIE (21:26 min) | broadband | dial up

Big to Small

In 2002 Enumclaw High School, near Seattle, Washington, decided to break itself into seven small schools. It’s been a complex process.

Recently, a team of student videographers in one of Enumclaw’s small schools (the Adventure School, with 146 students) conducted and filmed interviews about the changeover with students, faculty, parents, and school leaders. They had one question in mind: "Can an already thriving comprehensive high school effectively convert to a more successful small school design?"

Their film, “Big to Small,” balances the pros and the cons. It encourages everyone with a stake in the school to voice their opinions, work together, and pause before they judge.

VIEW MOVIE (14:07 min) | broadband | dial up

Trend Setters: Views of Small Schools in a Large School Setting

When a small school sets up quarters within a large high school, friction can develop, especially when the small school marches to a very different drummer.

The students at Bronx Aerospace Academy, a small ROTC school located within Evander Childs High School in the Bronx, know this firsthand. Their military uniforms, marching, and different curriculum set them apart. They feel their Evander classmates single them out for harassment. Evander students, meanwhile, worry that they have become second-class citizens in their own school.

Hoping to bridge these tensions, students from both sides decided to take a hard look at the misperceptions.

VIEW MOVIE (18:55 min) | broadband | dial up

Overcoming Obstacles: Immigrants’ Quest for Higher Education

For many immigrant students, gaining access to the resources and skills needed to succeed in college can be daunting. It’s hard enough when you are the first in your family to go to college. It’s harder still when the path requires negotiating a new language, culture, and system.

A group of seniors at Bronx International High School, a small school for newcomers to the United States, decided to document the obstacles they and their classmates face on the road to higher education. They also wanted to show how small schools, like Bronx International, put language minority students on the college track.

The students interviewed and surveyed classmates and their families. They visited other international high schools in New York City. In partnership with a Bronx telecommunications group called Deep Dish, the students produced “Overcoming Obstacles.”

VIEW MOVIE (12:00 min) | broadband | dial up

More films:
Beyond Borders: Personal Stories from a Small Planet >>
Media that Matters Film Festival >>
Still Standing >>