Jonathan Kozol, Making Schools Work with Hedrick Smith

Aired September 29, 2005

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Jonathan Kozol

Jonathan Kozol visited nearly sixty public schools and discovered that conditions have grown worse for inner-city children in the fifteen years since federal courts began dismantling the landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. His new book, The Shame of the Nation: the Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America pays tribute to those undefeated educators who persist against the odds, but directly challenges the chilling practices now being forced upon our urban systems by the Bush administration. In their place, Mr. Kozol offers a humane, dramatic challenge to our nation to fulfill at last the promise made some fifty years ago to all our youngest citizens. Jonathan Kozol joins Enrique Cerna to discuss what's happened to Brown v. Board of Education and what needs to change.

What’s Working in Local Schools?

If you've been listening to newsmakers lately, you might feel that our public schools aren't doing much right. What you may not have heard about are innovative programs in our state that are improving achievement for kids who have had the toughest of starts. Jenny Cunningham reports on programs making a difference in Washington state.

Making Schools Work with Hedrick Smith

Some American communities are creating an important, but largely unnoticed, revolution in public education - turning around problem schools and dramatically improving achievement among disadvantaged students many had dismissed as unreachable. These success stories, affecting roughly two million students from elementary to high school, are portrayed in the PBS documentary: Making Schools Work with Hedrick Smith. Executive producer and correspondent Hedrick Smith joins Enrique to talk about his trips into the classroom and what he found.

(Making Schools Work with Hedrick Smith aired Wednesday, October 5th 2005 on KCTS.) Online at: www.pbs.org/makingschoolswork