Host John Merrow turns private detective in this tongue-in-cheek drama to solve "The Case of an Excellent School."
Several major American cities have accepted the challenge of school reform but none with more energy, commitment, and public attention than Philadelphia, Chicago, and Seattle.
In 1994, Philadelphia was one of the worst school districts in the United States. Looking for a radical change, the city hired an untested superintendent, David Hornbeck. But Hornbeck's dream and the reality turned out to be two different things.
We spend more than $220 billion a year on public schools, and millions more on lawyers fighting about how we spend it. What are we getting for our money?
This documentary (based on three years of videotaping in one high school) details the often painfully slow progress of school reform.
