"A Tale of Two Schools" Takes an Intimate Look at the National Reading Crisis

(Washington, D.C.) – You could almost forgive superintendent Reggie Barnes if he gave up on the kids in his Mississippi Delta school district. Nearly everyone else has. The problems faced by schools around the country are magnified in Sumner, Mississippi. Low pay? Starting salaries are less than $25,000 per year. Mediocre teachers? Barnes cannot afford to fire them, because they're so hard to replace. Uninvolved parents? Just 10 people came to the year's first PTA meeting. It's no wonder many of the children can barely read.

Across the country, schools are struggling with their most basic job: teaching kids to read. Thirty-six percent of all fourth graders read below the "basic" level, meaning they cannot understand a simple story, or they can barely read at all. "A Tale of Two Schools" tells the intimate story of parents and teachers who are fighting for change in two schools with long histories of failure. Academy Award-nominee Morgan Freeman narrates this PBS special, which will be broadcast on public television stations beginning in September 2003.

"Readers are made, not born," says executive producer Noel Gunther. "'A Tale of Two Schools' is an intimate story about what it really takes to teach a child to read. We spent a year inside these schools and found a story of hope, of faith, and of the power of committed adults to help shape the life of a child."

Bearden Elementary – Sumner, Mississippi

Bearden sits in the middle of a cotton field, as if to say, "Nothing will ever change." Barnes, though, thinks otherwise. He's committed to the point of obsession, working late every night to recruit new teachers, to raise more money, and to keep his staff motivated. He vows not to rest until the children start doing better. But after six years of relentless work, Barnes is wearing down. His marriage has dissolved, his hair has turned gray, and, at 48, he already has an ulcer.

Reading is just one of many critical needs at Bearden. Barnes has built a health clinic, new classrooms, and a badly needed playground. Now, after years of struggle, things are looking up. Mississippi has launched a statewide reading reform effort, and Netscape tycoon Jim Barksdale has pledged an additional $100 million to help the weakest schools in his home state. But Bearden is behind in training its teachers in the reading curriculum and late in buying desperately needed books. With a roomful of children who need a lot of help, rookie teacher Jill Todd is understandably anxious. "I don't feel 100 percent prepared to go in a classroom and teach reading," says Todd. "It is really like chaos."

Walton Elementary – Fort Worth, Texas

At inner city Walton Elementary, the challenges are just as great. Kids stream in from housing projects in the shadow of an interstate highway. "We have children at Walton who don't know the alphabet," says Vanessa Kemp, the lead reading teacher. "They can't write their names. They don't know how to open up a book. They don't even know what a book is for."

Ms. Kemp and the staff at Walton have been focused on reading instruction for five years – and the results have been dramatic. Historically, Walton was one of the worst schools in Texas, but now it's striving for an "exemplary" rating – the highest grade a school can earn. Yet even now, nothing happens automatically. Every year, a first grader like Tavares Gross shows there is a new group of kids who desperately need help.

Nationwide

Bearden and Walton are hardly alone. Around the country, in all income groups and ethnicities, children are having trouble learning to read. The stakes are high: kids who read poorly are at high risk for depression, delinquency and substance abuse. "Reading is the gateway skill," says Phyllis Hunter, who led a major reform effort in Houston. "I call it 'the new civil right' because children can't access their other rights unless they can read and read well."

Bearden and Walton have both embraced reading reform, but they are at very different stages of the process. At Walton, a committed principal, dedicated teachers and a unified teaching approach have begun to deliver dramatic results. At Bearden, the changes have just begun, and it's clear that money alone is not the answer.

"A Tale of Two Schools" was produced by Noel Gunther and Christian Lindstrom. The program is part of a WETA project called Reading Rockets, which looks at how young children learn to read, why so many kids struggle, and what can be done about it. In 2002, Reading Rockets produced "Launching Young Readers," an award-winning educational series on PBS. The project's Web site, www.ReadingRockets.org, offers teaching tips, articles by reading experts, daily news about reading, and exclusive interviews with prominent authors of children's books. Reading Rockets also offers a bilingual print guide in Spanish and English, teleconferences for educators, and the on-going "Take Me to Your Reader" outreach campaign. Reading Rockets works closely with 24 national partners, including the American Library Association, the International Reading Association, and the National Education Association. Reading Rockets is funded primarily by a major grant from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs.

WETA is the third-largest producing station in the PBS system and the flagship public broadcaster in the nation's capital. Among WETA's productions and presentations are "Washington Week," "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," and the four-part series "Avoiding Armageddon." WETA is co-producer of documentaries by filmmaker Ken Burns, including "The Civil War" and "JAZZ." WETA's educational services include www.LDOnline.org, the leading national Web site on learning disabilities for parents, teachers, and other professionals. Sharon Percy Rockefeller is president and CEO of WETA. For more information on WETA, visit www.weta.org.

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