Noted Movie Director Prescribes Cure For Philadelphia's Schools
By Mike DeNardo
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Movie director (and now education author) M. Night Shyamalan today shared his strategy for school reform at a conference sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
Shyamalan's book, I Got Schooled, outlines the five practices he says data show will improve school performance:
- let principals teach teachers and create a school culture,
- have smaller schools,
- keep kids in class longer,
- jettison the worst teachers, and
- give teachers information on what works.
But the key, he says, is, you have to do all five.
Shyamalan, who was raised in Penn Valley, says he sees a window of opportunity to try it in Philadelphia schools.
"I have not met someone who has been resistant to trying as a pilot thing, a city -- implementing just what the data says, (and) taking all of our opinions off the table and doing just what the data says, as if it was a evidence-based field like medicine."
Shyamalan joked that you shouldn't listen to celebrities on social issues. But in this case, he says, it's the data talking.
