Directors Tod Lending (l.) and David Mrazek outside of the Henry H. Nash Elementary School in Chicago, IL. Courtesy of Nomadic Pictures.
In October 2007 I was grateful to be awarded a grant from the New-York-based Wallace Foundation to develop a documentary film and outreach project that would tell the complex story of principals turning around low-performing public schools with high percentages of low-income students. The goal was to create a film on the changing role of school leadership that would engage a national audience, look at on-the-ground examples of leadership that had resulted in improving schools and raising student achievement and convey the web of connections between principal leaders and students, teachers, district supervisors and school system executive officers.
That project presented many challenges to a filmmaker. It was essential that we find the right principals for this story — articulate principals who would provide unrestricted access to their daily activities and who were great at what they do. We wanted to show as many aspects as possible of a principal's job, including how a principal professionally develops teachers, disciplines students, shapes the climate and culture of a school, manages the building, interacts with the central office, develops curriculum and works with parents. We also wanted to capture the layers of leadership within a school system, starting with the superintendent and moving down through the system to principal and teachers.
David and I researched many schools and pre-interviewed numerous principals before selecting our principals: Tresa Dunbar of Henry H. Nash Elementary School in Chicago (pre-K-8) and Kerry Purcell of Harvard Park Elementary School in Springfield, Ill. (K-5). As we filmed, we learned many things about the job of being a principal and the challenges of turning around a low-performing school. We were surprised by how dramatic a principal's days are. Despite extensive planning and organizing, the nature of the job requires the principal to improvise and think quickly on her feet because unpredictable situations arise throughout the day. We were struck by the plethora of problems that kids would bring to school. Even though I've spent years filming in low-income communities where violence and social dysfunction are rampant in the streets and homes, I was never fully aware, until working on this project, of the devastating impact these circumstances have on a child's ability to learn. How can a child focus on schoolwork when his or her mother was just incarcerated for selling drugs? Or his or her father is abusive? Or there never was a father to begin with? Or the grandmother who takes care of the child just died? How much more difficult is it for a principal to elevate test scores and improve education when so many kids come to school with so much untreated trauma?
This was our principals' daily reality. In addition to knowing how to deal with the social and emotional needs of their students, principals must have a wide-ranging and impressive set of skills: setting and implementing a vision for the school; developing teachers and staff to improve what they do and help them become an effective part of the school's learning community; managing a budget and acquiring and allocating resources to support children's learning; reporting to administrators in a central office and delivering voluminous amounts of paperwork to them; and interacting with parents, school engineers and lunchroom workers.
There is also an element that is essential to the job of principal but cannot be taught — something that has to be a part of a principal's core being. As Arne Duncan, then CEO of Chicago public schools and now U.S. secretary of education, states in the film, "At the end of the day, we look at the principal's heart." Principals call this element "heart-work." In making this film, I learned that it takes a tremendous amount of passion, love and "heart-work" to be a good principal. It was inspiring to film the amazing principals that we followed. It gave me hope that, with more principals like them, we'll have a chance of improving our education system. With improved education, we'll have a chance of ending the cycle of poverty, community violence and domestic abuse.
Another issue we wrestled with was how to present our principals so they wouldn't be compared to one another. We purposely chose two principals who were in different stages of their professional development. Kerry Purcell was a six-year veteran (when we started) and Tresa Dunbar was beginning her second year and was taking over a school that had been on probation for 12 years, so the learning curve was enormous. We realized that people watching the film might forget that Dunbar was a new principal and might, at times, unfairly compare her to Purcell. So we used our context cards to remind people that Dunbar was a novice, suggesting that she was a good principal in need of more experience before she becomes the great principal that we are confident she'll become.
Throughout the making of this film, David and I learned many things about public education. In addition to seeing the importance of a principal's skills and heart, we witnessed how tough it is to educate kids when their social and emotional needs are not being met and when their psyches have been traumatized. It has never been clearer that schools in low-income communities need to be more than schools: They need to provide emotional and social support for students and their families. In addition, principals, teachers and school administrators need better training and support, and incentives need to be offered to attract the best teachers and principals to the most challenging schools.
Abraham Lincoln once stated, "Upon the subject of education . . . I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people may be engaged in." The bottom line is that we need political leaders with the will to make education the nation's top priority. If that happens, then rest assured, our public schools will improve.
Tod Lending — Executive Producer, Producer, Director, Cinematographer
David Mrazek
As Tod's producing and directing partner, I would like to add a few observations. For better or worse, a school is the sum of its many complicated but essential parts. Our challenge as filmmakers was that we had to keep our eyes on the principals while navigating all of these other parts. We could only touch on so many aspects of a principal's job. The relationship between the principal and the district office is crucial, but we would have needed a miniseries format to do justice to it. For the purposes of effective storytelling, Tod and I could only scratch the surface of these relationships.
During our research phase, we visited many prospective schools. We found it fascinating that we could feel the warmth and security of a well-run, well-cared for school the moment we first walked through its doors. Tod and I often commented on that sensation, and on the fact that a principal's passion and commitment is reflected not just in the paint and student work on the walls, but in the energy emanating from the classrooms. We continued to experience this as we visited schools in Kentucky, Georgia and Oregon to film different programs that are helping principals focus on instruction. The School Administration Manager (SAM) project in Louisville, Ky., for example, showed how effective it can be for a principal to have an administrative partner. The principal can then spend more time as an instructional leader in classrooms and with teachers. The school we visited in that city, John F. Kennedy Montessori, was so inviting and vibrant that Tod and I wanted to experience elementary school all over again. These schools and projects are presented in short vignettes on the outreach DVD.
The need for better leadership training and on-the-job support became obvious to us. As Tod stated, a principal's job is amazingly multifaceted. Prospective principals must be well trained in how to handle (or delegate) it all; otherwise they may burn out. It is our hope that the film and related outreach video and print materials can be utilized by public television stations, national partners and other outreach participants to generate local dialogue and build awareness about the importance of education leadership and the role of principals as instructional leaders. For the issue is not just that more resources are needed, but that people need to "think differently," to paraphrase the old Apple ad. Our featured principals say this a lot, but it bears saying again: Those working in education have to make decisions based on putting children first. With that mantra in mind, you can't go wrong.
Tod and I both came away from the filming experience believing that social service resources must be allocated to challenged schools and consideration given to rewarding teachers and principals who choose these schools. Another element presents both the toughest challenge for principals and the greatest reward — parent commitment and responsibility. Dunbar struggled with that issue in her seventh grade parent meeting.
Tod and I were honored to work side by side with our talented principals and their dedicated teachers and staff. As documentary filmmakers, we find that one of the joys of our business is experiencing new worlds and capturing them for others. This is perhaps the most important story to be told: The future of our nation is with our children — all of our nation's children.
David Mrazek — Producer, Director, Sound Recordist, Chicago, 2009
"
["post_title"]=>
string(40) "The Principal Story: Filmmaker Statement"
["post_excerpt"]=>
string(77) "Read what the filmmakers of The Principal Story have to say about their film."
["post_status"]=>
string(7) "publish"
["comment_status"]=>
string(4) "open"
["ping_status"]=>
string(6) "closed"
["post_password"]=>
string(0) ""
["post_name"]=>
string(19) "filmmaker-statement"
["to_ping"]=>
string(0) ""
["pinged"]=>
string(0) ""
["post_modified"]=>
string(19) "2016-07-06 15:47:48"
["post_modified_gmt"]=>
string(19) "2016-07-06 19:47:48"
["post_content_filtered"]=>
string(0) ""
["post_parent"]=>
int(0)
["guid"]=>
string(64) "http://www.pbs.org/pov/index.php/2009/09/15/filmmaker-statement/"
["menu_order"]=>
int(0)
["post_type"]=>
string(4) "post"
["post_mime_type"]=>
string(0) ""
["comment_count"]=>
string(1) "0"
["filter"]=>
string(3) "raw"
}
["queried_object_id"]=>
int(1334)
["request"]=>
string(487) "SELECT wp_posts.* FROM wp_posts JOIN wp_term_relationships ON wp_posts.ID = wp_term_relationships.object_id JOIN wp_term_taxonomy ON wp_term_relationships.term_taxonomy_id = wp_term_taxonomy.term_taxonomy_id AND wp_term_taxonomy.taxonomy = 'pov_film' JOIN wp_terms ON wp_term_taxonomy.term_id = wp_terms.term_id WHERE 1=1 AND wp_posts.post_name = 'filmmaker-statement' AND wp_posts.post_type = 'post'
AND wp_terms.slug = 'principalstory'
ORDER BY wp_posts.post_date DESC "
["posts"]=>
&array(1) {
[0]=>
object(WP_Post)#7138 (24) {
["ID"]=>
int(1334)
["post_author"]=>
string(1) "1"
["post_date"]=>
string(19) "2009-01-13 12:30:00"
["post_date_gmt"]=>
string(19) "2009-01-13 17:30:00"
["post_content"]=>
string(10648) "
Directors Tod Lending (l.) and David Mrazek outside of the Henry H. Nash Elementary School in Chicago, IL. Courtesy of Nomadic Pictures.
In October 2007 I was grateful to be awarded a grant from the New-York-based Wallace Foundation to develop a documentary film and outreach project that would tell the complex story of principals turning around low-performing public schools with high percentages of low-income students. The goal was to create a film on the changing role of school leadership that would engage a national audience, look at on-the-ground examples of leadership that had resulted in improving schools and raising student achievement and convey the web of connections between principal leaders and students, teachers, district supervisors and school system executive officers.
That project presented many challenges to a filmmaker. It was essential that we find the right principals for this story — articulate principals who would provide unrestricted access to their daily activities and who were great at what they do. We wanted to show as many aspects as possible of a principal's job, including how a principal professionally develops teachers, disciplines students, shapes the climate and culture of a school, manages the building, interacts with the central office, develops curriculum and works with parents. We also wanted to capture the layers of leadership within a school system, starting with the superintendent and moving down through the system to principal and teachers.
David and I researched many schools and pre-interviewed numerous principals before selecting our principals: Tresa Dunbar of Henry H. Nash Elementary School in Chicago (pre-K-8) and Kerry Purcell of Harvard Park Elementary School in Springfield, Ill. (K-5). As we filmed, we learned many things about the job of being a principal and the challenges of turning around a low-performing school. We were surprised by how dramatic a principal's days are. Despite extensive planning and organizing, the nature of the job requires the principal to improvise and think quickly on her feet because unpredictable situations arise throughout the day. We were struck by the plethora of problems that kids would bring to school. Even though I've spent years filming in low-income communities where violence and social dysfunction are rampant in the streets and homes, I was never fully aware, until working on this project, of the devastating impact these circumstances have on a child's ability to learn. How can a child focus on schoolwork when his or her mother was just incarcerated for selling drugs? Or his or her father is abusive? Or there never was a father to begin with? Or the grandmother who takes care of the child just died? How much more difficult is it for a principal to elevate test scores and improve education when so many kids come to school with so much untreated trauma?
This was our principals' daily reality. In addition to knowing how to deal with the social and emotional needs of their students, principals must have a wide-ranging and impressive set of skills: setting and implementing a vision for the school; developing teachers and staff to improve what they do and help them become an effective part of the school's learning community; managing a budget and acquiring and allocating resources to support children's learning; reporting to administrators in a central office and delivering voluminous amounts of paperwork to them; and interacting with parents, school engineers and lunchroom workers.
There is also an element that is essential to the job of principal but cannot be taught — something that has to be a part of a principal's core being. As Arne Duncan, then CEO of Chicago public schools and now U.S. secretary of education, states in the film, "At the end of the day, we look at the principal's heart." Principals call this element "heart-work." In making this film, I learned that it takes a tremendous amount of passion, love and "heart-work" to be a good principal. It was inspiring to film the amazing principals that we followed. It gave me hope that, with more principals like them, we'll have a chance of improving our education system. With improved education, we'll have a chance of ending the cycle of poverty, community violence and domestic abuse.
Another issue we wrestled with was how to present our principals so they wouldn't be compared to one another. We purposely chose two principals who were in different stages of their professional development. Kerry Purcell was a six-year veteran (when we started) and Tresa Dunbar was beginning her second year and was taking over a school that had been on probation for 12 years, so the learning curve was enormous. We realized that people watching the film might forget that Dunbar was a new principal and might, at times, unfairly compare her to Purcell. So we used our context cards to remind people that Dunbar was a novice, suggesting that she was a good principal in need of more experience before she becomes the great principal that we are confident she'll become.
Throughout the making of this film, David and I learned many things about public education. In addition to seeing the importance of a principal's skills and heart, we witnessed how tough it is to educate kids when their social and emotional needs are not being met and when their psyches have been traumatized. It has never been clearer that schools in low-income communities need to be more than schools: They need to provide emotional and social support for students and their families. In addition, principals, teachers and school administrators need better training and support, and incentives need to be offered to attract the best teachers and principals to the most challenging schools.
Abraham Lincoln once stated, "Upon the subject of education . . . I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people may be engaged in." The bottom line is that we need political leaders with the will to make education the nation's top priority. If that happens, then rest assured, our public schools will improve.
Tod Lending — Executive Producer, Producer, Director, Cinematographer
David Mrazek
As Tod's producing and directing partner, I would like to add a few observations. For better or worse, a school is the sum of its many complicated but essential parts. Our challenge as filmmakers was that we had to keep our eyes on the principals while navigating all of these other parts. We could only touch on so many aspects of a principal's job. The relationship between the principal and the district office is crucial, but we would have needed a miniseries format to do justice to it. For the purposes of effective storytelling, Tod and I could only scratch the surface of these relationships.
During our research phase, we visited many prospective schools. We found it fascinating that we could feel the warmth and security of a well-run, well-cared for school the moment we first walked through its doors. Tod and I often commented on that sensation, and on the fact that a principal's passion and commitment is reflected not just in the paint and student work on the walls, but in the energy emanating from the classrooms. We continued to experience this as we visited schools in Kentucky, Georgia and Oregon to film different programs that are helping principals focus on instruction. The School Administration Manager (SAM) project in Louisville, Ky., for example, showed how effective it can be for a principal to have an administrative partner. The principal can then spend more time as an instructional leader in classrooms and with teachers. The school we visited in that city, John F. Kennedy Montessori, was so inviting and vibrant that Tod and I wanted to experience elementary school all over again. These schools and projects are presented in short vignettes on the outreach DVD.
The need for better leadership training and on-the-job support became obvious to us. As Tod stated, a principal's job is amazingly multifaceted. Prospective principals must be well trained in how to handle (or delegate) it all; otherwise they may burn out. It is our hope that the film and related outreach video and print materials can be utilized by public television stations, national partners and other outreach participants to generate local dialogue and build awareness about the importance of education leadership and the role of principals as instructional leaders. For the issue is not just that more resources are needed, but that people need to "think differently," to paraphrase the old Apple ad. Our featured principals say this a lot, but it bears saying again: Those working in education have to make decisions based on putting children first. With that mantra in mind, you can't go wrong.
Tod and I both came away from the filming experience believing that social service resources must be allocated to challenged schools and consideration given to rewarding teachers and principals who choose these schools. Another element presents both the toughest challenge for principals and the greatest reward — parent commitment and responsibility. Dunbar struggled with that issue in her seventh grade parent meeting.
Tod and I were honored to work side by side with our talented principals and their dedicated teachers and staff. As documentary filmmakers, we find that one of the joys of our business is experiencing new worlds and capturing them for others. This is perhaps the most important story to be told: The future of our nation is with our children — all of our nation's children.
David Mrazek — Producer, Director, Sound Recordist, Chicago, 2009
"
["post_title"]=>
string(40) "The Principal Story: Filmmaker Statement"
["post_excerpt"]=>
string(77) "Read what the filmmakers of The Principal Story have to say about their film."
["post_status"]=>
string(7) "publish"
["comment_status"]=>
string(4) "open"
["ping_status"]=>
string(6) "closed"
["post_password"]=>
string(0) ""
["post_name"]=>
string(19) "filmmaker-statement"
["to_ping"]=>
string(0) ""
["pinged"]=>
string(0) ""
["post_modified"]=>
string(19) "2016-07-06 15:47:48"
["post_modified_gmt"]=>
string(19) "2016-07-06 19:47:48"
["post_content_filtered"]=>
string(0) ""
["post_parent"]=>
int(0)
["guid"]=>
string(64) "http://www.pbs.org/pov/index.php/2009/09/15/filmmaker-statement/"
["menu_order"]=>
int(0)
["post_type"]=>
string(4) "post"
["post_mime_type"]=>
string(0) ""
["comment_count"]=>
string(1) "0"
["filter"]=>
string(3) "raw"
}
}
["post_count"]=>
int(1)
["current_post"]=>
int(-1)
["in_the_loop"]=>
bool(false)
["post"]=>
object(WP_Post)#7138 (24) {
["ID"]=>
int(1334)
["post_author"]=>
string(1) "1"
["post_date"]=>
string(19) "2009-01-13 12:30:00"
["post_date_gmt"]=>
string(19) "2009-01-13 17:30:00"
["post_content"]=>
string(10648) "
Directors Tod Lending (l.) and David Mrazek outside of the Henry H. Nash Elementary School in Chicago, IL. Courtesy of Nomadic Pictures.
In October 2007 I was grateful to be awarded a grant from the New-York-based Wallace Foundation to develop a documentary film and outreach project that would tell the complex story of principals turning around low-performing public schools with high percentages of low-income students. The goal was to create a film on the changing role of school leadership that would engage a national audience, look at on-the-ground examples of leadership that had resulted in improving schools and raising student achievement and convey the web of connections between principal leaders and students, teachers, district supervisors and school system executive officers.
That project presented many challenges to a filmmaker. It was essential that we find the right principals for this story — articulate principals who would provide unrestricted access to their daily activities and who were great at what they do. We wanted to show as many aspects as possible of a principal's job, including how a principal professionally develops teachers, disciplines students, shapes the climate and culture of a school, manages the building, interacts with the central office, develops curriculum and works with parents. We also wanted to capture the layers of leadership within a school system, starting with the superintendent and moving down through the system to principal and teachers.
David and I researched many schools and pre-interviewed numerous principals before selecting our principals: Tresa Dunbar of Henry H. Nash Elementary School in Chicago (pre-K-8) and Kerry Purcell of Harvard Park Elementary School in Springfield, Ill. (K-5). As we filmed, we learned many things about the job of being a principal and the challenges of turning around a low-performing school. We were surprised by how dramatic a principal's days are. Despite extensive planning and organizing, the nature of the job requires the principal to improvise and think quickly on her feet because unpredictable situations arise throughout the day. We were struck by the plethora of problems that kids would bring to school. Even though I've spent years filming in low-income communities where violence and social dysfunction are rampant in the streets and homes, I was never fully aware, until working on this project, of the devastating impact these circumstances have on a child's ability to learn. How can a child focus on schoolwork when his or her mother was just incarcerated for selling drugs? Or his or her father is abusive? Or there never was a father to begin with? Or the grandmother who takes care of the child just died? How much more difficult is it for a principal to elevate test scores and improve education when so many kids come to school with so much untreated trauma?
This was our principals' daily reality. In addition to knowing how to deal with the social and emotional needs of their students, principals must have a wide-ranging and impressive set of skills: setting and implementing a vision for the school; developing teachers and staff to improve what they do and help them become an effective part of the school's learning community; managing a budget and acquiring and allocating resources to support children's learning; reporting to administrators in a central office and delivering voluminous amounts of paperwork to them; and interacting with parents, school engineers and lunchroom workers.
There is also an element that is essential to the job of principal but cannot be taught — something that has to be a part of a principal's core being. As Arne Duncan, then CEO of Chicago public schools and now U.S. secretary of education, states in the film, "At the end of the day, we look at the principal's heart." Principals call this element "heart-work." In making this film, I learned that it takes a tremendous amount of passion, love and "heart-work" to be a good principal. It was inspiring to film the amazing principals that we followed. It gave me hope that, with more principals like them, we'll have a chance of improving our education system. With improved education, we'll have a chance of ending the cycle of poverty, community violence and domestic abuse.
Another issue we wrestled with was how to present our principals so they wouldn't be compared to one another. We purposely chose two principals who were in different stages of their professional development. Kerry Purcell was a six-year veteran (when we started) and Tresa Dunbar was beginning her second year and was taking over a school that had been on probation for 12 years, so the learning curve was enormous. We realized that people watching the film might forget that Dunbar was a new principal and might, at times, unfairly compare her to Purcell. So we used our context cards to remind people that Dunbar was a novice, suggesting that she was a good principal in need of more experience before she becomes the great principal that we are confident she'll become.
Throughout the making of this film, David and I learned many things about public education. In addition to seeing the importance of a principal's skills and heart, we witnessed how tough it is to educate kids when their social and emotional needs are not being met and when their psyches have been traumatized. It has never been clearer that schools in low-income communities need to be more than schools: They need to provide emotional and social support for students and their families. In addition, principals, teachers and school administrators need better training and support, and incentives need to be offered to attract the best teachers and principals to the most challenging schools.
Abraham Lincoln once stated, "Upon the subject of education . . . I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people may be engaged in." The bottom line is that we need political leaders with the will to make education the nation's top priority. If that happens, then rest assured, our public schools will improve.
Tod Lending — Executive Producer, Producer, Director, Cinematographer
David Mrazek
As Tod's producing and directing partner, I would like to add a few observations. For better or worse, a school is the sum of its many complicated but essential parts. Our challenge as filmmakers was that we had to keep our eyes on the principals while navigating all of these other parts. We could only touch on so many aspects of a principal's job. The relationship between the principal and the district office is crucial, but we would have needed a miniseries format to do justice to it. For the purposes of effective storytelling, Tod and I could only scratch the surface of these relationships.
During our research phase, we visited many prospective schools. We found it fascinating that we could feel the warmth and security of a well-run, well-cared for school the moment we first walked through its doors. Tod and I often commented on that sensation, and on the fact that a principal's passion and commitment is reflected not just in the paint and student work on the walls, but in the energy emanating from the classrooms. We continued to experience this as we visited schools in Kentucky, Georgia and Oregon to film different programs that are helping principals focus on instruction. The School Administration Manager (SAM) project in Louisville, Ky., for example, showed how effective it can be for a principal to have an administrative partner. The principal can then spend more time as an instructional leader in classrooms and with teachers. The school we visited in that city, John F. Kennedy Montessori, was so inviting and vibrant that Tod and I wanted to experience elementary school all over again. These schools and projects are presented in short vignettes on the outreach DVD.
The need for better leadership training and on-the-job support became obvious to us. As Tod stated, a principal's job is amazingly multifaceted. Prospective principals must be well trained in how to handle (or delegate) it all; otherwise they may burn out. It is our hope that the film and related outreach video and print materials can be utilized by public television stations, national partners and other outreach participants to generate local dialogue and build awareness about the importance of education leadership and the role of principals as instructional leaders. For the issue is not just that more resources are needed, but that people need to "think differently," to paraphrase the old Apple ad. Our featured principals say this a lot, but it bears saying again: Those working in education have to make decisions based on putting children first. With that mantra in mind, you can't go wrong.
Tod and I both came away from the filming experience believing that social service resources must be allocated to challenged schools and consideration given to rewarding teachers and principals who choose these schools. Another element presents both the toughest challenge for principals and the greatest reward — parent commitment and responsibility. Dunbar struggled with that issue in her seventh grade parent meeting.
Tod and I were honored to work side by side with our talented principals and their dedicated teachers and staff. As documentary filmmakers, we find that one of the joys of our business is experiencing new worlds and capturing them for others. This is perhaps the most important story to be told: The future of our nation is with our children — all of our nation's children.
David Mrazek — Producer, Director, Sound Recordist, Chicago, 2009
Directors Tod Lending (l.) and David Mrazek outside of the Henry H. Nash Elementary School in Chicago, IL. Courtesy of Nomadic Pictures.
In October 2007 I was grateful to be awarded a grant from the New-York-based Wallace Foundation to develop a documentary film and outreach project that would tell the complex story of principals turning around low-performing public schools with high percentages of low-income students. The goal was to create a film on the changing role of school leadership that would engage a national audience, look at on-the-ground examples of leadership that had resulted in improving schools and raising student achievement and convey the web of connections between principal leaders and students, teachers, district supervisors and school system executive officers.
That project presented many challenges to a filmmaker. It was essential that we find the right principals for this story — articulate principals who would provide unrestricted access to their daily activities and who were great at what they do. We wanted to show as many aspects as possible of a principal's job, including how a principal professionally develops teachers, disciplines students, shapes the climate and culture of a school, manages the building, interacts with the central office, develops curriculum and works with parents. We also wanted to capture the layers of leadership within a school system, starting with the superintendent and moving down through the system to principal and teachers.
David and I researched many schools and pre-interviewed numerous principals before selecting our principals: Tresa Dunbar of Henry H. Nash Elementary School in Chicago (pre-K-8) and Kerry Purcell of Harvard Park Elementary School in Springfield, Ill. (K-5). As we filmed, we learned many things about the job of being a principal and the challenges of turning around a low-performing school. We were surprised by how dramatic a principal's days are. Despite extensive planning and organizing, the nature of the job requires the principal to improvise and think quickly on her feet because unpredictable situations arise throughout the day. We were struck by the plethora of problems that kids would bring to school. Even though I've spent years filming in low-income communities where violence and social dysfunction are rampant in the streets and homes, I was never fully aware, until working on this project, of the devastating impact these circumstances have on a child's ability to learn. How can a child focus on schoolwork when his or her mother was just incarcerated for selling drugs? Or his or her father is abusive? Or there never was a father to begin with? Or the grandmother who takes care of the child just died? How much more difficult is it for a principal to elevate test scores and improve education when so many kids come to school with so much untreated trauma?
This was our principals' daily reality. In addition to knowing how to deal with the social and emotional needs of their students, principals must have a wide-ranging and impressive set of skills: setting and implementing a vision for the school; developing teachers and staff to improve what they do and help them become an effective part of the school's learning community; managing a budget and acquiring and allocating resources to support children's learning; reporting to administrators in a central office and delivering voluminous amounts of paperwork to them; and interacting with parents, school engineers and lunchroom workers.
There is also an element that is essential to the job of principal but cannot be taught — something that has to be a part of a principal's core being. As Arne Duncan, then CEO of Chicago public schools and now U.S. secretary of education, states in the film, "At the end of the day, we look at the principal's heart." Principals call this element "heart-work." In making this film, I learned that it takes a tremendous amount of passion, love and "heart-work" to be a good principal. It was inspiring to film the amazing principals that we followed. It gave me hope that, with more principals like them, we'll have a chance of improving our education system. With improved education, we'll have a chance of ending the cycle of poverty, community violence and domestic abuse.
Another issue we wrestled with was how to present our principals so they wouldn't be compared to one another. We purposely chose two principals who were in different stages of their professional development. Kerry Purcell was a six-year veteran (when we started) and Tresa Dunbar was beginning her second year and was taking over a school that had been on probation for 12 years, so the learning curve was enormous. We realized that people watching the film might forget that Dunbar was a new principal and might, at times, unfairly compare her to Purcell. So we used our context cards to remind people that Dunbar was a novice, suggesting that she was a good principal in need of more experience before she becomes the great principal that we are confident she'll become.
Throughout the making of this film, David and I learned many things about public education. In addition to seeing the importance of a principal's skills and heart, we witnessed how tough it is to educate kids when their social and emotional needs are not being met and when their psyches have been traumatized. It has never been clearer that schools in low-income communities need to be more than schools: They need to provide emotional and social support for students and their families. In addition, principals, teachers and school administrators need better training and support, and incentives need to be offered to attract the best teachers and principals to the most challenging schools.
Abraham Lincoln once stated, "Upon the subject of education . . . I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people may be engaged in." The bottom line is that we need political leaders with the will to make education the nation's top priority. If that happens, then rest assured, our public schools will improve.
Tod Lending — Executive Producer, Producer, Director, Cinematographer
David Mrazek
As Tod's producing and directing partner, I would like to add a few observations. For better or worse, a school is the sum of its many complicated but essential parts. Our challenge as filmmakers was that we had to keep our eyes on the principals while navigating all of these other parts. We could only touch on so many aspects of a principal's job. The relationship between the principal and the district office is crucial, but we would have needed a miniseries format to do justice to it. For the purposes of effective storytelling, Tod and I could only scratch the surface of these relationships.
During our research phase, we visited many prospective schools. We found it fascinating that we could feel the warmth and security of a well-run, well-cared for school the moment we first walked through its doors. Tod and I often commented on that sensation, and on the fact that a principal's passion and commitment is reflected not just in the paint and student work on the walls, but in the energy emanating from the classrooms. We continued to experience this as we visited schools in Kentucky, Georgia and Oregon to film different programs that are helping principals focus on instruction. The School Administration Manager (SAM) project in Louisville, Ky., for example, showed how effective it can be for a principal to have an administrative partner. The principal can then spend more time as an instructional leader in classrooms and with teachers. The school we visited in that city, John F. Kennedy Montessori, was so inviting and vibrant that Tod and I wanted to experience elementary school all over again. These schools and projects are presented in short vignettes on the outreach DVD.
The need for better leadership training and on-the-job support became obvious to us. As Tod stated, a principal's job is amazingly multifaceted. Prospective principals must be well trained in how to handle (or delegate) it all; otherwise they may burn out. It is our hope that the film and related outreach video and print materials can be utilized by public television stations, national partners and other outreach participants to generate local dialogue and build awareness about the importance of education leadership and the role of principals as instructional leaders. For the issue is not just that more resources are needed, but that people need to "think differently," to paraphrase the old Apple ad. Our featured principals say this a lot, but it bears saying again: Those working in education have to make decisions based on putting children first. With that mantra in mind, you can't go wrong.
Tod and I both came away from the filming experience believing that social service resources must be allocated to challenged schools and consideration given to rewarding teachers and principals who choose these schools. Another element presents both the toughest challenge for principals and the greatest reward — parent commitment and responsibility. Dunbar struggled with that issue in her seventh grade parent meeting.
Tod and I were honored to work side by side with our talented principals and their dedicated teachers and staff. As documentary filmmakers, we find that one of the joys of our business is experiencing new worlds and capturing them for others. This is perhaps the most important story to be told: The future of our nation is with our children — all of our nation's children.
David Mrazek — Producer, Director, Sound Recordist, Chicago, 2009
