FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Documentary Provides an Intimate and Personal Look at Race, Class and Opportunity.
Arlington, MA, October 8, 2013 – The National Institute for Student-Centered Education (NISCE) and Schools for Children, Inc. (SFC) in honor or Black Male Achievement Month will host a screening of the critically acclaimed documentary “American Promise.” Theatrical openings in New York and Los Angeles are October 18 and October 25, and NISCE and SFC will host the first public screening in the Boston area on Wednesday, October 30th at the Regent Theatre in Arlington.
Currently, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), confirms that Massachusetts’ achievement gaps in math and reading persist and are among the nation’s worst. Students of color, specifically black boys consistently score lower on tests and have higher drop out rates than those of their white counterparts.
“American Promise” spans 13-years as Joe Brewster and Michele Stephenson, middle-class African-American parents in Brooklyn, N.Y., turn their cameras on their son, Idris, and his best friend, Seun, who make their way through one of the most prestigious private schools in the country. Chronicling the boys’ divergent paths from kindergarten through high school graduation at Manhattan’s Dalton School, this provocative, intimate documentary presents complicated truths about America’s struggle to come of age on issues of race, class and opportunity. An Official Selection of the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and winner of the Grand Jury Award at the 2013 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival.
“NISCE is proud host a screening of this movie. We find it important to bring to the surface the issues impacting ability to teach our children in environments that are supportive and empowering. We hope, through our dialogue, we can contribute to finding ways to close the achievement gap,” states Theodore Wilson, Ph.D., Executive Director of NISCE.
After the film Dr. Carroll Blake, Executive Director, Achievement Gap, Boston Public Schools will lead a discussion around the film’s message.
Screening Details:
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
6:30 p.m. – 9.00 p.m.
Regent Theatre, 7 Medford, Street, Arlington, MA 02474
By joining us on the 30th, you will be taking an important next step in finding solutions which both address immediate needs and lead to broader, systemic change in closing the achievement gap.
_________________________________________________________________________________
FILM SERIES CONTACT
Alyssa Kierkegaard, NISCE Program Director
alyssa@nisce.org
PRESS CONTACT
Melanie Tringali, Marketing Director
mtringali@schoolsforchildreninc.org
ABOUT NISCE
Founded in 2012 by the Massachusetts nonprofit Schools for Children, Inc., The National Institute for Student-Centered Education (NISCE) seeks to to catalyze grassroots support for a vision of education where students—not politics, not tests, not expediency—are at the center of learning, and where all students have the opportunities and resources they need to succeed. For more information visit www.nisce.org.
ABOUT SCHOOLS FOR CHILDREN, INC.
Schools for Children, Inc. is a Massachusetts nonprofit organization that creates and manages great schools and educational services. For more information, please visit www.schoolsforchildreninc.org.
About AMERICAN PROMISE: American Promise premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, won the Grand Jury Award for Achievement in Filmmaking, and is currently playing at film festivals around the world. The film will broadcast on PBS in 2014 in conjunction with the release of Michèle Stephenson and Joe Brewster’s book by Random House. To learn more about the film and to view the trailer, please visit www.americanpromise.org.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.