PBS Film Picks Up Where Student Newspaper Left Off

By Andrew Trotter

When the Shaker Heights High School newspaper reported in February 1997 that there was a large gap in grades and test scores between black and white students at the Ohio school, it was not especially surprising to observant community members or to school officials who had been trying to close the gap for years.

But the story, and an accompanying chart showing the high failure rates and low scores of black students at the school, exploded like a bomb in the Cleveland-area Shaker Heights community, which prides itself on its 40-year history of local initiatives to promote racial integration. Its respected high school has been seen as a centerpiece of that success.

The article provoked a walkout of black students at the school, a vituperative debate in the community, and weeks of meetings between school...