This documentary analyzed the events surrounding the reconstitution of Crenshaw, a high school in southern Los Angeles with a student body that consisted mostly of minorities. The majority of the students at this school lived in low-income households. Many of the school's students were in foster care or were special needs children. This school had been underperforming for years. The school board was considering reconstituting the school, which would provide a large number of new teachers and staff member, in hopes of improving the quality of education provided by the school.

This idea of reconstitution was very unpopular across the Crenshaw community. Many students and their parents believed that the current school system was providing the children with a quality education. Many of the teachers were members of the community and represented the local demographics. These teachers were able to empathize with the students in the way a person from outside the community could not. These were also the teachers that were unlikely to be retained following reconstitution. …show more content…
Only 1% of all students in the school were proficient in mathematics. The students were clearly not learning and retaining the material that has become the standard for instruction in high schools across the country. The school board's proposed effort to replace a large number of the teachers would likely not solve this problem. In fact, it has been shown in many other cases that this type of school takeover was not at all beneficial to students' learning. It generally takes a much broader effort to increase the economic well-being of the area to truly improve performance in