[applause] (male) We lcome to Go vernor Nikki Haley's State of the State Address.

(Gov.

Haley) Th ere is no st ate in this country, no place in the world that ha s more potential than we do.

But if we're going to tr uly lift up South Carolina, we have to lift up al l of South Carolina.

[♪] (female) It 's not a black issue, it's not a white issue, it's not a Democratic issue, it's not a Republican issue, it is about the children of America!

[cheers & applause] (male reporter) If you pick up a newspaper, if you can watch TV you hear the Am erican education system is completely in crisis, it's broken.

Is that really true?

(male reporter) Ki ds in the State of So uth Carolina are struggling, according to the la test Kids Count report.

Compared to the re st of the country South Carolina dropped fr om number 43 to number 45.

(male) In some of our schools, up to 35% of our 9th graders are reading at the 4th grade level or lower.

[♪] Now how many of y'all are going to work?

How many of y'all are going to make yourselves proud?

And if your best is going up 5 points then that's fine.

If your best is going up 20 points I'll take it.

Do your best.

(female) I had people wr ite me off.

My behavior was so horrible from 6th to 8th grade th at they wrote me off.

It's a miracle that I can sit up here and be principal of West Hartsville right now.

But somebody didn't give up on me.

(female) Ja cquez and Rashon they basically talk about being basketball pl ayers and football players, that's what they re ally want to be.

I'm trying to get them to be doctors.

(female) Th e expectation is th at children learn, period.

No excuses are accepted, none.

So that means if you've got to jump off the building and fly then you need to fi gure out how to fly.

[♪] (female) Fi rst days of school I can never sleep.

I think I couldn't sl eep even as a kid on th e first day of school.

It's exciting because I'm re ady to see the children, but it's also a little nerve wracking, I think for me because I want to make sure everything goes smoothly.

So, it's a little stressful too.

So, we'll see.

[sighs] I've said my prayers, listened to my song, and we'll see how it goes, but I don't know, day one.

[water dripping] (Ms. Mahn) Si nce I was ten years old I really knew I wanted to become an educator.

I remember trying to get as ma ny of the neighborhood kids to come to the den in my house, and have them sit so th at I could teach them anything a teacher would give I would take it.

And so at ten I had that love, and all through I knew that I just wanted to be a teacher.

Good morning!

Boys and girls, you have not seen me al l summer, good morning!

(students) Good morning.

(Ms. Mahn) Y' all still asleep?

My mom, her dad wa s a sharecropper, so he went to 8th grade, her mom was 3rd grade.

For me to be able to ha ve gone to college, graduated, and be a principal.

She tells everybody, "My daughter is a principal."

Yes ma'am, no ma'am.

Yes ma'am, OK.

But every day, she told me, "You have got to ge t your education."

I got so much to tell you, and I can't wait to talk to you, but we got to get off the bus.

You have got to ge t your education.

No one can take that from you.

That's why I'm sitting here probably in this seat right now is hearing my mother say th at to me over and over.

And you know, she we nt to 11th grade.

I do think that there are lo w expectations for children who come from di fferent backgrounds, from lower so cioeconomic backgrounds, you know I think that maybe so me of them are written off.

My job here is to stop the cycle of generational poverty.

I went to college, and my son went to college.

So we broke that cycle.

Our children can do it too.

Good morning.

You a car rider?

No ma'am, I'm a bus rider.

Who is going to be home to get you?

My mother, because she's on the 8 shift today.

It's OK, we will have you on the right bus, I promise.

Today I'm here to welcome you.

My name is Ms. Mahn, and I am your principal, for those of you who are new.

Now, we worked so hard last year.

I mean, who was here with me last year?

Oh, we worked and we worked, and guess what that hard work got us?

Our school went from a C on a report card to an A.

An A people.

Give yourselves a hand.

[applause] Now, I want to make sure that you understand my expectations for the school year.

So, we are here day one.

On day one A, I want to say, this was the best 5th grade class I have ever had.

Are you going to be the best 5th grade class I have ever had?

(students) Yes ma'am.

[music swells] [♪] [♪] (female) I was born in New York, Br ooklyn, New York.

Then I stayed in New Yo rk about 6 or 7 years, attending first grade in Ne w York public schools.

And I can remember my br other walking me to school, most of the mornings.

That's about all I re member about New York.

My mom wanted to do better for us, and so her and my dad moved us from New York to South Carolina.

So I started here in the 2nd grade.

My brother he was th irteen when we moved here, and I can remember him ge tting in trouble for school for simply not sa ying, "Yes ma'am."

It wasn't that he was disrespectful, he just said, "Yes."

Because in the city we weren't taught to say, "Yes ma'am, no ma'am, yes sir, no sir."

Hi Mr. Johnson.

During my time in school, as a high school student in 94, the federal government came in and make us desegregate.

And I was a part of that desegregation movement.

And the funny thing about it I never knew we were segregated before the desegregation movement.

But I found Da rlington County schools to be very su pportive and nurturing.

My situation wasn't al ways the best situation, but I would say that the people within the school system really supported me, an d valued me as a person, and they invested time in me.

[chatter] Good afternoon.

(students) Good afternoon!

(Ms. King) We ll we're here this afternoon fo r a special assembly.

It's a very, very big deal.

Give me a thumbs-up if you think you made the All A Honor Roll already this year.

Teachers, what do you think?

Everyone?

OK, Mr. Brown I know you're going to tell me something differently.

Everyone?

[laughter] I had the opportunity to work in this school before I came he re to be principal.

At first I was the elementary cu rriculum facilitator, and this person was the person that was assigned to th e lowest achieving sc hools in the district [applause] to try to bring them up to meet state standard.

And West Hartsville was one of those schools that were in need.

Rashon Johnson.

[applause] And that takes ch anging the culture, that takes having hi gh expectations, that takes realizing that every single child that walks in the door is different.

Let's give Ms. Woods' class a round of applause.

[applause] (Ms. Woods) I love teaching at West Hartsville.

I mean it's just, th ese are the kind of ki ds that needs us the most.

But, as far as the teaching question goes it's always something that people ask teachers.

And I guess it's a really hard question, it's not as simple as saying I love kids, because obviously we love kids.

Our population of students ar e completely different than, you know the population of a lot of schools.

I often compare our school to a small inner-city school.

We have the problems, same kind of issues and problems that they have in huge cities, in their inner-city schools: Poverty, homelessness, low socioeconomics plays a huge part.

[applause] Ms. King has very, very high expectations for each one of you sitting here.

I still don't know if I'm ready to be a leader of my own school.

But leadership is a funny thing.

It's not about being in charge, it's about having the ab ility to empower others.

If you can't empower pe ople to believe in the id eas that you're bringing, and the vision that you have then you're ineffective.

[applause] (Ms. King) An d I believe you can do it.

Your teachers be lieve you can do it, now it's up to you to be lieve that you can do it.

How many of us believe that at the end of this 9 weeks we're going to be on the All A Honor Roll again?

Teachers look at these ha nds and these faces.

It's our job to keep yo u on that right path.

(announcer) WMBF News.

Live... (female reporter) Following Governor Nikki Haley's recent vetoes in education.

$2.3 billion dollars was appropriated for education in the state for next school year, and $2.5 million was cut.

Today we have a budget deficit.

And the real conversation th at's going on right now, is should we pull up the ladder?

Because it costs too mu ch money to continue to provide op portunities in education.

The 47 million Americans wh o rely on food stamps will have to make do wi th less starting today.

The officially named "S upplemental Nutrition As sistance Program" is losing $5 bi llion dollars of funding.

That's because a temporary increase in benefits, that was part of the economic st imulus in 2009, is expiring.

(Mike Moen) Th ose cuts in federal benefits may be felt most in rural parts.

That's because USDA da ta shows a widening gap in participation levels be tween rural and urban areas.

Rural residents ar e using more aid, while city re sidents are using less.

(female) Ca rolina Kids be gan with one program, it was Back to Sc hool school supplies, and they expanded it to a Christmas Wi shes program, as well.

Now, we provide weekend food bags for children, to take home during the school year.

We were doing 425 fo od bags last year, we have 80% of the children in the school district that theoretically do need food bags.

So, with 10,000 students in the school district we're only doing 425.

So, I mean I think we ar e doing a good job, but I feel like that I keep le arning about more needs.

[♪] (Monay) I have three boys.

Jacquez, who is the 8 year old.

Terrance is my 9 year old.

He stay with his grandmother.

And Rashon is the 11 year old.

He's in 5th grade.

He's always been a handful, bu t he's a smart boy.

I really want Ra shon to graduate, and continue to ma ke good grades.

[faucet running] (Rashon) I'm excited about the 5th grade because I get to see everybody, my friends in my cl ass, and my teachers.

And I'll get to learn th ings I need to know.

So, I can go to the 6th grade, and be able to like know some of the stuff they go over.

(Monay) I enjoy taking care of my kids, and really don't as k anyone to help me.

[microwave beeping] We get up at 5 o' clock.

And they about to ea t some of that.

They bus run at 6, so basically I'll be trying to get dressed at the same time because normally I have to be at work at like 7 o' clock, sometimes 6.

(Monay) Bye, I love you.

I didn't know my mother, I never grew up with my mother, never know who she was.

And my father he was like th ere every now and then, so I was basically wi th my grandma.

And that's who re ally raised, my grandma.

I left when I was like 16, and from there on I was on my own, ever since I was 16.

I work two jobs, and if I don't have a babysitter my grandma she'll keep them, because 9 times out of 10 I may have to be at my second job at 5.

I don't get off work till ab out 11 o' clock some nights, some nights a little later.

By the time I see them, they be sleeping, they be ready to go to bed.

So yeah, it's very painful for me to try to keep th em on the right track, and tell them what to do.

[♪] [♪] [kids playing] (Monay) Ja cquez and Rashon they basically talk ab out being basketball players and football players, and they pl ay basketball all the time, they on the basketball team.

That's what they really want to be.

I'm trying to get them to be doctors.

[rain falling] (male) We represent America.

When you add the Ha rtsville's of the world, there are more of us than there are of New York, & Chicago, & Los Angeles, with all due respect to those places.

I think that what we do is fa irly representative of what a lot of rural Am erica goes through.

(Superintendent Ingram) Wh en I come to your schools I will ask to see kids.

The things I ask, I' ll give you examples, "Do you have internet access at home?"

For younger children, "What time do you go to bed?

What time do you get up?"

"How much homework do you have?"

(female) Society, they look at children, or they look at th eir circumstances, and make judgments based on that, but our schools are a reflection of our community.

They are a reflection of our society.

We all come with ou r very unique values.

And those values are a lot of times created by our different experiences, and those experiences then dictate how we handle things.

How does a high performing school district get better?

How do we get better?

I try not to pay attention to state rankings, not that I don't think that they're important, but we need to set our ba r along the lines of, what are the best practices in the nation and the world?

It's not to see whether or not we can outscore a ne arby district on a test.

There's a much bigger story to be told.

And what we have tended to do nationally is we focus on the kids.

Not the lowest of the low, the lowest of the low we've just said, "Oh, we'll they're not going to ever get anywhere anyway.

So we don't worry about them."

So we focus on that magic middle, because those are the ones that can get the bump and growth to make our schools look really good.

But really, to sustain permanent growth it's got to be the floor and the ceiling, simultaneously.

(Carlita Davis) Th e schools do ha ve high poverty, numbers and percentages.

And it is a factor th at can't be ignored.

But it will not be our excuse.

We're here to teach children.

And it didn't say we could teach rich children or poor children, or good children or bad children.

We teach children.

That's wh at public education does.

(Superintendent Ingram) All right.

[laughs] [♪] (Ms. King) I'm here to support any way I can, bye-bye.

Hey, sweetie, nice of you to stop by and visit me today.

Oh my goodness.

(male) One, two, three.

Happy birthday to you!

Ha ppy birthday to you!

Happy birthday Ms. King!

Happy birthday to you!

[applause] Thank y'all so much!

OK, group hug, come on.

Oh!

I don't know how many hugs I got today.

[laughs] I stopped counting, but they all hugged me, and told me happy birthday, and thank you for giving me a piece of your birthday cake.

(Ms. King) You're welcome, thank you.

I told them, "Thank you for sh aring in my special day."

It really meant a lot to me.

(female) Happy birthday.

Tonight is a big night.

It's our first Pa rent Team meeting.

Parental involvement ha s not been very high at our school in the past.

So, we've done a lo t things thus far to try to increase pa rental involvement, such as our Back to School Bash, and our bus tour.

Now, all of these ev ents we had the opportunity for the parents to sign up to participate on the Parent Team.

So to date, we have 52 parents, out of 155, that are signed up to participate, which is really good numbers.

(Ms. King) I hope all of your ha rd work pays off.

(female) Br ing'em on.

(Ms. King) Br ing'em on.

[♪] (Ms. King) The agenda tonight is focused on having them give input on what's working well at West Hartsville, what things do you se e need to be changed, and what suggestions do yo u have for improvement?

I'm really excited about this meeting tonight, it's my first Parent Team meeting as a principal.

So, I'm excited to see where it goes.

(Ms. Woods) He y Ms. Davis, this is Kendra Woods at West Ha rtsville Elementary School, how are you?

You had signed up for the Parent Team, and I wanted to kind of remind you that we had a meeting tonight at 5:30, would you be able to come to that tonight, or?

OK, all right, well we will keep you in mind, and we'll make sure you get informed of the next meeting.

Thank you for signing up.

Uh-huh, bye-bye.

(Ms. King) 5:37, and we have what?

One parent.

It don't - just trying to figure it out.

Remind you that we ha d a meeting tonight at 5:30, do you think there's any way you could make that tonight?

OK, all right, well yo u keep us in mind, an d we'll keep you in mind.

We'll make sure you're informed of the next meeting, OK?

OK, thanks for si gning up, uh-huh, bye-bye.

We apologize.

We really need your input, we really need your support.

If we're going to do this we need more parents.

(Ms. Woods) I agree.

(Ms. King) We do need a bigger group to do what we're trying, we're trying to accomplish here.

(Ms. Woods) Appreciate it very much.

Thank you for your support.

(Ms. King) So metimes it's just re ally disappointing, you work so hard to try to get the parents he re, and get them involved.

And then, you don't have th e turnout that you expect.

We've got to figure out wh at to do to get our parents just to come and support th eir children's education.

(Ms. King) Sp read the word.

Sp read the word.

OK, team.

This is our first of ficial meeting, baseline data was 1 out of 155, so we look at the end of th e year and we've got 20.

(female) Th en we've made improvement.

(Ms. King) We 've made improvement.

This is where we are.

We 've got a lot of work to do.

Ooh-oh.

[sighs] Mm-mm-mm.

[waves crashing] (female) We are here at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina for the Title I Base Conference.

We are a school of 8 in the entire state that showed tremendous gains for our state testing.

Last year we were about 76.6%, this year after our data has come in we are about 93%, met or exemplary for our PASS scores.

[crowd chatter] (female) This has been a day that we have all been waiting for.

So, let's give all of our applause to all the.. [applause] [staple punch] (Ms. Govan-Augustus) We were able to present to different folks about what we 're doing at our school in order for our st udents to be successful.

(Ms. Mahn) This is my 5th year at Thornwell And when we got there, together as a team, we had 265 children.

We had 700 discipline referrals.

We had our 1st grade that was not reading on grade level.

We had 7 students that had been expelled.

We had no parent support.

We had a lot of work to do.

And it didn't happen quick, it took a long time.

The first year the data did not come back.

The second year the data did not come back.

The third year, the fourth year, finally we get data, and it was big this year.

It came together.

The one thing that we knew we had to do was build relationships.

We took a bus tour of our neighborhoods.

Teachers got on the bus, we went out into the neighborhoods.

It's very important for our students to see us there, and approachable, and in their community, but really we wanted our teachers to make sure you know where your children are coming from.

Children come first, and because of all of that you can see we've had steady progress.

The biggest thing though, is we've gone from 76.7 C to a 92.9 A.

And that is huge for us.

[applause] (male) Today, what we would like to do is put the spotlight on high-performing high poverty Title I schools that excelled in improving academic achievement.

Now we're in the top 3, in just a few minutes we're going to find out if we're that winning school or not.

And if we are that winning school, we'll be going out to San Francisco to represent the state.

Now to me, the big win has already happened because our students have made the gains to say that we are great, and they are great.

(male) And the winner this year is All Homewood Elementary [loud cheering & applause] [♪] (Ms. Mahn) It 's not always about winning.

When you're co mpetitive it makes you work.

[♪ upbeat music ♪] (Monay) We have fun moments wh en I be off work.

We'll go get something to eat, we watch a movie, or we wi ll just clown, and stuff.

[♪ upbeat music ♪] By me working two jobs, I really ca n't do a lot with them.

But I know I have to do wh at I have to do for my kids.

[♪ upbeat music ♪] (laughing & screaming) (Rashon) My mom she worked ha rd to get what we want, and she work from day and night.

And she will like, if you need something she will try her best to get it.

And if her phone get cut of f she'll get us what we need before she cut he r phone back on.

[♪ upbeat music ♪] [whistle] [♪ upbeat music ♪] (Monay) Ra shon is smart.

He is very smart.

He going to mi ddle school next year.

I want him to be his own person because I did a lo t of crazy stuff that I wasn't su pposed to do, like leaving my grandma house early, be cause I thought I was grown.

I wasn't grown.

(Monay) Come on, where is Jacquez?

My goal is to try to get my GED, so I can go further in life, instead of still wo rking in the fast food re staurant, point blank.

(Monay) Go get in the shower.

I would like for them to ultimately graduate, go to college, and do be tter with they life.

And I know Rashon is capable.

(Monay) Al l right, good night Shon.

Go od night.

(Rashon) Go od night.

[car driving by] (Mr. Brown) I love teaching in the classroom.

One thing I tell pe ople all the time is, if I can do wh at I'm doing I know I'm ch anging somebody's life, and that's enough for me.

[class chattering] Let's go ahead and get started.

(Carlita Davis) Al l teachers that are tr uly meant to be teachers who are called to be teachers, they realize that path from somewhere as a child to their present.

(Mr. Brown) "To live doesn't mean you're alive."

Everybody in this room right now is breathing.

We're all alive, according to definition.

But think about the experiences you're going through right now.

I lost my father at a young age, raised in a house full of women, and the reason why I really wa nted to become a teacher was I didn't have my first ma le teacher until 8th grade.

And he actually wasn't even my teacher, he was just a male teacher in the school.

(Mr. Brown) I know I've got some Girl Scouts in here, I know I have some athletes, and that's cool, you should enjoy your life.

Do the things that make you happy.

I never had a te acher I could relate to.

And that's why Ra shon is kind of like my secret project for this year, with him I really think he 's just the case of a ki d dealing with a lot.

When a child knows that you care about him they'll come and they'll do anything for you, but until then they're going to go where they believe they're wanted, accepted, and appreciated.

(Mr. Brown) You need some help?

(Carlita Davis) So , as adults and as educators it's our responsibility to offer that type of re lationship to children, so then they can hear what we have to say.

[door opens] [♪] When I was in school, ne arly 40 years ago, it was still possible to dr op out of high school, and go to work at a local farm, or in business for yourself, even if you just got a truck and a lawnmower, but today's ec onomy has become global.

There are jobs that were there 30 years ago that are gone, and th ose jobs aren't coming back.

There are new jobs available, but they really re quire a lot of mathematics, and science, an d technology.

(Gov.

Haley) In two years, we've an nounced new jobs in 45 of South Carolina's 46 counties.

And we've seen no le ss an authority than "The Wall St reet Journal" say, "That anyone still thinking the U.S. has lost its manufacturing chops hasn't been to South Carolina."

(reporter) Ch arming locations, So uthern hospitality, and an available workforce; some of the reasons why South Ca rolina was picked by Boeing as the location for it s second assembly line.

To get a plant like Boeing, it heightens the expectations of people within the community.

(male) What needs to be driving business, and what needs to be driving our public policy dialog, in the case of Sonoco, South Carolina's largest pu blically traded company it's impact has been intentional an d strategic to education.

Frankly, as we're trying to recruit quality people, one of the first things they look at is, what kind of education are my children going to be able to get?

In Hartsville, we committed $5 million dollars with a goal that we're going to be in the top quartile of test results in the State of South Carolina in 5 years, and the top quartile in the nation in 10 years.

(Harris DeLoach) It's also necessary that we have an educational climate, where people want to ra ise their families, and know that they're go ing to get an education that is second to none.

We focus on practices that we know will engage kids, teach them to think, and to push them to learn content that perhaps kids didn't ev en think was possible.

But it is, you just have to provide that venue for that to happen, and you have to pr ovide the support.

Remember this, here's where I want you to go today, as you're taking those observations... [♪] [classroom chatter] (Harris DeLoach) Ed ucation is not a sprint, it is absolutely a journey, and you have to start pl anting the seeds today for what you're going to sew ten years from now.

(female teacher) We're using our 5 senses.

(Harris DeLoach) If business is go ing to survive in Hartsville, South Carolina it's imperative that we ha ve an educated workforce.

[♪] As you're taking those observations, I want you to start your making your own inferences.

(male) Sandy surface?

Write it down.

(student) Write that down.

[classroom chatter] (Ms. Adams) You are writing like a scientist, I love it.

(student) Baseball!

(Ms. Adams) OK, you've made your inferences, so the only way we can prove it is by doing what?

(student) Opening it.

(Ms. Adams) Opening my bag.

Who wants to see it?!

(students) Me!

(Ms. Adams) Show me your drumsticks.

[students drumming their desks] [excited cheers from students] (student) Softball.

Softball.

(Ms. King) Now we're going to get down and dirty for the next ten minutes, we're going to look at data.

This is our data for the first 9 weeks.

These are the students, grade levels, number of referrals, and what they were sent to the turnaround room for.

OK, we pulled all the information out, we assigned students to small groups that needed additional interventions, based on that data.

I mean, we just developed a game plan to support the students that were referred if we felt like there needed to be a plan in place for them.

From looking at the data, who are our high fliers?

(teacher) Rashon.

(Ms. King) Mr. Johnson, I'm hearing some things now, and I'm noticing some things with him just in this week, and these two days that I really need to sit down and look at.

At the beginning of the year he came to my classroom, he was really involved, really liked social studies, I mean he is fidgety, but I can live with that.

But in the last week, and this week I have to ask him to take out his notes.

He gets up to go to the trashcan, he hit somebody in the back of the head, I mean it's just, he'll get up and go throw things away just to poke somebody or do something.

What's our next steps for him?

Not just your next steps, but what's our next steps?

Because we got to go back to the drawing board, what do we need to do differently for Rashon?

OK, something is going on.

(Monay) La st year, I felt like he wa sn't being treated right, because every time so mething going it's always, "Rashon, Rashon, Rashon," and I had to go the schoolhouse 3 or 4 times out of the week, or have a conference every month about Rashon.

(Monay) How many referrals does he got for the year?

Three.

And these two he got like back to back.

That was like September 9th, he was kind of, you know testing the waters.

(Monay) Bu t now I can say that Ra shon he improved a lot, because Ms. King she take her time out to do stuff for Rashon, and to get him on the right track.

(Ms. King) Go ahead, tell momma what's been going on.

Nothing?

He's been doing little things to get in trouble, Monday and Tuesday were not good days for him, just with not following directions, talking out during class.

So I took him out of class.

I called him up here, and I said, "Rashon" I said, "You know that's not the direction we want to go."

I talked to him about me not needing to call you at work, and disturb you, had this whole conversation about, "Is this really what you want?"

And then Friday he went and he started off again.

And it just came to that point Friday that it was a referral.

He can do the work.

The behavior is what's getting to be the issue.

I think a lot of Ra shon's issue does come from just his daily schedule.

I asked mom this mo rning, you know, "What time is she ge tting off now?"

And she said, "11."

So, to get there, and pick him up from someone else's house at 11, take him home, you know do dinner, homework, and then put him back to bed, and for him to get up at, say 5:30 in the morning, that's a lot, on an adult as well as, so it's really a lot on a child.

And if that's his routine every day, day in, day out it begins to present a challenge for him.

It's not a problem that I can solve, because his mom does have to work, and she has to provide for her family, so, it's not a problem that I can solve.

[♪] [footsteps] (Ms. Mahn) OK, boys and girls, last time, I'm not going to preach anymore.

You already know your goals, and guess what?

You know Ms. Mahn.

Whooo, I love to give some prizes, don't I?

I even like to give out some money for the store.

How many of y'all want to buy some presents?

Mm, well I told the teachers, you work hard, and you get a paycheck, well our children they're going to work hard, and guess what?

They're going to get some money too.

(female) Y'all have worked hard all year.

Now is your time to shine, OK.

The school is doing great as a whole.

So, third grade you're going to blow it out the water.

Third grade, 193 is met, you know your goal, 203 is exemplary, that's out the door, on the way to that little store with money.

(Ms. Mahn) Today we're taking the MAP test.

And MAP assesses reading and math, and the information that we get from the MAP test helps us determine where we need to go.

(Ms. Mahn) Now how many of y'all are going to work?

How many of y'all are going to make yourselves proud?

And if your best is going up 5 points, then that's fine.

If your best is going up 20 points, I'll take it.

All right, so do your best.

OK, sit up straight.

Take a deep breath.

You may start.

[♪] (Ms. Mahn) I can go print the re ports the next day, and every child re ceives a score, and it kind of tells us wh ere they fall nationally.

(Ms. Mahn) Who went from not met to exemplary?

Jario, Zontavia, and Ameara.

(female) Yay!

(Ms. Mahn) Very good gains.

Good job.

[applause] (Ms. Mahn) Who didn't quite do as good as they wanted to?

(student) I didn't do as good as I wanted.

(Ms. Mahn) OK, well that's all right.

So, you've got to think about what you need to do differently.

Maybe you're not doing your homework, because I know you're capable.

But who did really, really good?

And you're very, very proud of yourselves?

OK, and when you're in the higher numbers if you just go up 2 or 3 points, I mean that's hard, that means you went up.

So, that's good, give yourselves a round of applause.

Today is like data collection, it will be for the next 2 weeks, because it takes us about 2 weeks to test 400 children.

For the kids who were not ready, the struggling kids, like in 5th grade, we st arted them on 4th grade.

And then when they were re ady, we put them on 5th.

You fix the 4th grade problems, an d then you put them on 5th.

And then they soared.

It's a focus on academics now.

It's more "Ms. Mahn, I've met my goal, you know I'm learning.

I made a 90 on my test today."

So it's not about fo cusing on behavior anymore.

Yeah, we still have to work on some behavior issues, but it's more about what they're accomplishing in their schoolwork.

[♪] [♪] [♪] (male reporter) Fo r several years now it seems like the district has go tten excellent marks.

(Superintendent Ingram) We ll it's true it has, and it's just a tribute to all of the people here in Darlington County.

It's really a culture of excellence, and excellence is expected.

And when you expect excellence you generally get that.

You can't point to one thing.

It 's lot of individual people doing lots of individual things that often go unnoticed.

(Ms. King) And I know we have been trying to increase parental involvement here at West Hartsville since the beginning of the year.

So it doesn't require a lot of time, there's actually only one meeting a month, the next meeting is 3 o' clock on Monday.

You will probably be with us 30 minutes max, at the most.

I thank the 3 of you that came out, so I need you guys to help us figure out how to get the other parents here.

One of the things that I appreciated as a principal was the flexibility to tailor what we needed for our schools.

And I really, really appreciated that because the chemistry of your schools, and the dynamics is always different based on your needs.

But it's extremely difficult to monitor your growth if we're doing so many different things.

I need to hear what is it that's working for you, because we want to continue that because you've had great successes, but at the same time, we're going to have to figure out some uniformity.

(Ms. Mahn) All right boys and girls, Thanksgiving dinner.

Be thankful.

(student) Yes ma'am.

(Ms. Mahn) Hey there, how are you doing?

Thank you for coming.

Look at all these smiling faces right here.

(reporter) The graduation doesn't start in high school.

It really starts at birth.

We're not going to rest until we have 100% graduation rate, that every single child graduates, and again graduates to something.

You're either growing, or you're dying.

[♪] (Mr. Brown) Ev ery child can be successful, no matter what si tuation they come from.

I've seen kids that should have been presidents end up in jail.

And I've seen kids that sh ould have end up in jail end up farther than wh ere I thought they we re going to end up.

Scout signs up.

(male) There we go, hold it up, hold it up.

(student) Hold it Rashon.

(Mr. Brown) Yo u're not going to ge t to the rough ones if they don't feel you respect them.

And Rashon is a gleaming example of that.

I've actually asked him that a couple of times this year, I'm like, "Do you think all the teachers respect you?"

"Mm-mm."

"Well, how do you treat the ones that don't respect you?"

"The same way they treat me."

All right, here we go man, on you.

(in unison) I promise to do my best... (Mr. Brown) I will say this, that Rashon hasn't gi ven up on himself yet.

He has his days wh ere its rough, but I can honestly see hi m still being successful.

(male) Good job, all right.

[♪] (Ms. King) Fi rst we'll look at th e academics for Rashon.

(Ms. Adams) Monday mornings are the hardest.

I think it's just that transition from the weekend back into structure is difficult for him.

But once he gets settled there's never another problem.

But as far as ac ademics, I mean he's great.

(male) Get serious, Johnson.

I need y'all to listen.

(female) I don't think he means any harm, I think sometimes he just walk around, he swings his arms, and he'll by chance just hit the student, and I have to remind that he was swinging his arms, and that he makes a lot of noises.

Johnson.

Follow-up MAP re ading he scored a 203, which is 14 points from exemplary, so it is met.

(male) Let's go, let's go.

(children playing) (female) La st year in reading on PASS he scored a 630, which is 31 po ints from exemplary.

(male) Sit down, sit down.

Make it happen, come on make it happen, make it happen.

(female) As far as the classroom, he works better by himself.

Rashon, turnaround man, let's go.

(male) On your mark!

Get set!

Go!

Go, get there, get there, get there, get there, get there!

He's very touchy feely with me, like when he hugs me, like it's almost like for 5 minutes, he don't want to let go.

It's like he's afraid, like I'm going somewhere and I'm not coming back, and when I'm not here, and the sub is here and stuff, he doesn't like that when I'm not here.

(male) All right, on your mark, get set, go.

(female) So I don't know, that's started in the past like 3 or 4 weeks.

(children playing) (Ms. King) Th e stats say that 80 to 85% of kids operate this way, you've got the 10 to 15% th at need additional support.

Rashon is at th at 10 to 15% where he need that fi rst intervention.

So, he ain't going to get it like Johnny.

He needs it like this.

(male) Got you.

And when I see his momma coming out of the doctor's office yesterday, and she's like, "Ms. King, what's going on?

They call me about Rashon."

And she's not upset, and we turning her thinking around, and then we going to turnaround we're going to kick him out of Boy Scouts?

I'm just like, come on now.

She's trying her best with the kids she got.

We can't put up with him for an hour or two after school?

[♪] The last time I sent him home, you know it bothered me so bad.

There was this older guy th at was walking around, down the street, Rashon ha d his arm around his neck.

The guy was trying to ge t him to drink alcohol, because I made the decision to send him home.

(Ms. Brown) So me teachers can't relate, they don't know what it is to have a mom working two jobs.

And when she comes home at the middle of the night, and you just try to want a mom, she's tired.

(Ms. King) I had people write me off, and I was gifted and talented, but my behavior was so horrible from 6th to 8th grade that they wrote me off.

It's a miracle that I can sit up here and be principal of West Hartsville right now.

But somebody didn't give up on me.

[♪] (Mr. Brown) No he's not a 21 ye ar old male right now, but he's been th rough some experiences I know 21 year olds right no w haven't been through.

The boy stays in the area where he's probably se en a couple of guns, he's probably seen so me guns fired, I know he's seen so me adult fights.

So when you have a child th at's seen all of this, you can't approach hi m like they haven't.

If you come to him like he's that perfect little kid that goes to Sunday school every Sunday you're not going to get anywhere with him because that's just not how it is.

(Ms. King) It 's not like if yo u're in a business, and you're working on an assembly line, or a production line.

Like, there's a sp ecific formula, or procedure that yo u're going to follow to get that end product.

That doesn't work with people.

The people are different.

Different things im pact our development, different things impact ou r ability to perform.

[♪] (Ms. Mahn) Bo ys and girls, I hope you have a great day today.

Remember, it is ou r Winter Blitz, so I'm looking forward to se eing you having some fun, some smiling faces, and I ho pe you all have a great day, and a safe break.

(female) Th ank you for shopping at TSA, merry Christmas.

(Ms. Mahn) Wh at you shopping for?

(student) Necklace for my momma.

(Ms. Mahn) Mm , OK, how about you?

(student) My teacher.

They are being so thoughtful, nobody said they were shopping for themselves.

I need y'all to lift me up this morning.

I want to hear the song.

[clapping] [♪ students singing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" ♪] (Ms. Mahn) In our district, Kids Closet bought gifts fo r 800 families.

That's big.

We hope that you all ha ve a wonderful break, and I appreciate al l of your hard work, and I will see yo u in the new year.

Bye baby.

Bye, have a good one.

Y'all be careful, OK. Bye!

Have a great one!

(female) Th is is Carolina Kids, we have some Christmas pa ckages for your children.

[♪] (Carlita Davis) Th e best educators in the world are the ones that remember what it 's like to be a student.

They remember wh at they felt like, they remember the th ings that made them move, what pushed them.

Well as a principal you ha ve to be a visionary.

If there are personnel issues, the principal ha s to deal with it.

If there are discipline issues, the principal ha s to deal with it.

If there are curriculum issues, the principal has to deal with it.

If there are public relations issues, the principal deals with it.

The principal is ac countable to the children, accountable to the teachers, accountable to the parents, and they have to deal wi th a district staff.

Everybody has an opinion.

The best feeling in the world is to deal with the situations wh ere there are the obstacles.

And where there ar e the naysayers, or there are the challenges that you make up your mi nd you're going to overcome.

When you succeed, it's sweeter th an anything in the world.

But it takes time.

[lights shut off] [door closes & locks] (female) Th e Common Core, the idea behind it is reasonable, states working together to create national st andards for education.

Standards that are de signed to be robust and relevant in the real world.

Well, it sounds good, so why is there growing opposition around the country to Common Core?

[crowd] Stop Common Core!

Stop Common Core!

(male) As a senator I'm concerned about losing $5 14 million dollars in federal funding for my local schools.

(Ms. Mahn) We couldn't have worked an y harder than we worked.

And so I just go t finished talking to the teachers about that, don't stress the kids out, go over those last few things that we've talked about, and just take the test.

[♪] (Monay) Th e behavior issues wi th Rashon was like making noises in classes, talking, picking at other students.

Well, they say he hit Mr. Brown, but he actually sa id he didn't mean to.

I mean, some of the is sues I wasn't aware of, and some of them I were.

(Ms. King) So as we sat around the table, we had this look, that just probably communicated that this is really not wh at we want to be doing, but we think it's ac tually come to this point.

I felt like we had failed Rashon.

Not that he failed us, but that we had truly failed him.

ity with the 180 Days discussion guide at pbs.org/180days.

180 Days: Hartsville is available on DVD.

To order visit shopPBS.org, or call us at 1-800-PLAY-PBS.