Hard Times at Douglass High: A No Child Left Behind Report Card

This documentary chronicles one school year with the students and teachers of Frederick Douglass High School, an inner-city Baltimore school that has struggled to meet the expectations of President Bush’s controversial 2002 No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). One of the first all-black high schools in America, Douglass is a storied institution that has graduated such alumni as Cab Calloway (the legendary musician) and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall (who as a lawyer successfully argued against segregation in the landmark 1954 case Brown v. Board of Education). Over the last few years, however, the teachers and administration at Douglass have found that their future, and the school’s, hinges on their ability to get students to meet reading and math standards set by NCLB.