The infamous statistic that Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools has the second-largest achievement gap between Black and white students is exactly what drove a local group of educators, filmmakers and students to create “I’m Smart, Too,” a documentary that aims to reveal racial disparities in our school district.
Producer Kim Talikoff started the project in 2018, inspired by her experience as an elementary school teacher, where she found it was “extremely evident” that educational disparities were in place that needed to be disturbed. She says the disparities are fostered by the signaling that happens through formal and informal sorting mechanisms in our elementary schools.
“It’s hard to know how to make change,” Talikoff said. “I thought one of the best first steps would be to try to help other people gain a vantage point and hear other people’s perspectives. I was trying to look for a way for us to amplify the voices of the kids and the parents who are most affected, and a film format seemed like the best way to go.”
The filmmakers hope that this documentary will start conversations about racial inequality in our community and cause people to understand how the system came to be unjust. Talikoff believes that our community has the potential to be more supportive, and can start by addressing the problem.
“The purpose of making this is for us to have conversations about what is happening in our community and for us to bring to light some of the things that happen particularly in the early grades that set up the system that you can see, you know, writ large in the high school,” Talikoff said. “What I think is most important is that all of us sort of think really hard together about what we want to see differently.”
The district is pursuing initiatives to address racial inequality, and Superintendent Jim Causby acknowledges the achievement gap and says he is in charge of assembling a task force to determine solutions to the problem.
“I think CHCCS has been a real leader in taking steps to deal with issues of inequality,” Causby said. “There’s no question that there are lots of errors of inequality throughout our society.… CHCCS, as early as the mid-1990s, began to look at how, academically, what could be done to help students of color who were not performing as well as our predominantly white students were. And so lots of things were done with extra time, extra help, smaller numbers, lots of things that helped students achieve better. And there was success there, but it did not wipe out the gap.”
Talikoff thinks it is very important for CHCCS students to see the film, especially if they share her discomfort with what is happening in the district. She hopes it will open up honest and ongoing conversations.
“My teammates and I invite students to see the film and really welcome their participation in all discussions about the film and the issues it raises,” Talikoff said. “Students are key stakeholders in this system. Their perspectives, stories, and concerns should really inform all discussions about school design and policy.”
The next screening and panel discussion of “I’m Smart, Too” is Oct. 21 at 7:30 p.m. (https://imsmarttoo.org/)
Photo courtesy of I’m Smart Too.org
