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Early Childhood Education Documentary Analysis

Decent Essays

This documentary focuses on two elementary schools in Hartsville, SC. At the time of the documentary, South Carolina ranked 45th in the country in education. Hartsville is a high-poverty area. Though it is a small town, it faces problems similar to what is seen in inner-cities. There is a high minority population and low parental involvement in the schools. Even with these issues, the Hartsville elementary schools have shown significant improvement in education quality. One of the schools went from a C grade to an A grade within a year.

One reason behind this is the presence of a large manufacturing company called Sonoco. This is a large company that has contributed significantly to funding the improvement of education in the Hartsville area. The owner of Sonoco stated that when hiring, potential workers often consider the education their children would get in the area. This is why Sonoco has contributed funding in addition to the property tax values they would already be providing the schools. Their goal was to get the schools into the top quartile of test scores in the state. The funding from Sonoco allows the schools to retain quality teachers and purchase necessary supplies in order to reach this goal. These elementary school students are working in nice classrooms with iPads. This is very different from what we saw in Corridor of Shame. This shows how much the presence of …show more content…

These teachers do a great job treating the students as individuals. It was somewhat similar to the way Principal Stone treated some of the kids in Heart of Stone. Hartsville teachers also provided incentives for the children to do their best on state tests. These incentives included spending money for the school store. This can mean a lot for elementary school children. Using meaningful incentives helps ensure students are trying their best on tests and not just rushing through to

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