UNO documentary: KIPP Central City

What: With the demand to reform and improve education in New Orleans, the number of charter schools within the city has seen significant expansion in recent years. One such school is KIPP in Central City — part of the nationwide chain of college preparatory charter schools set up in under-resourced communities.

The school’s faculty “comes from all over the world,” says KIPP Central City kindergarten teacher Cassandra Bell. “We come from different backgrounds and different experiences which we use to collaborate… to come up with new ideas to improve student culture, student behaviors, student values.”

The end goal, Bell adds, is to provide all of the school’s students with the option of attending college.

Film by: UNO student and filmmaker Miesha Williams

Editor’s Note: NolaVie partners with students of UNO professor László Zsolt Fülöp, pairing them with artists, non-profits, environmental groups, and cultural entities to facilitate a live curriculum that results in a short documentary. Miesha Williams, a student in the Introduction to Documentary Production class in the Department of Film and Theatre at the University of New Orleans, interviews Bell about the school’s programming and goals.