Reviving The American Dream
One Community at a Time
A democracy rests on the foundation of education. We thrive when young adults are prepared to pursue fulfilling careers, serve as responsible citizens, and lead purposeful lives. Things fall apart when our schools produce generations ill-prepared for the world they’ll live in. Today, America is in deep trouble, and the root cause is four decades of obsolete education.
While America faces serious challenges nationally, our communities offer enduring strength and hope. Imagine communities rallying to the aspirational goal of transforming schools into purposeful launchpads. A movement that pulls America out of its doldrums, one community at a time, fueled by these core drivers:
A powerful new film.
A proven model that galvanizes community action.
A clarion call to rethink education’s counterproductive accountability measures.
A Transformational Education Model
The acclaimed documentary Multiple Choice takes us to a Virginia public school district that is transforming futures. A citizen coalition created an Innovation Center where all students — not just a stigmatized few — dive into career-based learning across fields that fuel the local economy: welding, carpentry, firefighting, healthcare, cybersecurity, AI, digital media. With sky-high graduation rates, half go directly into the workforce with a running start. The college-bound submit standout applications grounded in real experience. All graduate with multiple fulfilling life choices — rather than training endlessly for multiple-choice exams that AI devours. A bold model that respects all paths, unites the community, and builds strong futures for all.
OFFICIAL SELECTION: SXSW EDU, Brooklyn Film Festival, Fort Myers Film Festival, newportFILM, Oxford Film Festival, Sun Valley Film Festival, Virginia Film Festival.
Community Impact
Film has the power to convene, energize, and motivate. After our documentary Most Likely to Succeed premiered at Sundance, we implemented a community screening campaign that — stunningly — reached over 10,000 communities, convening millions of people in productive collaboration. Building on this success, Multiple Choice is catalyzing community-driven innovation across America. The non-profit What School Could Be plays the lead role in this initiative, galvanizing a coalition of impressive partners. Leading education consulting firm Advanced Learning Partners provides an action playbook and expert coaching. Distribution partners include Roco Films and Show&Tell.
This spring, an impressive coalition -- What School Could Be, Virginia Public Media, ChamberRVA, the Community Foundation of Richmond, the Claude Moore Foundation, Virginia Ed Strategies -- joined forces to create a statewide campaign in Virginia that is proactively transforming schools to future-proof its kids and communities. This momentum aligns with the leadership and policies of Virginia’s Governor, a powerful coupling that sets the stage for innovation and progress.
Accountability
Ted Dintersmith's next book Aftermath: The Life-Changing Math That Schools Won’t Teach You (Fast Company Press) explores the modern-era math ideas that shape our lives, yet are ignored in school. Instead, students spend thousands of high-school hours on rote math that adults don’t use and computers handle flawlessly.
Freakonomics co-author Steve Levitt offers:
“In the age of AI and data, we badly need to rethink the way we teach math in U.S. schools. Dintersmith has joyfully illustrated how we can pull the subject out of irrelevance in the eyes of our students—a must read for teachers and parents alike.”
Math is the poster child for America’s education failures. We place the highest of stakes on rote math no adult uses, totally ignoring the math that defines our futures. Math’s role in school is to rank, sort, and punish – not engage, enlighten, and elevate.
Bottom Line
This campaign’s ambitious goal? Bring communities together in a nonpartisan, uplifting mission. Transform your schools to create great futures for your youth . . . and your community.
Revive the American Dream, one community at a time.