Featured series 
Nation & World
Shyamalan sees problems in the classroom
Filmmaker writes book on closing America’s education gap
You know famed film director M. Night Shyamalan from his blockbuster movies “The Sixth Sense,” “Signs,” and “The Village,” but here’s the surprise twist: He just wrote a book about education reform, “I Got Schooled: The Unlikely Story of How a Moonlighting Movie Maker Learned the Five Keys to Closing America’s Education Gap.”
In this edition of the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s EdCast, Shyamalan explores his unique “outside” perspective on education and his data-driven approach to closing the education gap, while debunking other popular reform ideas.
M. Night Shyamalan’s school sense
M. Night Shyamalan, filmmaker and author of “I Got Schooled,” shares his unique journey as a curious, education reform “outsider” looking for data-informed answers on how to close America’s education gap.
“I got interested in this because of going on a location scout on a movie, visiting high schools in Philadelphia … and I got moved by the dire situation in some of those [schools] that I visited and I felt like I was in a third-world country,” says Shyamalan. “It felt sinful … and so we started to ask questions.”
In the interview, Shyamalan goes on to discuss what he learned during his five-year journey researching the sector and the evolving role he is hoping to play in the broader national discussion on improving American education.
Shyamalan was at Harvard on Monday to discuss his book about education reform at the Graduate School of Education’s Askwith Forum.
