Noted Movie Director Prescribes Cure For Philadelphia's Schools

By Mike DeNardo

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Movie director (and now education author) M. Night Shyamalan today shared his strategy for school reform at a conference sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

Shyamalan's book, I Got Schooled, outlines the five practices he says data show will improve school performance:

let principals teach teachers and create a school culture,
have smaller schools,
keep kids in class longer,
jettison the worst teachers, and
give teachers information on what works.

But the key, he says, is, you have to do all five.

Shyamalan, who was raised in Penn Valley, says he sees a window of opportunity to try it in Philadelphia schools.

"I have not met someone who has been resistant to trying as a pilot thing, a city -- implementing just what the data says, (and) taking all of our opinions off the table and doing just what the data says, as if it was a evidence-based field like medicine."

Shyamalan joked that you shouldn't listen to celebrities on social issues. But in this case, he says, it's the data talking.