If you saw the wonderful 2012 documentary “Brooklyn Castle,” you know about I.S. 318 (if you haven’t seen it, find a copy, it is a terrific film). The school is a racially and ethnically diverse, Title I middle school in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, that has a crackerjack chess team. It has won multiple chess championships. In 2012, it won the United States Chess Federation’s national championship.
It just won the 2015 New York State chess championship, beating excellent high school teams from across the state.
Go to @ChessNYC on Twitter to learn more and see a photo of the team, or open the link below.
From Twitter:
I.S 318 Wins The 2015 NY State Chess Championships! #chess #chessnyc #is318 #brooklyn #brooklyncastle https://instagram.com/p/ztM7SdJV0N/
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I can’t second the recommendation of “Brooklyn Castle” strongly enough. The various city library systems have a limited number of DVDs, but it is well worth renting or buying a streaming copy through Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, etc.
Congrats to IS 318.
I watched this film and enjoyed it. Another example of what works, and it clearly shows that the answer isn’t testing to rank, fire and fail before closing public schools.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BZW5TH6/?tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=31556993357&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13896983248637027174&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_7cvaskkkm5_b
There are two other films based on true stories that came our recently that show a similar story and both take place in public high schools—none of these success stories was linked to standardized tests.
Spare Parts
In 2004, four Hispanic high school students form a robotics club. With no experience, 800 bucks, used car parts and a dream, this rag tag team goes up against the country’s reigning robotics champion, MIT.
Then in subsequent years, new teams from this poor high school return to win again.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3233418/
McFarland, USA
In 1987, a cross country coach in a small California town transforms a team of athletes into championship contenders. in the next fourteen years, they take eight more 1st place state championships.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2097298/
Sandwiched between my alma mater’s two chess championships:
St. John Vianney (Kirkwood, MO) Chess . The two-time national champion (2011 and 2013). . . .
I spoke to a local (Indiana) chess coach once. He said that if a sponsor or teacher wants to start up an extracurricular chess club, they could appeal to the school board suggesting that there are FOUR R’s of Learning, and chess is all about the fourth one:
READING,
‘RITING,
‘RITHMETIC, and
REASONING.
Chess is a great equalizer when it comes to socio-economic class. It matters not whether your opponent is rich or poor; at the beginning of a chess game, you and he/she begin with the same forces.
(On a side note, chess is encouraged in prisons because a player learns cause-and-effect consequences, and when the game is won/lost, then the individual is responsible for the outcome.)
Congratulations to these young chess champions!
Thanks everyone! I am the coordinator of our chess program at IS 318 and a loyal reader of Diane’s. Our success is only one example of the excellence of a public school in NYC. The battle was intense and we edged out our mighty rivals of Dalton. If the kids from a title one school in Brooklyn can defeat the most prestigious private schools in a battle of the minds, it shows the promise of public education.
John Galvin,
The chess champions of IS 318 are an inspiration! Congratulations! I wish everyone would watch “Brooklyn Castle.”
Congratulations to teacher John Galvin on winning of “a battle of the minds”
Public Education’s ultimate goal is to cultivate “a creative mind” in all children and an awareness of how to live in humanity with civil rights and compassion.
I hope and pray that God and all seen and unseen Angels will always bless all conscientious educators with health, endurance, and a “diamond” Intelligent-strength to cut through all layers of corruptions and bad deeds from the intentional force of the power and the rich regarding maintaining Public Education Autonomy. Back2basic
John Galvin: I think Mother Teresa had folks like you in mind when she said—
“Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”
Keep on making a difference.
Most krazy props.
😎
This is what education is all about. One does not learn to be a chess master by bubbling in an answer grid.
One doesn’t???
Had me fooled. 😦