The establishment of Providence Englewood represents an experiment for Adams and the Providence-St. Mel administration. Early on, the documentary explains that education scholars and researchers have busied themselves in studying and documenting Providence-St. Mel’s success in keeping its mostly poor Black schoolchildren on a demanding college preparatory track. Adams, however, expresses skepticism that the education establishment is doing much to replicate what Providence-St. Mel has accomplished. Opening up the charter school puts the Providence-St. Mel model into a public school context and by the film’s end it’s revealed that the school has some success in improving achievement among its kindergarteners.
For the most part, “The Providence Effect” does not wade too deeply into education politics and policy. It prefers to work harder in the realm of hope and inspiration, and it succeeds at doing so.
