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i.

>> a candlelight vigil has been held in hong kong where people say they have more freedom to they have been coming to the same park, over the years numbers fluke shoe wait. and in milestone years the organizers can expect the numbers to swell. tonight the organizers say up to 150,000 people may be attending this nighttime vigil. they are people who were students 25 years ago, now coming back as middle aged parents and bringing back their children. some of the families we have been speaking to, saying that it is important in this one chinese city, at least, the next generation learned what happened in teenman square back in 1989. the visitors point to the number of mainland visitors.

people who have come across from mainland china to take part in the vigil tonight. ukrainian forces had been fighting a ten hour battle. six separatist and three ukrainian soldiers were killed. eight border guards were injuried in the fighting there. david has the latest. >> these are just some of the rounds i collected from this roof top position above the national guard base that was captured by the separatist fighters during the course of the night. this is a residential block, it's only about 20 yards away, and has a commanding view looking over the national guard base, we don't know yet

whether it was an effective surrender whether they surrendered their weapons the story is still not clear. but have more frightened residents watched while the fire fight continues. >> the moot here in the city is somber today. the separatist fight errs have been taking casualties and the funerals of those fighters killed are taking place. the separatest fighters are now evacuating the women and the children, who want to leave. there are no humanitarian corridors which have been opened up to allow them to move out of the city safely, so these fighters are providing it for them. >> ukraine's military has launched it's heaviest attack yet. kiev is trying to oust pro russian separatist who had control of the city. >> -and surroundingville lames. they are being caught in a cross fire, and are pleading the ever the fighting to stop. a warning it contains

images you think find disturbing. this is the aftermath of a military attack on the outskirts. the body of one pro russian fightser still slumped in the front seat, outside the bodies of three more men. locals say the attack happened on monday, and as they showed us the van a day later, mortal rounds and heavy fire could still be heard. >> locals say this vehicle was carrying a group of pro russian separatist. and it looks like it's been hit by a missile, obviously the inside is completely burned out. >> he says his entire street has been caught in the cross fire. he says last night, he went out for supplies and came back to find bullets had sprayed his front door. >> he just keep shooting and that is very serious. it is so shameful of this country.

>> his wife and heavily pregnant daughter, left to escape the fighting. they are now in the middle oif most intense attack ukrainian authorities have launch sod far. after a moving of heavy shelling it drew people out from their homes. mother of one, tanya, says she needed to get out. >> everyone is hiding in their houses because they don't want to see and hear all of it. kiev has sworn to rid ukraine east of what it labeled terrorists but that label is dismuting by many here, who feel they are the ones under fire. and the wind of public opinion is unlikely to change, while blood is still spilling on ukrainian soils. al jazeera.

u.s. president barack obama has met ukraine's president elect. they sat down in warsaw during a trip designed to reassure the nato allies in year europe, following russia's annexation of crimea. he said he had been deeply impressed by him. week's meeting will show that the international community stands behind the new president. these are live pictures of that, and ahead of the gathering japanese prime minister also arrived for a meeting with e.u. leaders. the group will take place in brussells rather than the previously plan sea resort of sochi. at those meetings in russells for us, are we seeing a bomber arriving there, they seem very keep to throw his weight behind him. >> yeah, i think there are two things he is

trying to do. and one is to keep up the pressure on russia, because they believe that pressure isworking. there was a time a few months ago, when i can tell you that the united nations, diplomates were telling me, they thought that a russian full scale inseparation of eastern ukraine was e. innocent. well, they seemed to have stopped that, but they still believe that russia is destabilizing the area. you saw david's report in the last few minutes about what is going on there, and the other thing he tries to do before coming here, was to show his strong support for the ukrainian -- new ukrainian president empowered just for 11 days. the ukrainian people made a wise selection in somebody that has the ability to lead them through this difficult period. and the united states is behind standing beyond the ukrainian people and

their as per races. it is g. seven, and not g. 8. can we expect anything positive to come out of it. >> i think all of the leaders will have fresh words about what is going on. and condemning russia. they will be talk of new sanctions no new sanctions announced here, but i think the main point will be the symbolic point that ewith all know about it, but in many ways it is the playing out of the biggest sangs so far, which is kicking russia out of this club. for 16 years russia was in the g. 8, the g. 8 for now is no more the g. 7. i think as well as the stick coming from these leaders there will be a bill of a karat. i don't think they will say that russia one day can't join g. 8 if russia were to back down in ukraine.

of course, we have been having the nato defense ministers meeting talking about the military tract to tall of this, and of course president obama arrivinge now arriving in a very rainy brussells know there's diplomatic and a military tract, but limitations to both, they can only go to a certain point, because no one among these allies whether it's the nato allies wants to provoke russia into any sort of military confrontation. >> just to go back to the nato business, what kind of measures are they putting in place, for the reassurance efforts for eastern europe. >> well, they are increasing, for example, the nato reaction force redness, which at the moment some of the troops on readiness, they want to have troops that can response just in a few days. ster coming one a new action plan, to move forward, some resources and infrastructure to eastern europe, possibly

even looking at infrastructure for more permanent basis. we have seen a lot of exercises taking place. in the last few months well, they say they will keep up the pressure military exercises and temporary deployments in those countries like poland, right on the border. >> james, thank you very much indeed. germany top prosecutors claims that united states monitored the mobile. still to come this half hour. zam beans run out of patience for promised changes to the constitution. and the u.k. government

move today prevent workers from being abused under drove zero hours contracts.

stories on al jazeera. security has been ramped in a chinese capitol on the 25th anniversary of the tiananmen square protests. in ukraine,boarder guards ran out of ammunition and has to abandon their position. separatist fighters have since seize add second guard base, following a fierce two day battle.

that's barack obama arriving a few minutes ago in brussells for the g. 7 meeting. offering new aid to the newly elected leader. the taliban has reached a 17 minute video. to the american military in afghanistan. release by the weekend after almost five years in captivity, five leaders were freed in guantanamo bay in return. this taliban video showed the moment the former soldier was handed over by his captors to u.s. authorities near the pakistani boarder as black hawk helicopters circle over head. the subject of anger in his homeland. the pentagon ruled back in 2010, that he had deserted his post, willingly walking into taliban territory.

and for that, his former colleague now want him to be put on trial. >> ultimately when he is hit, i hope he stands trial. and that the judges rule him guilty or not guilty,ly respect whatever decision they hand down. >> what is your name? >> my name is bo burke nell. >> his freedom comes at a price to washington, the release of these prisoners held at guantanamo bay. they are now in cat that, which helped broker the deal. they can't leave for a year. but speaking earlier, u.s. president barack obama with his parents by his side, insisted it would not compromise his country's safety. >> here in congress, there are claims the president has broke. law, by not giving enough notice of that release, and his critics say this is a pr coup, which has shown the u.s. will negotiate with what it calls terrorists despite claims to the contrary.

personally i would like to talk to the guy. and everybody should be asking is get down to the matter, and maybe we will know, maybe we won't know. i would like to ask him personally. he could find ultimate freedom, when he returns home. still ill lewds him. >> britain's queen elizabeth the second. outlining the key policies were a modern slavery bill, which would give victims compensation, not new legislation that would include powers to zero hour contracts are hugely controversy, because they offer work erroneous guaranteed employment. critics say they have reduced many people to poverty, and left them unable to budget for their families. lawrence lee reports. >> on the edge of dong

lon, another flash point, over 0 hours contract. more staff on to zero problems. and benefits like paid leave, the union says it is a outrage. >> our members here, find it a threat to their livelihood, and it's cheaper for the employer, there's no stability and it is very difficult to live on. >> all over this country, household name businesses now offer work to people, without any guarantee of how many hour as week they will get. this man agrees to speak in the dark for fear he could lose what he has if he was identified. he has seen the evidence of zero hours contracts creating nothing but uncertainty, and fear. i have seen among colleagues realens withs hardships. where they haven't got any money, i have seen people just bringing

bread. >> slices of bread? >> slices of bread yeah. it's not that zero hours contract are new, it's just that no one used them. it has given employers great and small, the opportunity to rewrite traditional concepts of employment law, and most strikingly, it isn't even clear how many are on a zero hours contract. some estimates are it could be as many as 5 million. the government said it won't ban zero hours contract, they insist it helps get u.k. businesses through the crisis. >> the number of employers say the flexibility that the brittic government offers that. it enables them to keep operating.

that is meant rather nan companies being bust, it is unemployed. they are being reduced to hardships. this unraffling of traditional work is in many ways historic, that the u.k.'s economic figures can look good on paper while so many complain about getting poorer. lawrence lee, al jazeera. in london. >> a suicide carbomer had targeted the home of a rogue general, who has been leading an offensive against the militias. medical sources say four people were killed in the attack. and 23 were injured. they were conflicting reports on whether or not general was among the injured. from the capitol triply, stef decker reports. >> there may be a new man

in the prime minister's office, but however official the statement may look, there remain as deep political crisis here. the outgoing prime minister who resigned in april, refuses to hand over power who is elected in a controversy vote by parliament last month, so technically there are two men in charge. and with just three weeks until new elections are held. it is making life difficult the head of libya's election commission. >> there is no communication with the government, especially when it comes to security. we expect some part of society will try to disrupt the elections on june the 25th. it should have been coordination with the interior min industries earlier state, but we ares have close to the elections and still there is no coordination with the government. >> and there's also the issue of which government to speak to, both sides incise they are in charge here, the supreme court is ruling on how to move

forward, but time is running out. >> many are concerned that the election may be postponed because of this crisis. >> this government will be sponsoring the election. >> which government will offer the security for the two for this operation of the election, it is not clear, the situation, but i think there's a great will for the people to go to the election. because they are considering all they get out of this crisis. there's been a lot of support. the idea of ridding this country of what he calls ex-peoplists. but he is against the government. and militias who control some of the oil terminals in the east, say they will stop the already dwindling oil supply if he is accepted to run this country. libya is facing it's biggest crisis since the 2011 revolution, many here hope the elections will help improve their

lives and lead to stability, but finding someone to run this troubled country, that everyone can agree upon, is proving extremely difficult. stephanie decker al jazeera, trip poly. seven. >> the mother of an al jazeera correspondent who has been held in a cairo prison without charge for more than nine months says he has been transferred to hospital. abdullah ashammy has been on hunger strike for almost four months. his mother has told al jazeera he hasn't been allowed to visit him in two weeks. they are accused of aiding the band group the muslim brotherhood. al jazeera denies the charges and is demanding the immediate release of all it's journalists. campaigning is officially begun in what is expecting to be a neck and neck race. reports now. a declaration of peace, ahead of what is expected

to be an aggressive campaign. to very different leaders competing for the presidency. the world's third largest democracy, and fifth largest economy. the front runner is the former governor, who has gained popularity because of what is seen as his new leader schil type. talking directly to the people. >> let's have honest elections without campaigning, without violence, and without intimidation. his contender is former general, who was fired from the army. he became popular because he as seen by some a a strong decisive leader. >> my concern is really because of the charge against him, has never been brought to court. and that's why we with have this heated discussion about whether he is involvedded or not

in whatever his being accused of. >> it looks like he would easily win this race, but recent polls now show that he is gaining popularity. where a if you have campaign ahead, the elections won't go as smooth my as predicted. >> fearing violence, the president warped military to stay out of the election campaign. he had received reports that high ranking reporters were supporting certain candidates. >> we cannot be reactionary. this means you are breaking the vows you made to your soldiers. and this can be insubordination, so be careful. >> there have been incidents of religious violence in the past week, despite a promise to run peaceful campaigns the mood is becoming more grim. the campaign will last for four weeks indo nearby seans will go to the poll on july 9th.

al jazeera. >> zambia's president has come under fire for failing to change the constitution. three years ace when he became president, he promised to deliver a new one within 90 days. but critics accuse him of delaying the release, as it weakens his powers. he is better known as king cobra because he called himself a manage of action. he is certainly not new to controversy, during one of of of his campaigns he threatened to deport chinese investors. but since taking power, he has changed his tune. he continues to do business with the chinese, despite accusations that some continue to mistreatment zambiansworkers. >> these students are performing a play about the controversy surrounding the constitution. zambianss were promised 13 years ago. but the governing front has failed to deliver.

the government hasn't released the final draft. recently the students were arrested for protesting in these t shirts. >> so pea felt really bad, and we got scared. where is my right, my right to expression. >> the students are part of a new group called the grand coalition, it is an alliance of opposition politicians church leaders and civil society groups who say police often intimidate them. >> a draft of the constitution was leaked in january, if adopted it would weak. president's power prompted some to argue the delays are a deliberate tactic by the ruling party. they accuse it of trying to protect the president. >> the leaked draft puts an age limit on the president of 75, the incumbent is older. and a party must win at least 50% of the vote, to

automatically appoint the president, and avoided a run off. the markets are busy, but zambia's economy is in trouble, and that's adding to the demands. >> the government is not compelled to ensure that the citizens drink clean water, they are not compelled to ensure that the citizens have access to medical facilities, make sure the citizens have food on the table. >> the government wouldn't comment, but political analysts says the opposition must be patient. or risk stalling the process completely. we have taken to issue and made it more political. they are afraid if they bow to this, they are given into what the opposition wants. >> thom: what the public wants was supposed to be decided on a referendum, that seems unlikely now, but the election is one deadline the government will find unavailable and

potentially punishing. zambia. you can watch al jazeera online, the address is aljazeera.com, and you click on the batch live icon. ♪ >> the united states has had education apartheid. our white kids are taught at the best public school education on the planet. >> closing america's education gap - what works and why, in "i got schooled" director m. night shyamalan says there are five things that make the difference. >> no robot teachers, leadership, feedback, small schools, extended time. >> plus, director m. night shyamalan talks to us about his latest project and the directors

he most admires. >> they are three of my gods. >> when people here that m. night shyamalan wrote a book, i bet they think it's about how to make a suspense film or how to be a director or your life as a director. then they pick it up and it's about public education. that's got to get people's mouths again when they find out about this. >> i tried hard in the book to explain that this is from someone that knows nothing about education and that is what the journey was about, can someone who knows nothing about education learn what does and education. >> i remember a few years ago talking to you casual aoutside a news environment and you talked about this. >> yes >> that was the genesis. you had small conversations with different groups of people and they were more formalised, to understand that public education and fixing it is remarkably politicized and your first

experiences with trying to figure this out is when you tried to do a site survey for a movie. as you know it's contentious arena to get into, this education. what we are talking about is the gap in education between lower income, inner city kids, who are almost always african american and hispanic, versus their white suburban counterparts, and why there's a huge gap in learning. when i talked to people about it, they get so heated. everyone is so heated, and they have opinions. and it the started to get very confusing for me. i let it go. i thought maybe this is not the field to ask questions about it. i went back to my selfish ways of making a movie, and we went on a location scout in philly. >> you and i share a city. we are filly boys. >> i went for "the happening."

we are looking for a high school. it was a mark wohlberg movie. we went to a high school in philadelphia. it was beautiful, the kids were in the hallways in backpacks and they noticed that i was there and the crew is with me and they run out of the classrooms saying, "you're making a movie, can i die in the movie?" and the teachers were coming out. they had a great relationship. we were toured and the classrooms were full of light and sayings and this. the facilities are wonderful. there's hope there everywhere. we were like, "this is a beautiful school." we get in the van and went to the next school. four more minutes in philly. we go to another school. it was like a prison. it was incredibly dark. we go in there, there's a guard and you have to take your stuff,

and there's a metal detector, and he never looks at you and you have to get to the metal detector. the hall ways are dimly lit. kids are moving slowly. a kid stopped in front of me, kind of recognising me and decided that's not possible and he just... >> you couldn't be in his school. >> yes, i couldn't be here. i went to look at the classroom. there are bars on the door. that's the way they do things. you have to unlock the bars, creep open and you go in and look at the costumes and they are functional. one out of 10 you see burst of creativity, a school teacher with a little oasis of creativity. >> four minutes from a school you thought was idyllic. >> yes. this was philadelphia. being in that environment and me thinking about going to school and the hopelessness that

pervaded that situation. from there i was, "that's it, i'm getting serious. we'll find out what works and what doesn't." >> you gathered a bunch of people together. >> yes >> that would know. it was obvious. you describe this dinner party. it was obvious everyone knew it was smaller class sizes, get rid of the unions. you know, it's belligerent teachers. obvious thing. >> yes. notes. >> yes. >> thinking solutions. >> the first thing i did was gather a lot of people that did a lot of work and they got together in philadelphia. they threw out - i said, "this is my goal. i want to make a list for me and everyone else, a novice that comes in, so we know better." i come from the medical people. you know certain things about everyone. bad. >> your parents are doctors. >> yes.

>> your wife... >> a ph.d. we have a lot of smart people. i was listening to them. they were so vociferous saying small classrooms. >> that is each, i'll put that down. and one was charter schools. this particular meeting - i was click -- like, charter schools. there is evidence to back what was said. i said, "send it tomorrow and i'll read it at the office." >> tomorrow nothing arrived. no evidence in support of strong views about what would change education for the better appeared bore r before you. >> that was interesting, the lack of emails. i said this is what i want to do, spend the resources, spend

our foundations time to gather all of this in one place for the first time. we spent two years gathering the information on the one tail. >> the point is to get a survey and see what is out there. thing. >> you made great movies, were you doing this. >> i had a team of people. why it works is i'm not in the field. my wife is a ph.d. and she spearheaded the research, and ahead of our foundation is also an demem -- academia, and they are rich in the field of analysis. they bring it together we'd have meetings and they conveyed what these things next and i said, "i don't understand what you are saying, say it again. this study says it's working this says it not. okay. we did that for two years, and it was just a big mess. >> you needed to apply a rigor

to all yes. >> in the book, if you don't understand a research methodology or trials, you explain how it is done. you had to arrive at a way to give adequate weight to all the studies thesis. >> we won't accept every study. we had an academic standard. we an effect size. something that said if it made this much difference in a study, in the real world how much difference does it make. it makes that much difference when you apply it because of the affect. that is the affect size. a certain amount of studies ply, the rest can be dismissed. >> an important conclusion that you came to is that of the five things that you think work, that your studies found worked to improve public education, many schools and department and

cities employed some of them. ultimately, and you used another medical analogy to say some don't work. you have to do all of them. >> here is the thing. you are pointing to the moment that it changed, which was - we had a table of information. it didn't make sense, we were stuck there, again, the advantage of if i bring any advantage to this conversation, it's that i spent my life thinking about theements and thinking about structure which are complex and how you can see how to organise everything. when you figure out the theme. we went to dinner with friends who are doctors and they are really brilliant people. kevin used to be the head of the hospital, pennsylvania, university of pennsylvania, and taught the residents. they are there.

they think they know everything. on their first days he says, "i need you to under this. if you tell your patients if they do these five things, sleep eight hours a day, eat a balanced diet. chers three times a week and do not smoke, pay attention to mental health, you honour that, if you do the five things chances of getting all diseases drop below every medicine, every pill ever inveented. everyone goes down because the human body is a system. they didn't believe him. here is the most important thing. if your pairnts don't do one of these things their chances of getting diseases go back to the norm. they rise. >> do all the things but you smoke. sleep. >> and then you get false negatives. i went oh, my gosh.

i literalry -- literally remember a flush. when a movie is not right, it's not working, it bothers you until it goes click and you get release. this is that moment. this is how we need to look at the table of information. there are things when done together that work. when you do them separately you get false negatives. let's look at the data, "when they did this with this does it always work, is that a pattern and can you find the pattern." that's what we found. >> we'll hold on there. when we come back we'll discuss what you found after you had the epiphany, the things that can change the education system for the future. i'm interviewing m. night shyamalan, we'll be right back. this is "talk to al jazeera".

al jazeera america. we understand that every news story begins and ends with people. >> the efforts are focused on rescuing stranded residents. >> we pursue that story beyond the headline, pass the spokesperson, to the streets. >> thousands of riot police deployed across the capital. >> we put all of our global resources behind every story. >> it is a scene of utter devastation. >> and follow it no matter where it leads - all the way to you. al jazeera america, take a new look at news. >> saturday on the stream. the superstars. >> i love the underdog role, it's us against the world. we have this fight and this pride to play for the country. >> pushing for success. >> we've gone so far forward, the game's really really grown. >> gaining popularity. >> people are crazy for it. >> is now the time for u.s. soccer? >> anything is possible.

i believe that this u.s. team, we can beat anybody. >> the stream, saturday 5:30 eastern. only on al jazeera america. >> welcome back to "talk to al jazeera". i'm with m. night shyamalan, on the famed director, but we are not talking about movies yet. we are talking about your book "i got schooled." i want to talk about public education and fixing it. why to you care? >> you know, i believe ultimately what we are talking about here is racism. at the core of everything what we are talking about, what you find when you look at the data and everything is racism. the fact that this country was built on slavery. >> you are taking on the fight about how to change things in the schools so everyone is on the level playing field, and the gap between inner city schools as black and hispanic versus

suburban mostly white schools, the achievement gap there. >> yes. you know how everyone says america is behind if education. technically we are a little behind poland and ahead of lip ten stin. that's not the truth. the truth is black and white. if you pull out the inner city low income pulls. pulled them out and take every other school, we lead the world in public school education by a lot. what is interesting is we think about finland. well, finland is mainly white kids, right, and they teach them well. we teach our white kids better. we beat everywhere. our white kids are taught the best public school education on the planet. those are the facts. >> if you take the suburban

well-off-white kids out of the picture and now take the inner city mostly minority schools. >> we are at the bare bottom, i imagine. you can see the united states has education apart hide. that's the facts. that's it. >> come up with five fixes. areas that you study. you narrowed the list to five problems that if aapplied properly you can create solutions. the first is teachers. >> now, the continuant, the thing that we are saying is no roadblock teachers. what i mean by that is the research supports that the bottom percentage of teachers, the 1%, 2%, 3%, the bottom are pulling a drag on the system that it's hard for the other teachers to compensate for. for example, a child that has had one of these teachers, the bot on 1, 2, 3%. you can't make up that loss with four above average teachers.

if they get four teachers in a row which they are not going to, slightly alove average. they can't make up for the one teacher. you talk about leadership, principles. explain this. in the schools that close the gap. it's a very consistent architecture to what the leadership looks like. by that i mean leadership. so there's a principle and there's another group that takes care of kind of paper work and fundraising and facilities and all of that. they bifewer kate that responsibility, and they have principles. that is the chief academic. >> they are the coach. they are spending 80% of their time teaching teachers. if you are the coach you can't be in the office while the players are hitting each other. the coach is going to be down with the players. no matter how talented the players are they need a basket coach to tell them, "why you do this, you do this?"

it's the same way. classroom doors are open the the principle comes in and out of the classroom, you didn't point out sally, get sally. and they give them feedback. feedback. >> yes. >> this is really about spreading best practices. and you give a nice analogy about heart surgery. people come up with new ideas. generally speaking you want a efforts. >> you don't see a lot of out. i'll cut this here. >> that's not how it works, and it shouldn't be that way. a thing that the leader does that is critical is create a culture that is consistent and specific and loud in their schools. that is every school that is closing the gap is screaming. it doesn't have to be the same culture. nature is positive and powerful. we'll see it in every school

closing the gaps. they are consistent. the jan ter, the secretly. everyone is in on it. the reason is the world is a racist place. when the kids leave the school, they are worthless, no value, they have no place and we don't believe in you. the kids are being told that. the schools need to say the other version of it. the principals - how do they do this? with consistency, feedback. that is the third. i use that term in the research to describe a few things including best practices, right. that's the principal's job, feeding back best practices. >> let's talk about class size. the solution comes around to discussing school size. there's a general feeling that smaller classes are better for kids. you have seen research that says that's not necessarily true but 1345u8

-- but small schools are better. >> that's a thing where you go by your gut. the smaller the class size the better the teacher and the kids will be. that's what your gut says. that must be one of the things you do to close the gap. that's so strong in everybody that politicians can be elected from saying they'll reduce class size. in fact, the study that sent the country that way was in 1984, called the tennessee star study. it has great results. if you lower the size everybody wins. that's never been duplicated, that study. and that was not done with the rigor that we would say is acceptable. here is what the end result is when you look at studies. >> it's not negative. >> not negative, no. >> smaller classroom sizes aren't bad.

>> here is where it's negative. to close the achievement fact it has so many ramifications that are negative that you can't do the others. it's like if i's, "the only way you can be healthy is if you swim in an olympic sized pool." right. now, you don't have access to it so it's unrealistic. by the time he gets transportation, he can't do studies or homework. it's an impractical part of anything. none of the schools closing the gap use smaller classrooms. it puts a burden on everything else that you can't do it. it's not a triage thing you do. >> one of the things you found, relating to the leadership and feedback, if so much goes on to the administration to provide feedback and leadership and visit the students and do a right job, the principal can't

do that in a big schoolism. >> that's right. the school schools, having a small school turbo charges everything else, making everything else possible. if i need the principal to go in and out of every classroom and know every teacher, if i double the classrooms, that's not physically possible and not possibly for the principal to give the data on the kids to go what we need to do and create an intense culture, to intense that it outsheets the racism from outside of the school. they are not possible until you keep the school at a certain size, making sure a principal can do that. >> this one is interesting. instructional time. the amount of time a kid spends in school. >> if you's to me with a gun to my head, and you said only do one, it would be this - extended time any way you can do it. the challenge that the inner

city low-income schools have is very different than the ones the white suburban schools have, it's not about the kids can't learn and it's not about the teachers are bad. it really isn't. the schools are bad. it isn't. the challenge is crushing them. they need a how-to. it's not about motivation. so the interesting thing is if you keep the kids in the school longer, no matter how you do it, early childhood, extend the day and in the summer you should do all. they actually close the gap. here is the interesting thing. everyone talks about the summer slide - that is two kids and let's imagine there's an african american inner city kid in a low-income school, low-income kid and a white suburban counterpart and they graduate in june. they are at the same level. when they return the low-income african kid is three months

behind where he was in june and the white suburban kid is one month ahead. they look like different species of chin at the moment. you can imagine what the burden is on the teacher in the inner city school that teaches third grade in the same time period. you can imagine how nice it is, teaching a one-year thing. she's ahead. those are different skill sets needed and different approaches. that summer slide accounts for two-thirds of the gap. is. if i was talking to the president and arnie duncan, and i go, "you are not going to win, you are not going to win unless you take care of the gap." >> in a moment my conversation continues. this is "talk to al jazeera". >> what i admire so much about al jazeera america is that it is solely committed to journalism. >> you're not just giving the headlines, you're also not

getting fluff. >> the gap between the rich and the poor is growing faster in san francisco. >> you're going to get something you're not going to get anywhere else, and you're going to get these in depth stories about real people. >> as an unsecured creditor could receive just cents on the dollar. >> chronic homelessness has always been a challenge here in new orleans. >> we recently did a story about a mother who was worried about the air her children were breathing. >> this is not standard household dust. >> florida is an amazing place to work as a journalist. >> the rocky mountain west is really an extraordinary part of this country. >> i worked in nashville for six years, i know the stories that are important to people there. overcrowding is such a big issue at this school. >> people in the outer islands of alaska picking up tsunami trash, really committed to what they are doing, and they have a lot more work to do. if you really want to tell peoples' stories, you've got to go talk to the people. >> real reporting. >> real news. >> this. >> this.>> the artic.

real reporting from around the world. this is what we do. al jazeera america.

>> welcome back to "talk to al jazeera". i'm ali velshi, joined by director and author m. night shyamalan. we talked about your book "i got schooled," but your history as a film maker, you had your first maimer success while you were in your 20s. you had a string of movies. you had a love-hate relationship with critics, they love you, hate you, love you. reviews. >> i should write nonfiction books from now on. >> that may be the solution. you are who you are, you are young and people want to know life? >> it's been - i feel like i've been making movies forever. it's 20 years, which is a long time.

even before, you know, "the sixth sense," i was 27, when i directed "the sixth sense." before that there was six years of making movies that failed. those six years did not go away. you came on the scene out of nowhere. not really, it was six years of failure. i made two movies, two two years to make them both and they fail. dark times, my friend. >> i feel like you are happiest with real horo? >> i enjoy it. >> you are doing something in that genre now. >> i am. i'm making a real tinny movie. i'm excited i'm so happy. i've been making big, big movies, they are super complicated. ultimately i really just like to write and direct small movies. i'm making a small scary movie in february. into what will it be about? >> i can't tell you. >> will it have a twist? . >> i can't tell you.

>> what is your favourite movie? >> from all time. the favourite. when you use the word "favourite", it's probably "raiders of the lost ark", what i think is the best movie is the first godfather. >> and your favourite director? >> gosh, that's hard. i love - there's so many i love. carasara, hitchcock, kubr. >> -- kubrich. >> great to have you here. look forward to what you are back next. m. night shyamalan on his book and movie career, i'll ali velshi, thanks for joining >> every saturday join us for exclusive, revealing, and surprising talks with the most interesting people of our time. grammy award winning singer, songwriter angelique kidjo >> music transforms lives of people >> inspiring strength

>> read, be curious your brain is your ultimate weapon >> hope for the future >> the only thing that can transform my continent is girl's education >> talk to aljazeera only on al jazeera america president obama on the defensive about swapping bowe bergdahl for top taliban leaders. was berg a deserter. we'll ask a medic who served with him. how china is clamping down on memorials of the tiananmen happened. russell simmonds on the music industry and using music to enterfeign and educate why is dan backing away from suing the n.f.l. not long after he filed.