Description: Paul J. Adams III landed a job as guidance counselor at Providence St. Mel, an all-black parochial school on Chicago’s notorious drug-ridden, gang-ruled West Side. A year after his arrival, Adams became principal and set an important goal: To turn Providence St. Mel into a first rank college preparatory school, and its African-American student body into a corps of driven, disciplined, high achieving students. That was over 30 years ago. Since then, 100% of Providence St. Mel graduates have been accepted to college, half of them to first tier and Ivy League colleges and universities. The road from failing inner city school to a pre-K-through-12 educational system that produces graduates who attend Ivy League colleges and universities was not a smooth one. The Providence Effect traces the school’s development from a struggling shoe-string budget dream into a school and a method of teaching that produces not only inspired students, but parents, teachers and administrators dedicated to settling for nothing less than the highest expectations. (Slowhand Cinema Releasing)