In ten minutes time, the library at Dana Road Elementary was transformed from a cozy reading place for children into a miniature movie set. The bright light of a camera blinked methodically while principal Shirlie Williams spoke about her school and its adherence to producing educated students who will eventually be college bound.

The conversion was all part of a documentary series being contracted partially through Clemson University and by the U.S. Department of Education to showcase what 15 rural states, including Mississippi, are doing to prevent college dropouts.

Dana Road was selected to participate in the documentary because of its new Leader in Me program, which is a program based on the book  “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” published by Stephen Covey in 1989. The program attempts to equip students with self-confidence and leadership skills that school officials  hope will lead to a college education.

“It’s lowered our discipline rate. It’s giving us the opportunity for children to take control of their own data for their academic performance,” Williams said of the Leader in Me program. “It’s really a communitywide impact for us.”

The program, which is funded autonomous from the school district, is a prime example of what the U.S. Department of Education hopes to showcase to other schools in similar areas.

“The purpose of the contract and the project is to look at mostly rural states … and to identify things that we can do to assist rural school districts,” National Dropout Prevention director Dr. Sandy Addis said. “One of those things that we’re doing is developing a documentary film series on some of the success stories that are happening in rural states like Mississippi to help improve student achievement and to help improve graduation rates.”

Addis trekked to Vicksburg to talk with school and community leaders about what they are doing to thwart dropouts and keep students in rural areas in school until their college education is complete.

The documentary will be a 15-part series coming out later in the year and will be available free on the U.S. Department of Education’s website.

“This will actually be developed into a documentary series that will be put out all over the country by the U.S. Department of Education, so hopefully it will disseminate to other parts of the country. Good things can be replicated,” Addis said.

“The whole idea is that there are some things going on in Mississippi and in other parts of the country where rural districts, that maybe don’t have a lot of resources on their own, are going the extra mile, being extra creative, working with other people to do things that need to be done,” Addis said. “And that’s the name of the game.”