In 2002, a controversial education-reform bill popularly known as the No Child Left Behind Act became federal law. The measure mandated standardized testing for students and penalties for low-performing schools that failed to produce sufficient annual improvement in their scores.

"Hard Times at Douglass High: A No Child Left Behind Report Card," an insightful documentary exploring the impact of this legislation on one inner-city school, premieres on the HBO pay-cable service June 23, 9-11 p.m. (check local listings). The cinema-verite-style film, directed by Academy Award-winners Alan and Susan Raymond, captures an academic year in the life of a traditionally African-American institution in Baltimore.

Founded in 1883 as the Colored High and Training School, and later renamed for civil rights pioneer Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), it counts among its alumni jazz musician Cab Calloway (1907-1994) and the first black Supreme Court justice, Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993).

Once the school of choice for Baltimore's African-American middle class, Douglass has suffered in recent years from chronic truancy, a lack of qualified teachers and shortages in even such basic resources as textbooks. Overwhelmed by these conditions, one young English instructor quits, while others on the faculty struggle to be rated "proficient" or at least "satisfactory" under the federal legislation.

The school's redoubtable principal, Isabelle Grant (herself a Douglass graduate), is forced to spend much of her time patrolling the halls, shooing latecomers and loiterers into class. There are at least a few hopeful stories: one young man wins a debating award, another --- the chosen speaker for Senior Parents' Appreciation Day --- describes how he turned his life around after quitting a local gang.

The film concludes with commencement, as 200 students, the largest graduating class in a decade, receive diplomas. An epilogue describes how Douglass fared following its year-end No Child Left Behind evaluation.

Two scenes that include rough street talk mark this film as suitable for older viewers.

While most people associate slavery in the U.S. with the Southern states, the 18th- and 19th-century trade in slaves was primarily controlled by Northern merchants operating from New England ports like Bristol, R.I.

In "Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North," writer-director Katrina Browne, whose wealthy ancestors, the DeWolfs, once dominated Bristol, explores her family's long association with this cruel trafficking. Her sensitive, emotional 90-minute documentary premieres as part of the POV series June 24, 10-11:30 p.m. on PBS. (Check local listings.)

Joined by nine relatives, Browne, who also narrates, journeys to Ghana and Cuba, retracing the transatlantic Triangle Trade that saw new slaves exchanged for American rum and other goods, then transported to the Caribbean to work on sugar plantations, thus providing the raw material for U.S. distilleries. Conditions on the "middle passage" were so barbaric that over 10 percent of the kidnapped Africans died at sea.

Along with a narrow barred exit known as the "door of no return," the coastal fort Browne and her relations visit, originally built by the Portuguese, also featured a chapel placed directly over the dungeon in which the slavers' victims were held. A local historian points out that fresh captives were involuntarily baptized and given a Christian name.

Their tour prompts much soul-searching and discussion among the group, both about slavery itself and its ongoing legacy of racism. They also encounter some understandably unyielding attitudes, as when an African-American woman refuses to shake one participant's hand and a Ghanaian schoolboy searchingly asks another, "Are you not ashamed?"

A handful of crass expressions, together with its weighty theme, make this thoughtful film mature fare.

---CNS

John Mulderig is on the staff of the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.