Up the Down Staircase

Sylvia Barrett (Oscar winner Sandy Dennis, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) is a rookie teacher with a can-do attitude at New York's inner city Calvin Coolidge High.

Crowded classes, broken windows, lack of chalk and books are a few of the problems facing Sylvia, yet she carries on—even as a promising student drops out, another sleeps through class, a girl with a crush on a male teacher gets suicidal, and a bright but troublesome student misunderstands Sylvia's reaching out.