Top 250 Movies Like Wayside

It's the fall of 1985. The intertwining tales of three 5th grade friends, Chris, Joe and Ted, unfold in the suburban paradise of Palo Alto, as the threat of a mountain lion looms over the community.

Sylvia, a novice schoolteacher, is hired to teach English in a high school, but she’s met with an apathetic faculty, a delinquent student body and an administration that drowns its staff in paperwork. The following days go from bad to worse as Sylvia struggles to reach her most troubled students.

Felix Funicello is a Catholic school fifth-grader in 1964, whose claim to fame is his cousin Annette Funicello, the famous Mouseketeer and teen movie queen. But grammar and arithmetic move to the back burner this holiday season with the sudden arrivals of substitute teacher Madame Frechette and feisty Russian student Zhenya Kabakova. While Felix learns the meaning of French kissing, cultural misunderstanding, and tableaux vivants, Wishin' and Hopin' barrels toward one outrageous Christmas!

This sequel to the popular British comedy sees a new teacher (David Tennant) take over. When he enters his school in the National 'Song for Christmas' Competition, he and his pregnant wife, and the schoolchildren, embark on an epic road trip that ends up with a birth and a donkey, where he must embrace his fears and become a hero.

This Christmas the pupils of St Bernadette's and their much-loved, madcap teacher Mr. Poppy are back for their biggest adventure yet involving fantastic flashmobs, excitable elves, Christmas carols and of course Archie the donkey! When their new teacher Mr. Shepherd loses his memory and forgets all about Christmas, as well as his fiancée Sophie and the whereabouts of the beloved Archie, it's up to the pupils of St Bernadette's to save the day. Led by the ever enthusiastic Mr Poppy, they embark on a Christmas journey like never before - but time is against them if they are to help Mr Shepherd get to New York in time for his magical yuletide wedding!

In this coming-of-age comedy, Tim Dunphy is leading a go-nowhere existence, spending his days smoking pot and hanging out with his best friend, Drugs Delaney. But Tim's lazy days of getting high are jettisoned after a brush with the law convinces his blue-collar dad to send him to a Connecticut prep school. The one saving grace of the new school is Jane, a fellow student Tim falls for immediately.

A bunch of high school misfits in Hawaii, introduced by their new teacher, attend a science fair in which they draw up inspiration to build their own solar car and win a trip to compete in the 1990 World Solar Challenge in Australia.

Young James struggles as the outsider kid at his school. His teacher, Mr. Sutherland, the only person he feels he can connect with. When James finally puts a voice to his feelings, Mr. Sutherland's response isn't what James had hoped for.

At 104 pounds dripping wet, baby-faced sophomore Michael Peck (age 15) is not exactly the coolest guy at American High. Peck’s teachers make him feel like an idiot, his classmates make him feel like a geek and his home life is just as bad, with parents who schedule family time in their planners and require him to sign contracts with them about his extra-curricular activities.

The high school students didn't mean to kill Mr. Griffin. They wanted to make him suffer. But when their mean English teacher turns up dead, they have to find out who killed them before the police arrests them all.

Hard-edged cop John Kimble gets more than he bargained for when he goes undercover as a kindergarten teacher to get the goods on a brutal drug lord while at the same time protecting the man's young son. Pitted against a class of boisterous moppets whose antics try his patience and test his mettle, Kimble may have met his match … in more ways than one.

A business man decides that he wants to teach school in the inner city and chooses a tough school in the South Bronx. He teaches the children how to play the game of chess, and along the way they learn a lot about life.

A high-school election gets nasty.

This movie stars Barbie as a teenage girl, trying to deal with crushes, rivals and friendship as she tries to achieve her dream of working as a news anchor for her school's TV station. She doesn't always make the right decisions, but she's a nice enough character and considerably less "perfect" than she is portrayed in her other films.

A modern-day take on the "Beauty and the Beast" tale where a New York teen is transformed into a hideous monster in order to find true love.

Billy Madison is the 27 year-old son of Bryan Madison, a very rich man who has made his living in the hotel industry. Billy stands to inherit his father's empire, but only if he can make it through all 12 grades, 2 weeks per grade, to prove that he has what it takes to run the family business.

Five high school students from different walks of life endure a Saturday detention under a power-hungry principal. The disparate group includes rebel John, princess Claire, outcast Allison, brainy Brian and Andrew, the jock. Each has a chance to tell his or her story, making the others see them a little differently -- and when the day ends, they question whether school will ever be the same.

When a high school senior discovers her teacher is seducing her boyfriend, events turn deadly after the teacher tries to cover it up.

Two high schoolers are unprepared for the reality of parenthood when the girl becomes pregnant.

A surreal portrait of a Catholic Private School and its hierarchy. A new student must submit to the bizarre rituals of his peers and the expectations of the school's administration by selling chocolates.

Riley is struggling to make friends after transferring to a new high school where her father, Chris, is an English teacher. When she meets Kyla, they quickly becomes close friends. However, the friendship takes a strange turn when Riley learns that Kyla is obsessed with her dad. Will Kyla successfully seduce Chris and start a twisted new life with him by removing everyone in her path, or will Riley be able to save her father from Kyla’s treacherous plot before it’s too late?

A young high school teacher moves to a new town for a fresh start and falls for a troubled student.

A high school teacher in Austin, Texas takes sexual advantage over one of her students. Her life begins to unravel as the details of the relationship are exposed.

A tough kid comes to a new high school and begins muscling his way into the drug scene. This is a typical morality play of the era, filled with a naive view of drugs, nihilistic beat poetry, and some incredible '50s slang.

The story of an unruly class of bright, funny history students at a Yorkshire grammar school in pursuit of an undergraduate place at Oxford or Cambridge. Bounced between their maverick English master, a young and shrewd teacher hired to up their test scores, a grossly out-numbered history teacher, and a headmaster obsessed with results, the boys attempt to pass.

After starting at an upmarket boarding school, a teenage girl forms close friendships with her two older roommates. However, when she discovers that her new friends are lovers she finds herself caught in a complicated situation.

Psychopath Debbie Strand escapes from a mental institution for the criminally insane and takes the identity of a co-ed she meets and sets herself up on a college campus where she once again begins killing students who get in the way of her obsession with her former high school teacher Sam Deckner now teaching at the college.

A group of young girls are brought up in a college within dark forests and gloomy lakes. Young Hidalla and her friends Irene, Vera, Blanka, Melusine and Rain are brought up in an isolated world: the girls don't know anything about live outside the college's high walls. At the age of 16, some of them start asking questions about their origins, their parents and the true purposes of the Headmistresses strict rules. When two of them disappear mysteriously, the initial fairytale atmosphere grows more and more eerie...

1967 film student George Lucas has writer's block trying to finish his "Space Wheat" script, until a beautiful fellow student with a familiar hairstyle teaches him that the best stories are in plain sight.

When Chloe discovers that her new home's garden gnomes are not what they seem, she must decide between the pursuit of a desired high school life and taking up the fight against the Troggs.

A shy British teacher looks back nostalgically at his long career, taking note of the people who touched his life.

Cleavers are an all-American family living in Ohio - wise father Ward, loving mother June, teen-age son Wally and 8-year-old "Beaver" Theodore. Beaver hopes to get a bike as a gift from his father and to please him tries out for his school football team and he makes it, only to be embarrassed. The bike he gets is quickly stolen. Meanwhile Wally is trying to help his friend Eddie Haskell to get the heart of pretty classmate Karen, but Karen seems to like Wally more, and that leads to tensions between the friends.

Vanessa gets a dose of reality when Philip, her one true love, ends their relationship, again. The quirky teen enrolls in his school to win him back, but ends up making matters worse. Downgraded to social outcast, Vanessa struggles to reclaim Phillip's affection. Luckily, when Vanessa is declared a captain for the school's Snowstorm Survivor competition, she assembles a team of like-minded misfits to prove they deserve to compete and hopefully win her love's heart again.

From National Lampoon, the masters of raunchy comedy, comes a summer tale of beers, babes, and bros! In the surf town of Ventura, California, JD's surf board is stolen by a surfer from Los Angeles...a crime that cannot go unpunished. Gathering his friends and the local surf hero, Mike Mooney, they take a road trip to LA to get the surfboard back, then return to Ventura for the wildest summer party ever!

Filipino-American high school student Ben (Dante Basco) works in a comic book shop to earn money to pay his way into Cal Arts. His father, a postman, is determined that his son--who has won a pre-med scholarship to UCLA--will become a doctor. The eighteenth birthday party of Ben's sister, Rose, sets off a comedic and touching series of events and family struggles that will in turn determine young Ben's future. This fresh independent production from Gene Cajayon presents a lighthearted and warm coming-of-age tale filtered through the eyes of an American subculture rarely seen on film.

A frizzy-haired, pink-cheeked outcast named Spork navigates her way through the annals of junior high.

Columbia's Spirit of Stanford is built around the talents of a real-life college football star, in this instance all-American quarterback Frankie Albert.

In the aftermath of a mysterious High School 'incident', The school's attorney questions the only witness, a student, in hopes of protecting the school from any lawsuits. But as this student weaves his tale, it becomes clear that there is much more to this story than meets the eye. H8RZ has the intrigue of a crime thriller, while cleverly dealing with issues of H8RZ bullying, school corruption, and the darker side of teen interactions.

Staff and students at a rural school react to a warning of an imminent nuclear attack, not knowing whether it is real or mistaken.

In this irreverent comedy, a failed actor-turned-worse-high-school-drama-teacher rallies his Tucson, AZ students as he conceives and stages politically incorrect musical sequel to Shakespeare's Hamlet.

A high school shooting has repercussions on the town and students.

Every school day, African-American teenagers William Gates and Arthur Agee travel 90 minutes each way from inner-city Chicago to St. Joseph High School in Westchester, Illinois, a predominately white suburban school well-known for the excellence of its basketball program. Gates and Agee dream of NBA stardom, and with the support of their close-knit families, they battle the social and physical obstacles that stand in their way. This acclaimed documentary was shot over the course of five years.

A young man of the rock and roll generation is in his senior year of high school. When one day he successfully gets on a popular teen dance television show he becomes a star. The plot follows him as he lives his new life in his new world. What he finds are adoring fans, jealous rivals, bitter friends left behind, and the girl of his dreams...his dance partner.

Mona Gray is a 20-year-old loner who, as a child, turned to math for salvation after her father became ill. As an adult, Mona now teaches the subject and must help her students through their own crises.

A comedy that follows two high school students -- one overachiever struggling to write his valedictorian speech, the other a senior now going on his 15th year of school.

A high school student must hide the fact that he has become pregnant from his family, friends and the school faculty!

For generations, it was an urban legend that lived in the nightmares of children. Now, the season to rejuvenate the tale will revive a town's darkest fears. With the Scarecrow Festival on the horizon, school teacher Aaron Harris is doling out punishment for six students serving detention. Their task: help Aaron's girlfriend Amanda fix her family farm before it's sold. But the cornfields circling the farm come with a legend and Tyler takes macabre delight in recounting the tale: It never sleeps, it never dies, it can't be stopped, hear their cries.

A coming-of-age tale set in Brooklyn during the late '50s which centers around the high school life of a group of teens that have to deal with racial tensions at their interracial vocational high school.

When an entire town in upstate New York is closed down by an unexpected snowfall, a "snow day" begins when a group of elementary school kids, led by Natalie Brandston, try to ensure that the schools stay closed by stopping a mechanical snowplow driver by trying to hijack his plow truck. Meanwhile, Natalie's big brother Hal is using this day to try to win the affections of Claire Bonner, the most popular girl in his high school, while Hal and Natalie's father Tom, a TV meteorologist, faces off against a rival meteorologist for weather coverage of the day's events.

A modern retelling of Snow White set against students in their freshman year of college in the greek system.

A New York schoolteacher hits a midlife crisis when, in quick succession, her husband leaves, her adoptive mother dies and her biological mother, an eccentric talk show host, materializes and turns her life upside down as she begins a courtship with the father of one of her students.

Nerdy high schooler Jerry Mitchell is assigned to write an article for the school paper about the infamous new delinquent transfer student, Buddy Revell. When Jerry accidentally invades Buddy's personal space and touches him, Buddy challenges Jerry to an afterschool fight in the parking lot, which Jerry tries to avoid at all costs.

Interconnected stories are told entirely through images captured on security cameras in storage rooms, police cars, parking lots, shopping malls and other locations. Store manager Tony has affairs with the women who work under him, high schooler Sherri schemes to seduce teacher Berry, a pedophile stalks his next victim at a mall food court and two thieves go on a killing spree that links to other tales witnessed by the unseen electronic eyes.

An eccentric professor takes four of his students to the mansion of the “Mad Hatter”, an urban legend driven insane by mercury poisoning and grief. He says that there’s nothing to worry about now: the strange, shambling “caretakers” that haunt the home are merely servants that have fallen to inbreeding, and the Hatter himself has been dead for years. But as the students start disappearing one by one, those that remain start to question if the professor’s experiment is truly scientific...and if the Hatter didn’t just succumb to his madness, but decided to spread it...

When the network announces that her television therapy show is changing to a tabloid shock-fest, a strait-laced and caring psychologist returns to her hometown and reunites with her high school sweetheart. Eventually, she realizes that having someone to share a life with is more important than fame or the excitement of the city.

15-year-old Natalie, confused to begin with, finds out about her father's affair with one of his students. Refusing to simply stand by and watch her family disintegrate, Natalie takes it upon herself to expose the problem, and in doing so calls into question the family's penchant for denial.

Jack Powell suffers from an affliction that makes him grow four times faster than normal, so the 10-year-old looks like a 40-year-old man. After years of being tutored at home, Jack convinces his overprotective parents to send him to public school. The children don't know what to make of Jack, but with the help of his fifth-grade teacher, he makes an effort to win them over.

Todd Boomer is a college student aspiring to get into University. His chances are looking poor when his maths teacher, fails him in every maths test. Help arrives in the guise of the gorgeous Vicki, a mathematical genius who decides to tutor Todd. As the relationship develops,Todd finds himself in an affair with Vicki unknowing of her marriage to his math teacher.

Barry Goldwater Elementary is on the brink of collapse: the lowest test scores in the state, teachers who are either drunk or having sex on school grounds, and a principal who extorts money from parents. It's up to Tom, the down-on-his-luck vice-principal, to rally the lazy teachers, expose the principal's corruption, and turn the school around before an end of the day board decision.

After a young boy in an under-funded inner-city school discovers the head of the school board is stealing money from fundraisers and lives in a mansion, he organizes his friends together to get that money back where it belongs: in the classroom.

A group of teenagers wish to rebel against the administrators and teachers (the system) in their suburban Chicago high school called New Port South

There's shakin', quakin' and plenty of booty to be enjoyed when the perky gals from Aloha High School shimmy their groove things in this red-hot sequel to The Cheerleaders. Rainbeaux Smith (from the first film) is back ... and pregnant!

Ready for a night of legendary partying, three college students must weigh the pros and cons of calling the police when faced with an unexpected situation.

Lucio, a prestigious university professor, takes the position of substitute teacher at a high school in the suburbs of Buenos Aires, where he grew up. Through tales, novels and poetry, he tries to distract his class from the harsh reality of their everyday lives. But soon, he must step out of his professional duties when Dilan, one of his students, is threatened by a local drug kingpin.

High school student Jane Shipley seeks to mend her splintering relationship with childhood best friend Merritt, and fit in with her rebellious peers. When Jane's math teacher oversteps his bounds, an apathetic high school administration forces Jane and Merritt to take matters into their own hands, driving their relationship into further turmoil and inciting deadly consequences.

A high school English teacher goes to disturbing lengths to protect his favorite students from bullies, and challenge the power of a wealthy patron within the community.

To prove his brother's innocence, undercover officer Nick enrolls in high school again, dealing with crushes, bullies, humiliations, popularity swings, and quirky teachers and staff to find the real murderer.

Stuck together for the last month of school, a group of boarding school students are faced with either dealing with the reality of the damage done, or drifting off into isolated fantasies and denials.

Remake of Josef von Sternberg's 1930 classic.

The Senior Prank is family drama about a group of popular teenagers who wage a fake campaign to elect a girl with Down Syndrome as the schools Homecoming Queen. Inspired by real bullying events witnessed by real teenagers in their local high schools.

Filmmakers follow nine high school students from around the globe as they compete at an international science fair. Facing off against 1,700 of the smartest teens from 78 countries, only one will be named Best in Fair.

A rebellious teenager forced to repeat her last year of high school is caught between adolescence and adulthood - and between two very different male admirers.

A year after a mean-spirited prom prank turned deadly, the most popular students of Sunnydale High are summoned back for a surprise reunion, only to find themselves at the mercy of a relentless killer.

A determined 16-year-old with albinism makes it her mission to become a professional model in her hometown of Minneapolis, while attempting to go unnoticed in every other aspect of her teenage life.

"Lesson Plan" is a documentary film about The Third Wave (aka The Wave & Die Welle) classroom experiment, as told by the original students and teacher Ron Jones.

A psychological drama that follows four high schoolers down a dark ride. As each struggle separately in their own lives they will soon discover that their lives are interconnected in ways they never would have guessed. They also effect each other in unimaginable ways which have devastating consequences. As they all lay bloody on the floor of their high school, only one question can be asked, "What could have been done to prevent this?" Pivot Point follows each of these characters on an unforgettable journey as they each plod down a lonely road. Only time will tell if they can reach out before it is too late.

As the debate over the state of America's public school system rages on, one thing everyone agrees on is the need for great teachers. Yet, while research proves that teachers are the most important school factor in a child's future success, America's teachers are so woefully underpaid that almost a third must divide their time between a second job in order to make a living. Chronicling the stories of four teachers in different areas of the country, American Teacher reveals the frustrating realities of today's educators, the difficulty of attracting talented new teachers, and why so many of our best teachers feel forced to leave the profession altogether. But this wake-up call to our system's failings also looks at possibilities for reform. Can we re-value teaching in the United States and turn it into a prestigious, financially attractive and competitive profession? With almost half of American teachers leaving the field in the next five years, now is the time to find out.

Four high school students are led into the world of adult vices by their guidance counselor, a shadowy, suicidal millionaire.

A once reluctant homeschool family sells their home and everything in it, packs up in an RV and travels the country to tell the story of the millions of American families who are a part of the Homeschool Revolution. After talking with education experts, homeschooling pioneers, and regular families at every step in their home education journey, they learn come away convinced that it's time for America to bring their children home. The movie follows host, Yvette Hampton, as she travels the country with her family talking with education experts, curriculum developers, college and university faculty and administrators, and homeschooling families at every stage in the process, from kindergarten to college graduation and beyond. As viewers follow Yvette on this journey and share in her challenges and victories as a homeschool mom, they will gather the necessary resources and encouragement to homeschool their own children with excellence.

A shy young high school girl joins a secretive vigilante group of female high school students called "The Sisterhood."

Inspired by a true story, “Beyond the Blackboard” is about a 24-year-old first-time teacher who makes a difference in the lives of the homeless children she teaches in a shelter’s makeshift classroom. Set in 1987 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, this movie tells the story a brand-new teacher and Mom who is given a tougher than expected teaching job and winds up teaching homeless children in a school that is housed in a room and called, literally, The School with No Name. She has some personal prejudicial hurdles to cross before she is able to be a true teacher for these children and of course there are hurdles like the lack of books and supplies.

A high school science teacher takes his students on a field trip to see a UFO sighting. What they didn't expect, was that it was a flying saucer that crashed a farm house, and an alien predator feeds on humans, killing each student one by one!

Knock Knock is a horror film that combines fear with revenge, hate with justice and responsibility with sacrifice. The bible says an "Eye for an Eye." Rico was just a big fun loving son of a hard working neighborhood business man. The problem is his dad is an undertaker. Some popular high school Students thought he was weird because of it. Rico kept to himself...

Five 2nd-grade kids who don't follow strict rules by their school principal Brinway are dubbed "Stinkers" by him. On the class visit to an aquarium the Stinkers decide that a sea lion called Slappy doesn't feel too good there, "free" him, and plant him into Brinway's hot-tub.

A high school coach, whose teenage daughter was murdered, takes matters into his own hands by going after the men who kidnap his students for their sex trafficking operation.

Based on the bestselling books by Louis Sachar, Wayside School is the comically absurd tale of a quirky grammar school that was accidentally built 30-stories high.

Michael, who is known to tell tall tales, believes he sees a young girl get kidnapped. On their day off from high school, Michael convinces his friends to hunt down this perpetrator, leading them on a journey they'll never forget.

A passionate and innovative teacher leaves his small hometown to teach in one of Harlem's toughest schools. But to break through to this students, Ron Clark must use unconventional methods, including his ground-breaking classroom rules, to drive them toward their potential.

After a 7 year wait, director Michael Apted revisits the same group of British-born children from Seven Up! The subjects are interviewed as to the changes that have occurred in their lives during the last seven years.

Fired from his band and hard up for cash, guitarist and vocalist Dewey Finn finagles his way into a job as a fifth-grade substitute teacher at a private school, where he secretly begins teaching his students the finer points of rock 'n' roll. The school's hard-nosed principal is rightly suspicious of Finn's activities. But Finn's roommate remains in the dark about what he's doing.

Some students taking driver's ed during the summer. Among the students is Riko, a cocky guy; Chad, a guy from a privileged background, who's terrified to get behind the wheel; Vanessa, who's over protective mom who wouldn't allow her to take the course, who went behind her back; and Maria, a spoiled foreign student. Now the principal wants the students to pass so he tells the instructor, who's still not over his wife leaving and is not exactly up to the task, that it's important for the students to pass so he brought in a special instructor, who's very tough. And the principal also tells one of his teachers to let, one of the students Maslanski who's the school football star, pass the test he failed so that he can concentrate on driver's ed. But the teacher, seeing this as an opportunity to expose the principal as not doing his job and thus paving the way for him to be the new principal, makes Maslanski take a make up test

Set in the 1960's, a school teacher pretends to be a CIA spy to get his nagging wife off his back. He helps a Russian ballet dancer defect and is then sent to Cuba to locate "Agent X" for the CIA.

A modern-day tale of gangsterism and revenge. After a notorious mobster murders a Jewish tailor and is let off for the crime, a band of outraged high-school students turns into vigilante crusaders hell-bent on punishing the wrongdoers. Memorable pre-Code moment: the students torturing a gangster by dangling him over a pit filled with rats.

In a Mexican border town plagued by neglect, corruption, and violence, a frustrated teacher tries a radical new method to break through his students’ apathy and unlock their curiosity, their potential… and maybe even their genius. Based on a true story.

When Kelly and her father move to New Orleans after the death of her mother, strange things start happening in their new home. Kelly is convinced that the house is haunted by a ghost who needs her help. Her father does not believe her, so she enlists her friend Cole to help discover the truth.

When new teacher Steve Drake joins the faculty at a school for special-needs students, his unorthodox instruction methods raise eyebrows. But attitudes begin to change when he makes a connection with a particularly unruly student.

Brad Stevens and Alex Prager are best friends. They are both popular high school students and key members of the football team. Brad is up for nomination to West Point, and Alex is a talented pianist who’s counting on his football skills to land him a university scholarship. But their lives are turned upside down when one day Alex admits that he is gay.

Music Teacher revolves around Alyson Daley (Potts), a high school music teacher who is on the brink of losing her beloved school music program because of district budget cuts. In an effort to spare the program, Daley's former students band together to stage a musical to raise money to keep the program alive.

While celebrating Christmas at a cabin in the woods, a group of high school students are stalked by a psychotic killer obsessed with horror movie icons.

An unflinching verité portrait of the children of Stanton Elementary School in North Philadelphia, an inner-city neighborhood where 90% of the students live below the poverty line. Seen through the viewpoint of devoted principal Deanna Burney, the film shows Stanton as grossly underfunded, understaffed, and filled with children struggling to overcome their difficulties. But for these at-risk kids, however, the hope for their future survives only in the success of their education. A captivating series of vignettes concerning children growing up outside the American dream, echoing current “hot-button” issues in our country’s ongoing political discussion.