Waiting for "Superman" Paramount Vantage and Participant Media, 2010
Can a feature film initiate and inform a national dialogue? It seems that Waiting for "Superman" (PG), a documentary written and directed by Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth), is poised to do so. Presented by Paramount Vantage and Participant Media, the movie, which premieres in New York and Los Angeles on September 24, 2010, and nationwide in October, has already won the Best U.S. Documentary Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival. Taking an attention-grabbing approach, Guggenheim examines the crisis of public education in the United States by combining several interconnected stories. Faces are put to otherwise impersonal education "statistics" as the film follows five hopeful students–Anthony, Francisco, Bianca, Daisy, and Emily–as the youngsters and their families make their way through a harrowing lottery process, not to win a million dollars but to earn a spot in one of the country's best public schools and the chance for a productive future. Blending these personalized tales with a wealth of information and interviews with experts, the documentary delves into many of the deep-seated problems that continue to plague the dysfunctional public education system and offers hope by highlighting ground-breaking–and successful–approaches taken by education reformers who have shaken up the status quo.
The Website Educators, parents, and all concerned citizens can visit the official website to find out more about the film and to jump right into the fray. Currently, the site serves as a hub for raising funds as well as public awareness. People who "Pledge Now" to see the movie receive a $5 gift code to use on DonorsChoose.org, a non-profit organization that allows individuals to choose a specific classroom project and donate to it directly. According to the campaign's "Pledge Progress Meter," more than 50,000 people have already committed to seeing the movie. Moreover, First Book and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt are teaming up to distribute 250,000 new books to schools in low-income communities nationwide, with an additional $100,000 worth of titles promised once the meter reaches 60,000. A leaderboard posts the progress of the pledges and lists numbers by locale.
The site invites individuals to "Take Action" using an easy-to-navigate page that offers additional information, suggests numerous ways to get involved, and presents links to helpful online resources. The tone is both welcoming and empowering as users opt to "Help a School" or "Fix the System" and follow links to access information about their local schools, browse opportunities for participation (volunteering, mentoring, participating in donation programs, etc.), and learn how to take action in own their communities. Accompanied by gripping video clips, a "The Campaign" section presents additional statistics and related sites for each of four basic elements: "Prepared Students," "Great Teachers," "Excellent Schools," and "Increased Literacy." "Join the Debate" provides a forum for discussion on issues such as whether great teachers should earn higher salaries, a "Learn More" section rounds up a sampling of education news, and "Alliances" lists and links to the foundations and nonprofit organizations that have partnered with the Waiting for "Superman" social action campaign "to propel the education movement forward." Easy to browse, engaging, and upbeat, this site just might encourage individuals to answer the movie's call to arms and take the first steps toward participating in reform.
Exploring the Issues Waiting for "Superman": How We Can Save America's Failing Public Schools (Sept., 2010), a companion volume to the movie, has been published by Public Affairs. According to editor Karl Weber, this book is intended, "through the insights, experiences, and wisdom of many of America's leading experts on education...to help inform the debate, clarify the issues, suggest how much has already been accomplished by today's most gifted school reformers, and illuminate the problems that continue to elude solution." Setting the stage with statistics that illustrate the severity of the crises and outlining possible causes, the volume sets out to remind readers, "whether they are students or teachers, parents or grandparents, policy makers or concerned citizens...that redeeming the promise of a world-class education for all of our citizens is a cause worth working, and fighting, for."
The first section focuses on the making of the film and includes a glimpse at Guggenheim's efforts to find an approach that would grab his audience's attention and make these complex social issues compelling and immediate. The bulk of the book consists of essays about the issues raised, with the stories of the five children featured in the movie briefly recounted and interspersed throughout. Bill Strickland, head of Pittsburgh's Manchester Bidwell Corporation, writes about the vital link between communities and schools and reaching children through the arts; Eric Hanushek, a Senior Fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution, explains why "The Difference Is Great Teachers;" and Jay Mathews, education columnist for the Washington Post, explores "What Really Makes a Super School?" Other contributors include Michelle Rhee, Washington, D.C. Schools Chancellor; Harlem Children's Zone President, Geoffrey Canada; American Federation of Teachers President, Randi Weingarten; and Bill and Melinda Gates. Written with clarity, and oftentimes passion, these essays do a great job of presenting issues to a general audience, introducing and suggesting possible courses of action, and initiating further discussion. The book ends with tips (excerpted from the website of The Alliance for Excellent Education) on how readers can get involved at various levels, and an annotated listing of organizations committed to children, schools, and education reform. Each volume includes a $15 gift code for a contribution to DonorsChoose.org.
Further Reading Timely, affecting, and provocative, Waiting for "Superman" certainly brings important issues to the public forum, revitalizing interest in concerns that will have great impact on our nation's future. Those who would like to delve more deeply into this topic may be interested in sampling some recent titles that focus on public-school education reform.
In The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education (Basic Books, 2010), Diane Ravitch, a former assistant secretary of education and 40-year veteran of the field, repudiates some of her long-held beliefs about reform and provides a roadmap for moving American education in the right direction. Repeatedly emphasizing that there are no easy fixes or panaceas, Ravitch examines recent trends and analyzes their effectiveness, critiquing current ideas including school privatization, business-style management, the use of standardized testing for evaluation, and school choice. In her extremely readable text, the author blends education history, statistical findings, and case studies to reveal the failings of each of these methods. She makes salient and sane points (e.g., "The overemphasis on test scores to the exclusion of other important goals of education may actually undermine the love of learning and the desire to acquire knowledge") that will have readers re-thinking the current direction of reform.
Ravitch urges a return to "the essentials of education," focusing on establishing a substantive national curriculum in the liberal arts and sciences; creating assessment and evaluation systems that go beyond test scores to truly measure performance; nourishing well-trained, knowledgeable, and enthusiastic teachers; putting decisions into the hands of professional educators rather than politicians, business leaders, or philanthropists; and using charter schools to help the students most in need rather than to compete with public schools. Providing a fresh perspective on many of the issues raised in the documentary, this thoughtful and heartfelt book makes a riveting and informative read.
In Saving Schools: From Horace Mann to Virtual Learning (Belknap/Harvard Univ., 2010), Paul E. Peterson tracks the rise, the decline, and the possible resurrection of the American public education system by examining the work of six major thinkers and reformers: Horace Mann, John Dewey, Martin Luther King Jr., Albert Shanker, William Bennett, and James S. Coleman. In thoughtful, well-written chapters, the author provides historical background about each individual and his times, introduces specific ideas and their implementation, and discusses the surprising and often unanticipated consequences of these reforms–increased centralization, political control, and stagnation of the system. Peterson ends on a hopeful note, arguing that virtual learning, facilitated by recent technological advances, may have the potential to provide students with a personalized, customized, high-quality education, in some ways achieving many of the ideals of these reformers: "the opportunity to learn will be equalized. Access to quality courses will not depend on the price of the house you buy or the quality of the peers in your immediate neighborhood. Any student with a will to learn will have access to the best." Though a bit on the scholarly side, this volume provides helpful historical perspective and raises interesting issues about the future.
Also leaning more heavily into the academic arena, the following three titles focus on the specifics of reform in particular school systems while drawing conclusions for broader discussion and presenting insights that will inform the debate. In Organizing for Educational Justice: The Campaign for Public School Reform in the South Bronx (Univ. of Minnesota Pr., 2010), Michael B. Fabricant tells the unique story of the Community Collaborative to Improve District 9 (CC9), a consortium of six neighborhood-based agencies that started with a small group of concerned parents in 1995 and grew until it gained enough power to bring about a citywide application of its reform agenda–centered around a lead teacher campaign–10 years later. The grassroots origins of CC9 are brought home to readers by the text's inclusion of brief biographies and quotes from the community residents and organizers who helped to shape and sustain the effort. Fabricant clearly describes how CC9 was able to create collaborations among diverse stakeholders (the NYC Department of Education, the United Federation of Teachers, local nonprofits, and city colleges and universities), building "community power and a reform plan that broke through the institutional gridlock of neglect."
The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) mandates that failing schools use federal funds to hire after-school tutoring services, many of which are private, money-making companies. Focusing on the New York City schools, Jill P. Koyama's Making Failure Pay: For-Profit Tutoring, High-Stakes Testing, and Public Schools (Univ. of Chicago Pr., 2010) takes a look not only at the challenges of applying NCLB's tutoring directive in real situations, but also at the blurring of "boundaries between government, schooling, and commerce." Basing her book on her three years of ethnographic fieldwork, the author takes a noteworthy anthropological approach to the study of education policy. In these pages, she draws some disturbing and elucidating conclusions about the complex relationship between schools and supplementary educational services–for-profit companies that are mostly unguided, unregulated, and unproven–and the broader effects of NCLB.
After years of dismal performance, the Chicago public schools were decentralized in 1988, with each local school community empowered to select and evaluate their school's principal and approve an annual improvement plan and discretionary budget. Organizing Schools for Improvement: Lessons from Chicago (Univ. of Chicago Pr., 2010) tracks the effects of this bold initiative in education reform, collecting and analyzing data on elementary schools in the area over a seven-year period. The book immediately involves readers on a personal level by introducing two neighboring schools and the changes that were implemented, which resulted in two very different outcomes. Examining statistics and case studies, the authors identify elements essential for school improvement, highlighting the vital importance of school leadership, the professional capacity of the faculty and staff, and ties to parents and to the broader community. The lessons learned here provide real insight about successful school reform.
Publication Information Karl Weber, ed. Waiting for "Superman": How We Can Save America's Failing Public Schools. Public Affairs/Perseus Books Group. Sept. 2010. pap. $15.95. ISBN 978-1-58648-927-4.
RAVITCH, Diane. The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education. Basic Books/Perseus Books Group. 2010. Tr $26.95. ISBN 978-0-465-01491-0.
PETERSON, Paul E. Saving Schools: From Horace Mann to Virtual Learning. Belknap/Harvard Univ. Pr. 2010. Tr $25.95. ISBN 978-0-674-05011-2.
FABRICANT, Michael B. Organizing for Educational Justice: The Campaign for Public School Reform in the South Bronx. Univ. of Minnesota Pr. 2010. pap. $22.95. ISBN 978-0-8166-6961-5.
KOYAMA, Jill P. Making Failure Pay: For-Profit Tutoring, High-Stakes Testing, and Public Schools. Univ. of Chicago Pr. 2010. pap. $22 ISBN 978-0-226-45174-9.
BRYK, Anthony S., et al. Organizing Schools for Improvement: Lessons from Chicago. Univ. of Chicago Pr. 2010. pap. $28. ISBN 978-0-226-07800-7.
Waiting for Superman totally skews the facts and is a shameless
promotion for charter schools. Take a look at
http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2010/02/coming-soon-an-
inconvenient-truth-of-ed.html NOW.
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