Finding the Will: Can Superman Make Education a National Priority?

I had the opportunity recently to watch Waiting for Superman, a provocative new documentary that offers an incisive look at the dire state of public education in America today. I encourage everyone to see the film and to answer its challenge to get involved in being part of the solution.

While sobering, the movie left me with a great deal of hope for the future. I was inspired by the efforts of concerned parents and family members to provide the best possible education for their children. I was inspired by the courage of community leaders who have dedicated their lives and their considerable talent to taking on the status quo and trying to change a system that is not working for enough young people. And I am encouraged by the attention the film has brought to the desperate need to make public education a national priority.

If we work together to answer this call to action, this film can mark a turning point in the movement to transform education in America. A great deal of time has been spent over the years in identifying the problems with our educational system -- issues such as falling test scores; overcrowded schools; too much bureaucracy; low pay for teachers. But what has defined the American spirit throughout our history is not our ability to pinpoint a problem, but our capacity to take action -- to pay any price and bear any burden when called to service.

During the most challenging times in our history, education has transformed our nation and set us apart from the rest of the world. After World War II, we passed the GI Bill -- educating a generation of veterans and helping to create the great American middle class. A decade later, Sputnik spurred investment in primary and secondary education -- leading to the great technological advancements of the 20th century, from satellite communications to the Internet. As we make our way out of the great recession, in an increasingly competitive global economy, our nation faces a similar challenge.

A movie can help make a difference by focusing attention and generating dialogue. My hope is that this film will spark a response similar to An Inconvenient Truth. By addressing climate change in such a clear, digestible manner, that film did more to move our nation towards a clean energy future than years of activism and scores of scientific studies.

Waiting for Superman is so moving because it depicts the profound effect a good school and a great teacher can have on a child's entire life, along with ultimate high-stakes loss for those who don't get a lucky lottery number. One of the best parts of my job with the College Board has been the chance to reward great schools through our Inspiration Schools initiative. Inspiration Schools are public high schools from across the country -- rural and urban, traditional public schools as well as charters -- that defy the odds by opening the doors of higher education to students facing economic, social and cultural barriers. At each of the schools we have honored, there are educators whose personal dedication and faith in their students is as heroic as those featured in the film -- like a calculus teacher in central California holding Saturday tutoring sessions; a counselor in New Mexico tracking down seniors in the hallways until he knows everyone has filled out scholarship applications; and a curriculum director in the Rio Grande Valley raising money for interview clothes so her students are prepared for college interviews.

All of these schools share common traits: rigorous coursework taught by dedicated and skilled teachers; a curriculum that engages students and demands higher standards; support from local colleges, businesses or community organizations; involvement of parents and families; and an expectation that every child willing and able to do the work has an expectation to go to college. As a result, in some of the most impoverished communities in the country, I have walked down school hallways and felt a palpable sense of optimism among the students.

There is no great mystery as to what makes these schools great -- and nothing supernatural about what it will take for these model schools to go from being the exception to becoming the norm. We know what works. All that's missing is the will -- the will to reform a broken system and make education a national priority.

 

Comments

[changing]

03:07 PM on 09/09/2010

Sadly, the film will become propoaganda for the corporate interests that will destroy our public education system and replace it with separate and unequal little islands of all sorts of educational institutions. A few charters are okay if there is strict accountability and the same standards are applied to them as real public schools. They must be allowed to unionize also. The corporate pirates have pushing for more charters because education is big money and they want to get their hands on this government service also. Truth is education is a problem in poor districts. The College Board profits from manufacturing tests so of course they are pushing this so called education reform. Makes a lot of money for the College Board.

[cjaco]

01:32 PM on 09/08/2010

This film is charming and edited to tug the heart strings, but espouses the privatization of public schools and veteran teachers are worthless - only the young, two year contracted ones are effective. This film is pure propaganda for DFER and the hedge fund managers turned charter school CMOs - plus, it falsely accuses teachers unions for the system's demise. Notably, the rubber room that is featured was initiated by the upper echelon of administrators - the teacher's union protested against them and insisted on their closure for years to no avail, but is credited in defending them in the movie. Reforming the bureaucracy and providing adequate funding, getting rid of the focus on standardized tests and scripted curriculum, bringing back the arts, history, science, and PE, and stop allowing the billionaire foundations to set educational policy would be the way to go. Here are some interesting reads:
One conservative's review of Waiting for Superman: http://takingnote.learningmatters.tv/?p=4449
The path to real reform: Read Diane Ravitch's The Death and Life of the Great American School System http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/get_in_the_fracas/2010/08/diane-ravitch-knows-whats-up.html

[lynnewrites]

01:53 PM on 09/09/2010

YEP---This unfortunate film depicts a tiny bit of education in this country. The wild-eyed call for privatization of schools is the worst thing yet to be perpetrated upon American school kids and teachers. As long as their is a us VS them mentality with true educators and the so-called reformers, the system will continue to fail many. Notice how it very rarely fails kids of wealth or even normal means...HUH??? they are not widgets ---the ones that come to us from backgrounds that are lacking some of the most basic needs, must have schools or a society that will replenish/supply those needs ---there are thousands of studies of kids in poverty and the results are more than obvious and predictable given the state of how schools are funded. Ya just simply can't do the exact same for all. Fair is what they NEED not 100% identical lessons and schools. Waiting For Superman is a sad commentary but does not give any hope that true educators will prevail and give kids what they need...how could they...they are prevented from doing exactly that by simplistic folks like politicians and filmmakers who just don't get it. BUMMER

[PietMondrian]

07:00 PM on 09/13/2010

Where and who are the true educators you speak of, and who is restraining them from producing educated students? You say politicians and filmmakers are the ones preventing progress? How's that? The powers that be have been trying for 40+years to improve things within the current system. So what explains the failure of "true educators" in that time since Mr Guggenheim hasn't been making films every year for 40 years? There must be a long list of 'simplistic folk' obstructionists you can come up with, right? Look, who can disagree with you that we need to meet the basic needs of poor students. Agreed. The film does a great job of showing that regardless of circumstance, all children, rich and poor, can learn and learn well. The results are far from obvious that poverty equals failure. You seem to want to make excuses...oh look it's us vs them again, or, look they want one system for all. Clearly I don't "get it," because I don't know what you are talking about. The message of the film is that pragmatism works, however you can get a school to work, charter or traditional public, DO IT! Stop coming up with reasons not to. Lynnewrites, please tell us what these obstacles are that have been preventing "true educators" from doing their jobs over the past 40 years so we can get rid of them. That's how pragmatism works: identify the problems, come up with testable solutions.