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210 of 255 people found the following review helpful.
Why are we failing? How do we succeed?
By David
One of the most remarkable components of the film was the discussion of a proposal of Michelle Rhee — the Chancellor of the District of Columbia Public Schools system — to pay teachers in the district up to $140k based on merit, if tenure would be ended in the district. In the world capital of democracy, the teacher union leaders refused to let this proposal go to a union vote.This short story is nestled into the middle of the film but describes the flavor of the rest of the movie. “Waiting for ‘Superman’” is a shock and awe that delivers convincing arguments that good teachers are what matters to student learning but the U.S. school system cannot let shining stars shine or fire the bad apples, and the worse-off neighborhoods are hit the hardest. One of the major arguments of the film is that teacher tenure* has to go. It makes its case for each point with facts, figures, clear arguments, and examples. The film intensely wraps it all together with emotional connections to a half-dozen students followed through the film, each hoping to literally win the lottery and get a spot in a top charter school.The film isn’t all attack, and it shows several success stories in the form of top charter schools. Many of these schools have graduation rates of nearly 100%, and nearly all students go onto college. Interestingly, many of the charter schools take students who were already behind and from neighborhoods with schools that are classified as drop-out factories (where a minority of students graduate).”Waiting for ‘Superman’” examines the problems, and it shows what is possible.See this film. Understand the issues. Push for reform.- – -* Tenure started with professors at universities. However, professors are never guaranteed tenure when they start their positions, and it typically takes about ten years — “ten-ures” — before they earn it. Many never achieve it. Yet K-12 public school teachers who have been only teaching for three years at the same school can achieve tenure, and they don’t even have to go through a review to be granted tenure.

97 of 123 people found the following review helpful.
We have to be our own Superman
By Robin
In Waiting for Superman, David Guggenheim’s riviting documentary about America’s school systems, he asks the question many parents have been asking. If our teachers are central to the performance of a school, how can we reconcile poor performance with an uncritical view of teachers? Are bad schools only in slums? Can children brought up in poverty excel in school?Waiting for Superman is not an attack on teachers. If anything its a testament to the critical importance of good teachers. Guggenheim’s research shows the amazing effect that good teaching can have on a very large population of students. But he also presents the corallary. Just as good teaching saves lives, bad teaching destroys them. And unfortunately Americans have allowed a system to develop where good teachers get no rewards and bad teachers are almost never fired. The problem is not necessarily spending. We have more than doubled our per student expenditures since the 1960s (even adjusting for inflation) and are turning out graduates who are not college ready.Guggenheim follows the history of American schools showing how up until the 1970s American public schools were the best in the world. He shows how the lack of global competition made us look awfully good. Unfortunately schools need to be better then they were fifty years ago, when they were expected to turn out high school classes where 20% of the kids went to college. Nowadays schools need to turn out graduating classes where just about everybody is ready for a four year college–and very few school districts are doing it. To make the story hit home, Guggenheim profiled several students waiting to get into Charter Schools, schools which are run by different rules than most public schools, and have a history of success. Watching these children observe the lottery that will determine whether they can attend, will break your heart.He also profiles Michelle Rhee, the take-no-prisoners Superintendent of the Washington, DC school system. As someone who lives right outside of DC, I have watched Rhee and applauded loudly as she has taken on every special interest that holds back education in Washington, DC. The movie showcases her wins in improving DC test scores. Unfortunately it misses the final chapter of Rhee’s career, the defeat of Mayor Adrian Fenty, who put his own career on the line, in the interest of the children of Washington, DC. Rhee’s future in DC is unknown but the incoming Democratic candidate for Mayor, who will run unopposed in November, supports many of the practices that Rhee fought. As Rhee sadly points out, much of this problem is adults not wanting to confront other adults.

253 of 331 people found the following review helpful.
Misleading and wrought with omissions…
By Brandon Schultz
I recommend seeing this documentary for the stories and indelible images (the lottery at the end will stay with you), but I encourage viewers to keep in mind a few facts that the documentary either overlooks or mentions only briefly. It is these omissions that will allow most viewers to leave with two spurious conclusions:1) Public education everywhere is a failure, and 2) Charter schools are the answer.First, the documentary conspicuously ignores the issue of inequality created by our current public school funding scheme. Instead, the viewer is told about the major sources of funding (federal, state, and local), but it’s never mentioned that the vast majorority of funds come from state and local taxes, with property taxes being the principal determinant of how much is spent per pupil within a school district. The viewer is also told that, on average, we are spending twice as much per pupil than we were 30 or 40 years ago, after adjusting for inflation. What isn’t explained is that while the average expenditure has gone up, the range from lowest to highest expenditures has also increased. In other words, the current average is inflated by the fact that some school districts have plenty to spend, so much so that students are given laptops and the schools have pristine facilities. In the movie, viewers get a glimpse of one such school, but it is never explained how such schools can afford all the wonderful amenities and how these schools skew the average per pupil figures; Viewers are just told that some students struggle in those environments too, which of course some do. But when you have huge financial discrepancies between school districts, you also have huge discrepancies in teacher pay, textbook allotments, facilities upkeep, etc., etc. And while people loath to discuss the impact of financial inequities (echoes of “class warfare”), resources DO influence educational outcomes. It’s true that you can’t just throw money at the problem and expect everything to be magically fixed, but it’s also true that you can’t allow resources to be so unequally distributed and expect it to have no impact at all. Read Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools for the back story.Second, the narrator only briefly mentions that 1 in 5 charter schools are exceptional. Well, guess what? That’s about the same rate of exceptional public schools! The research on charter schools suggests that charters are about as likely to succeed or fail as public schools (see Privatizing Education: Can The School Marketplace Deliver Freedom Of Choice, Efficiency, Equity, And Social Cohesion? for an overview of the research). What makes this so important is that in most cases, charters have a student selection process that almost guarantees high quality students, and once students enroll, most charters can expell problem students back to the regular public school. The documentary shows the lottery process by which many charter schools select their students. But which parents do you think enroll in the lottery? By and large, these are the proactive and involved parents who expect a lot from their children. So ask yourself: Who ISN’T in the lottery? Based on such selection and retention processes alone, we should expect charter schools to far outperform public schools, but they don’t. Sure, there are exceptional charter schools — some of which are spotlighted in the movie — but these anecdotal cases are NOT representative of larger trends. In fact, many charter schools fail in their first one or two years of operation and lose their charters. The documentary does not spend a single moment telling that side of the story.Having said all this, I largely agree with the documentary on the issue of teacher unions. Teacher unions represent a huge impediment to reform, and the unions protect the weakest teachers again and again. Any real effort to improve public education will have to include some shifting of power from the unions back to the school boards, but this shift will need to be done carefully. The documentary does a fantastic job showing the problem of tenure and how this has led to the artificially high rate of teacher retention. The unions have won tenure and pay raises based almost entirely on time in the classroom, rather than performance. Obviously this complicates reform, but there is additional context that the documentary ignores. For example, good teachers are often assigned the most difficult students. In such an environment, student test scores could actually make the best teachers appear incompetent, and the incompetent appear masterful. Again, this is just another instance where the documentary glosses over issues and allows the viewer to come away unfairly biased. We are led to believe that hamhanded “reformers” like Michelle Rhee are always right and the teacher unions are always wrong.In short, this documentary is worth watching, but don’t believe everything you see!!!

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Waiting for “Superman” – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Waiting for “Superman” is a 2010 documentary film from director Davis Guggenheim and producer Lesley Chilcott. The film analyzes the failures of the American public …

Waiting for Superman – Rotten Tomatoes – Movies | Movie Trailers …
Waiting for Superman (2010) tomatometer. All Critics; Top Critics; 89. Average Rating: 7.5/10 Reviews Counted: 114 Fresh: 102 | Rotten: 12 Gripping, heartbreaking …

Waiting for ‘Superman’ | Trailer and Cast – Yahoo! Movies
Waiting for Superman; Production Status: Released: Produced In: United States: TRAILERS & CLIPS. 1 – 4 of 4. 2:32. Theatrical Trailer. 3 years 2 months ago. Yahoo!

Waiting for “Superman” | Facebook
Waiting for “Superman”. 251,339 likes · 12,949 talking about this.

Waiting for “Superman” | It’s Possible: Together We Can Fix …
Waiting for “Superman” > More Film Campaigns; Waiting for Superman Multipage Campaign. News; Take Action; The Film; The Book; Video; Impact; Resources; Alliances

Review: ‘Waiting for “Superman”‘ Stirs Schools Debate – TIME
In an episode of the 1950s TV show Superman, a school bus full of kids is threatened with disaster as it nearly topples over a cliff, when whoosh the Man of …

Waiting for Superman Official Trailer – YouTube
http://www.themoviedigest.blogspot.com Release Date: 2010 Filmmaker Davis Guggenheim reminds us that education “statistics” have names: Anthony, Francisco …

NOT Waiting for Superman : Main/Home Page
Initiated by Rethinking Schools to talk back to the film and support efforts by teachers, students, and parents to improve and preserve public education.

Waiting for “Superman” | Moviefone – Movies | Movie Times …
Waiting for “Superman” Movie – Starring Bianca, Anthony, Daisy, Emily – Documentary filmmaker Davis Guggenheim explores the tragic ways in which the American public …