Saw Waiting for Superman

[proud2BlibKansan]

First of all, it's an excellent film. Very well made. Definitely tugs at your heart. Mission accomplished.

It's also one of the most narrowly focused documentaries I have ever seen. Maybe because I am so familiar with the subject matter? But scene after scene told only part of the story. Parents upset about inadequate public schools with poor teachers but no details to explain just how those schools were inadequate or why the teachers were poor. We were just expected to take the parents' word for it. One parent was upset about her child's reading but it sure seemed fine to me. In fact, he was a good reader for a 1st grader.

The movie focuses on four kids trying to get into charter schools. One from DC, one from LA, one from NY and one from CA. The filmmakers went to school with a couple of these kids and seriously, there was nothing obviously inadequate about the schools or the teachers. In fact, they were good teachers. At least what I saw on film was good. One school was described as one of the best high schools in the country (the implication being that even the best traditional public schools are still not good enough). And one of the charters they focused on was sterile and institution like. It reminded me of a mental hospital. Definitely not conducive to learning.

One mother complained that her own experiences in public school were so bad that she put her child in private school that was costing her $500 a month. When pressed for details, she complained about ONE bad teacher. I kept waiting for more horror stories but that was it. Hello. Buck up and move on, Mom. Later in the film, this mom could not pay her daughter's tuition and she was not allowed to participate in her graduation. Like THAT didn't damage this little girl?

Another thing that bothered me was most of the scenes in classrooms were in rooms with lots of empty desks. Staged to remove the really bad kids who disrupted? Maybe not really classrooms but film sets? I don't know but it was definitely strange. Also most of these classrooms had desks in straight rows. I teach elementary and can't speak for high schools, but we haven't had desks in straight rows since I was in school - and that was about a million years ago. Then we are taken to the wonderful but hard to get into charter school in Harlem (which was a 45 minute subway ride from home for this kid whose mom wanted him to go there) and see a sweet little group of kids sitting in a circle on the floor having a book talk with their teacher. Maybe 10 kids. Reminded me of the PD videos they show of a teacher working miracles with a small group. So very realistic, eh?

The most outrageous part was the end. The part the whole film led up to - THE LOTTERY. It was beyond disgusting. Kids sitting in auditoriums and gymnasiums with their parents, crying or visibly nervous while waiting for their number to be drawn or name to be called. It was eerily abusive. Of the kids and of the parents. I was reminded of the NFL draft.

I don't want to give away the ending so I am posting about that in the first reply to this thread. If you don't want a spoiler, don't read it.

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. The 'winners' of the lottery

There was a Hispanic girl, a white girl, and two African American boys. And the winner was . . . . .

the white girl.

Yep, the only kid who was drafted er I mean admitted to the charter of her choice was the white girl who would have otherwise gone to one of the best high schools in the country.

Then we find out that one of the charters goofed and voila! they have room after all for one of the other kids. Maybe because he was the star of this film?

Just strange. Contrived and strange.

[Starry Messenger]

6. Wow.

What a strange message to end the film on.

This is the girl in CA? YvonneCA posted a story about Woodside High being featured in this film. I am frankly shocked, I would have thought they'd go after one of the many troubled school districts in CA. Woodside High is 20 minutes away from me and has an excellent reputation. The district is pissed.

http://www.ktvu.com/news/25281564/detail.html

New Documentary Draws Ire Of Bay Area School District

SAN FRANCISCO -- Don't believe what you see on the big screen was the message Monday from a school district on the Peninsula.

The Sequoia Union High School District said the documentary "Waiting For Superman" is filled with half-truths. The film is only showing in a few theaters so far including the Kabuki in San Francisco.

"Waiting For Superman" follows four students in what is portrayed as a troubled public school system. Woodside High School is mentioned in the film and the principal said the school is cast in a negative light.

The district responded to the movie by sending out a letter to parents that asserted the film is inaccurate.

"You can't just drive by and just sum us up based on one data point," said Woodside High School principal David Reilly. "You got to peel the onion, you got to take a closer look."

Reilly saw the film and took issue with its claim that only one third of Woodside High students went to California community colleges and 4-year universities.

I'm thunderstruck to see that school is in the film.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. It's odd

It's almost like the filmmakers decided they needed to portray a white kid also. And like I said, the implication is very clear - even the excellent public schools are not serving the kids well.

I would be pissed too if this was my school district. They do quite a nasty hit piece on Woodside.

[Starry Messenger]

8. My jaw dropped when I heard that.

I mean, this is Woodside:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodside,_California

Woodside (pop. 5,352)<1> is a small incorporated town in San Mateo County, California, United States, on the San Francisco Peninsula. It uses a council-manager system of government.

Woodside is among the wealthiest communities in the world.<2>


I'm not saying that is anything to brag about, but the thought of Woodside being a failing school is mind-boggling. We used to joke that it was the public private school. I need to get to bed soon, but there is some interesting stuff on Summit I'm looking up. I have a feeling the hit piece on Woodside was engineered just to give Summit a boost. More later. Thank you for the report!

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. Is Summit the charter?

Yes it is painted as the better school. They criticize the tracking system at Woodside and claim fewer kids can get into the university system in CA when they graduate from Woodside. And of course 100% of the kids graduating from the charter meet the college entrance requirements.

They even do a little animated cartoon of kids being tracked and left behind. It's quite disgusting.

[Starry Messenger]

11. Yes, that's the charter.

Mercury News allowed itself to be used as a mouthpiece for a "review" of the film by the CEO of the Summit chain. Appalling!

http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_16230898

Opinion: Why Silicon Valley needs Superman
By Diane Tavenner
Special to the Mercury News

The opening of the highly-anticipated movie "Waiting for 'Superman' " places a renewed spotlight on the state of our nation's public schools. "Superman" follows the gut-wrenching stories of five students as they face the challenges that plague our public schools across the country, including here in Silicon Valley.

<snip>

We meet Emily as her parents enter her into Summit Prep's lottery, along with 500 other students. Emily's parents fear that in another school, she would be tracked into a less rigorous program, potentially lost amid a sea of mediocrity.

Summit Prep, envisioned by some of the very same entrepreneurs who built our world-renowned technology industry, employs a small, highly-personalized, rigorous academic program to prepare a diverse student population for college success. Every student to date has graduated qualified to attend a four-year college.

While "Waiting for 'Superman' " will provoke a spirited discussion about how to scale the successes achieved by Summit Prep and other quality programs, the answer is surprisingly simple. Every student must be provided a high-quality teacher in every class, every day. From our own personal experiences to indisputable research evidence, we know that a great teacher can be a life-changer. It's a goal that Summit pursues with a laserlike, no-excuses, students-come-first discipline that yields our 100 percent student success.

There is no doubt that our nation's children need a great teacher, a superhero, in their classroom, but as we well know, Superman isn't real. It's left to us -- parents, educators, community members, corporate leaders and elected officials -- to do better. Do we have the courage to resist blaming and finger pointing, to look at real data and true models of success, to set aside our adult agendas and polarized positions, and to put students first? If we do, then we're capable of solving the most pressing problem of our time.


DIANE TAVENNER is the founder and CEO of Summit Public Schools, Silicon Valley's first charter school management organization. She wrote this article for this newspaper.

Here's an article on Diane from Center for Education Reform:

http://www.edreform.com/jeanneallen/action_heroes/tavenner.htm

January 2007

Action Hero: Diane Tavenner, Director of Summit Prep Charter High School

Diane leads Summit, a new public high school with superb and scalable breakthroughs in teaching, learning and governance -- fulfilling three goals: prepare students for college, build a lasting culture and catalyze widespread improvement in secondary education. Her vision and results are why she is your Education Reform Action Hero.

In just two years, her new school climbed to rank in the top 30 in the entire state of California. Of those top schools, Summit is among the few with a greater than 35% Latino enrollment and running on the state revenue limit budget. She has demonstrated how students from many backgrounds can prepare effectively for college with teacher mentors. For teachers, changes have been equally dramatic: implementing differentiated education, performance-based pay, true professional development and site authority.

<snip>

A final example is a partnership with a university school of education to scale with widespread dissemination of best practices, to create a flow of new teachers steeped in the methodology and to provide objective assessment. These successes have been endorsed independently. Carnegie Corporation hailed Summit as a model for teacher preparation for the era ahead. The community has flocked to the school with a waiting list each year, affirming a first-time vote of confidence in public education.

As a true backing, other schools are now launching themselves on the Summit model. By building a culture for success for teachers and for a diverse student body via high expectations and high support on a standard budget, Diane has led the way for wide-scale national improvement backed by powerful results. When combined with her personal passion and around-the-clock commitment, Diane Tavenner has truly earned your “Education Reform Action Hero” title.

Center For Education Reform is very right wing and Jeanne Allen who runs it is a Milton Friedman acolyte. I think someone here has written more about it, but I have to start getting ready for the day. I will note that Summit website says (IIRC) that they graduate 100 seniors a year. Well, we'd all be superman if we could do *that*.

[Starry Messenger]

21. Hannah did a great thread on CER

Center For Education Reform

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6477413#6489937

More on Diane Tavenner

http://www.almanacnews.com/news/show_story.php?id=6162

Sequoia fought Everest's charter at every step, from a board denial in September 2008 to a denial from the county board in December 2008 to its unanimous approval in the spring by two governing panels in Sacramento.

Everest's subsequent request for facilities initiated another battle, now in court after Everest claimed as illegal the district's offer of a modular campus in residential East Palo Alto well south of Redwood City, which is central to the district and where Everest requested facilities.

Ms. Tavenner had, at times, to be combative. Asked what qualities one needs to found a charter school in California, Mr. Wallace cited academic leadership, entrepreneurial ability, and the advocacy and political skills to detect the "land mines set to trip up a new charter school."

"Diane is exactly the kind of leader who is successful in all three," he said.

Revealing take-away from the comments:

Posted by Peter, a resident of the Menlo Park: Sharon Heights neighborhood, on Mar 4, 2010 at 12:56 pm

To be quite honest, the idea of Diane Tavner receiving an award makes me somewhat ill. Her abrasive style and lack of sensitivity to the true needs of low performing students is appalling. Anyone who disagrees with her is labeled an obstructionist or anti-charter. The parents at Summit were afraid of her when she ran the day to day operations of the school. (She is now a high paid administrator of their so called Institute).

My neighbor who is familiar with high school education informed me that Summitt and Everest have expelled eight students already this year for not 'fitting' their exclusive model. I can only imagine who else has been counseled out.

Perhaps they could give her an award for the Highest Expulsion Rate of a Charter Organization

The parents in there singing her praises sound like Scientologists.


Looks like charters in San Mateo County have been taking advantage of a new law in CA where they don't have to seek local approval to build schools in individual districts that don't want them:

http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/Charter-school-struggles-to-find-a-home-47715822.html

The Magnolia Educational and Science Foundation — which currently operates five schools in Southern California with four more to open, including one in Santa Clara — had a charter school petition rejected last year by the San Mateo Union High School District.

San Mateo district Superintendent David Miller said the charter school did not meet any special needs of the community, and that allocating per-pupil funding for the school would be difficult under the current budget restraints and state cuts.

Undeterred by the district decision, the Magnolia Foundation turned to the California Board of Education and received authorization to open 10 new charter schools anywhere in the state during the next six years. The foundation can locate its schools within any district without seeking approval at the local level, according to Joseph Hurmali, the foundation’s president.

One of Magnolia’s new charters — to be called the Pacific Knowledge School — will be in East Palo Alto, in a location that is still being determined, Hurmali said.

When Magnolia is ready to open its Peninsula charter school, it will only have to give the school district four months notice, per state law, he said.

“Our schools are thriving all over California, and we have data to back that up,” Hurmali said. “The state recognizes that, so we don’t need to seek approval at the local level anymore.”

Pigs. The article also states that Summit was trying to muscle its way onto Sequoia High School's campus to establish Everest High charter there. The school district offered her a building in East Palo Alto and that was soundly rejected I'm sure by parents who didn't want their little snowflakes forging through the streets of EPA (which is the "ghetto" by San Mateo County reckoning, but is actually not that bad.)

Looks like Summit/Everest successfully forced the District to capitulate to its demands with repeated lawsuits.

http://www.almanacnews.com/news/show_story.php?id=6583

Everest drops suit against high school district
Settlement appears to secure charter school's future in Redwood City

by Dave Boyce
Almanac Staff

Share
The court battle is over and maybe the conflict is, too. The Sequoia Union High School District and Everest (charter) Public High School have settled on plans to locate the school in Redwood City, according to a district press release issued May 5.

As a result, officials from the Summit Institute, Everest's parent organization, have agreed to dismiss a lawsuit over the legality of the Sequoia district's offer of a school site in East Palo Alto, district spokeswoman Bettylu Smith said in a statement. While neither side will have to pay the other's attorneys fees, the high school district has agreed to several stipulations, all of which involve keeping the school in Redwood City:

■ The district will pay $220,000 to Everest -- $30,000 for tenant improvements at the current Main Street location in Redwood City, and about $190,000 to rent the building for the 2010-11 school year.

■ The district will house Everest for three years, starting in September 2011, in a new 17-classroom, 32,000-square-foot, green building being built between Fourth and Fifth avenues in Redwood City.

■ The district and Summit Institute will "work collaboratively" to plan for Everest's future after 2014, Ms. Smith said. In an interview, Ms. Tavenner said she expects a permanent home to be located in Redwood City and have room for Everest and Summit Preparatory Charter High School, Everest's sister school.

"It's very exciting for the kids and the families and the long-term security of the schools," Ms. Tavenner said.

Ha! I just found a comment that totally tallies with my opinion on what all is going on here:

Posted by A Parent, a resident of another community, on Jun 7, 2010 at 5:04 pm

I'm sorry not to blithely follow along with the Everest and Summit parents falling all over themselves congratulating themselves for their achievement. The fundamental truth is that Summit was founded by parents from Portola Valley, Atherton, Hillsborough, Woodside and Menlo Park who didn't want their children to attend high school with "those kids." It is almost comical to watch these otherwise politically liberal parents working very hard to justify the white flight that these 2 charter schools represent.

And environment with entirely self-selected students is not different than a private school, only the taxpayers foot the bill. The same teachers and administration could not achieve the same results with the full cross-section of SUHSD students.

But, by all means, go ahead and continue to pat yourselves on the back while simultaneously undermining public education by creating "separate but equal" educational settings.

Sorry this is so frakking long! I sat down and wrote a novel. Here is a link to the principal's full statement about Woodside: http://www.woodsidehs.org/?id=13#2504 Go Wildcats!

[dkf]

2. Nice writeup.

I'll keep it in mind should I see the movie.

[msongs]

3. the ending = minimum wage teachers in public schools/brightest kids skimmed into big $$ charters nt

and by brightest I mean highest test scores.

[WingDinger]

4. Thr teacher hate started some time ago, as it seemed that Obama would win.

Wingnuts said that they needed to rid the kids of communist training. They thought that if they brainwashed the kids to be wingers, they would be able to end Dems once and for all. They didnt care how. Take bribe monies, Fix digital machines, whatever. So, have all the little darlings learn 6000 year earth. Stop caring about the environment. It's those commie schools. And they teach that the parents views are not the end of enlightenment. Freak parents want their children ignorant.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. Another observation

Michelle Rhee is featured prominently in the movie. (Way too much screen time for her, IMO). And every tine she appeared on film, I wanted to yell "QUITTER!"

Seriously, her recently announced resignation made her less credible in the film. She also says she has no intention of being a superintendent anywhere else.

Bill Gates was also featured a lot. Bill the college dropout.

[outerSanctum]

10. I just saw it over the weekend too.

I thought it was a very powerful and moving movie - it really showed what a shameful state we are in!

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. It was a great hit piece.

Sounds like you believed it all.

[outerSanctum]

13. I doubt that Davis Guggenheim

was trying to put out a "hit piece"....

[Reader Rabbit]

14. On what do you base this doubt?

Follow the money. See who's funding this thing.

[outerSanctum]

15. Yep.... At the same time

it would be interesting to see who is funding the hit pieces against his "hit piece"....

[Reader Rabbit]

16. Huh?

Most of the "hit pieces" on this hit piece are coming from teachers. As far as I know, no one's paying us for it. Should we believe this celluloid Bandini Mountain, or our own lying eyes?

[proud2BlibKansan]

18. What?

There are hit pieces against this movie? The only backlash I am aware of are a couple blogs. Are there more? Is there a movie that tells the other side of the story?

[Hannah Bell]

19. it's a hit piece when you note that the film was funded & produced by a billionaire right-wing

evangelical christian who's also funded anti-gay initiatives & dobson's focus on the family? who also set up the anti-evolution "Discovery Insitute"?

Gee, I thought that was called informing the public with cold hard facts.

Unlike "WfS", which contains no facts, just manipulative appeals to emotion.

[proud2BlibKansan]

17. I don't doubt it in the least

Read my OP. Way too many holes and underlying implications.

Plus his info about tenure is false. I should have added that to the OP.

[donco6]

27. I don't.

He couldn't have produced this without knowing what it was.

[proud2BlibKansan]

28. At the very beginning he admits his own kids attend private schools

But as he does throughout the film, he never explains WHY. Again, the viewer is led to assume the public schools are inadequate for his precious children.

[Starry Messenger]

23. I can speak from 100% experience that Woodside is not in a "shameful state"

So that's just incorrect right from the outset. I teach in the next district. I had no idea until this week that Woodside was in the film and no one is paying me anything to rebut this trash. I do it for free because I hate liars. The only "shameful state" in Woodside is parents who don't want their kids in schools with needier (and often browner) kids.

[Catshrink]

20. Did you see the WaPo article about Superman?

It was so hard to choose which 4 paragraphs to post!

What ‘Superman’ got wrong, point by point

By Rick Ayers (brother of William Ayers)

While the education filmWaiting For Superman has moving profiles of students struggling to succeed under difficult circumstances, it puts forward a sometimes misleading and other times dishonest account of the roots of the problem and possible solutions.

The amped-up rhetoric of crisis and failure everywhere is being used to promote business-model reforms that are destabilizing even in successful schools and districts. A panel at NBC’s Education Nation Summit, taking place in New York today and tomorrow, was originally titled "Does Education Need a Katrina?" Such disgraceful rhetoric undermines reasonable debate.

<snip>

*Waiting for Superman promotes a nutty theory of learning which claims that teaching is a matter of pouring information into children’s heads.
In one of its many little cartoon segments, the film purports to show how kids learn. The top of a child’s head is cut open and a jumble of factoids is poured in. Ouch! Oh, and then the evil teacher union and regulations stop this productive pouring project.

The film-makers betray a lack of understanding of how people actually learn, the active and engaged participation of students in the learning process. They ignore the social construction of knowledge, the difference between deep learning and rote memorization.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/guest-bloggers/what-superman-got-wrong-point.html

[proud2BlibKansan]

24. Those little cartoon segments were annoying

The one of the teacher pouring knowledge in kids' heads was gross. And there is another one of kids on a treadmill being tracked. Some go up, some go down. Of course up is to college and great things and down is to some horrible undefined place.

[MichiganVote]

22. Hitler made beautiful films too. N. Korea and China have incredible shows.

PR is PR. When all people want is a half truth with a side order of sob story or militarism, that's what you get.

Facts? Education? Forget it.

[proud2BlibKansan]

25. I thought of that!

Just went to the Holocaust Museum in DC 2 weeks ago so I figured that experience was clouding my judgment. Eerie that you would mention it as well.

[MichiganVote]

26. Well the US was heavy on PR during the second world war too.

I watched those US / PR war movies all the time. In its day I loved the movie 'Coming Home' with Jane Fonda precisely because it exposed all that stuff for what it was.

I don't intend to see the S movie. Frankly I think it would just remind me of what I already deal with on a daily basis. People who want a public education that was originally intended to enable the public to take part in their elected government, to now magically guarantee that every student will go on to a college education regardless of their academic or financial ability...ON a shoe string budget no less...