The new documentary “Waiting for Superman” is causing a stir in the education world as filmmaker Davis Guggenheim makes the case that American public schools are failing and puts much of the blame on unions, tenure policies that protect poor teachers, and expensive, lumbering bureaucracies that are resistant to change. The film follows the plight of a handful of inner-city children trapped in failing schools by poverty and circumstance, and focuses on a handful of successful charter schools as the potential savior for these kids.
As one would expect, many public school teachers feel vilified, while many education reformers and charter schools feel validated by the film.
But regardless of your views on public schools and the fairness or unfairness of the film, there is one statistic Guggenheim cites that should alarm us all: By the year 2020, there will be a need for 123 million high-skilled, high-paid employees in the American workforce — but only 50 million Americans will be qualified for those jobs. This means businesses here will do what they already do, but to a much greater extent: Import their employees from other countries where schools have kept up with the demands of a more advanced, technologically changing world.
Guggenheim points out in his film that the United States lags behind other countries in student achievement in math and science. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, Arizona’s students aren’t even keeping up with their peers in other states. In 2009, the average math score for Arizona fourth-graders was lower than those in 44 states and their average reading score was lower than 43 states. Average reading and math scores for Arizona eighth-graders were lower than those in 33 states.
In “Waiting for Superman,” Guggenheim presents a few successful public charter schools as educational models that may hold the answers for improving all public schools. For example, Anthony, a fifth-grader in one of Washington D.C.’s most troubled neighborhoods, never knew his mom, lost his dad to drugs, and now lives with his grandparents, who fear for their grandson’s safety and future if he moves up the next year to a middle school with a history of failure. So they enter Anthony into a lottery for the SEED Charter School, a public boarding school with a record of success. The message — that this boy’s only hope is to let a school essentially raise him — is particularly poignant as we see Anthony choose his bunk at his new school and tape a snapshot of his dad on the wall. His grandmother is sad for him to live away from her, but overjoyed that he is being given this chance for a better life. But Guggenheim never says how much it’s going to cost the taxpayers to fund Anthony’s education in his new home away from home.
The price tag for school reform is important nationally and in Arizona because at a time when we need to be beefing up the quality of our schools, federal and state budget deficits are skyrocketing. When the Arizona Legislature reconvenes in January, lawmakers will be trying to dig us out of a nearly $900 million sinkhole — and education faces some steep cuts. Already, Mesa Unified School District is projecting cuts upward of $65 million next school year.
John Huppenthal, our next state superintendent of public instruction who takes office in January, has said he wants to look at public schools — both district and charter — that are producing good results and see how their methods can be replicated in other schools. He’ll be doing this at a time when Arizona ranks at the bottom in education funding, and given the current budget situation, that standing isn’t likely to improve. So Huppenthal, educators and lawmakers will have to find ways to improve public education without more public dollars.
In his documentary, Guggenheim chose to follow children who, despite their impoverished backgrounds, already have something far too many American students lack: A strong desire to learn and equally motivated parents who are involved and doing whatever it takes to help their kids succeed.
In 2000, the Tribune published a series that followed eighth-graders at Mesa’s Powell Junior High School, which has since closed. During that time, the school sent home letters with every student and made phone calls to every home asking parents to attend an important meeting about the state’s AIMS test. But out of hundreds of parents, only five or six showed up.
It’s an example of how education reform can’t just be a matter of more money, more choices, more ways to fire teachers, more ways to eliminate bureaucracy. Public school teachers cannot save our nation’s future by themselves. A vital starting point is finding a way to motivate kids and parents to truly value education, to have that desire to learn more, to be willing to do whatever it takes to be successful.
If we fail to do that, by 2020 the only super heroes America will be waiting for are the millions of workers imported from Asia, Europe and elsewhere to fill the high-skilled, high-paid jobs we need — but are unable to do ourselves.
Rich posted at 1:03 pm on Sun, Nov 14, 2010.
We've been behind in math and science since, at least, the end of WW II when I started school. We were supposed to improve or the USSR would steamroll us, being so much better at math and science than we were. Of course, in the end all that better education in math and science didn't help the USSR. It was (inappropriate term) then and it's (inappropriate term) now. A gigantic bureaucracy wants your money and if you don't pony up your children are doomed to a life of squalor and misery. Just like its been for the past sixty some years because all through the fifties we were behind in math and science.
Irons1 posted at 6:48 am on Mon, Nov 15, 2010.
So, exactly, what is your point? We shouldn't fund education at all or what? You show your age by telling us when you went to school. Are you one of those seniors who are now saying that education should not be funded because you don't have kids in school? You show your ignorance on these pages regularly. If children are not educated in science and math they are doomed to a life of subservience. Math and science are a way of life now. There are no jobs that pay well in factories anymore. The fifties have passed you by. Students that are not educated will not prosper in this world.
Rich posted at 8:20 am on Mon, Nov 15, 2010.
So, exactly, what is your point? You made it. "You show your ignorance on these pages regularly." Since I have advanced degrees, it would seem that education isn't worth it, why pay for it? But that would be your point, not mine. And the notion that one must learn math and science beyond a couple high school classes is ridiculous. Science, in fact, changes so much that teaching it to children just makes them neurotic because in twenty years what they think they know, is wrong. Math and science aren't life skills. Salesmanship and politics will get you further. If we're going to expend public money on it teach life skills not the same old tired stuff we've been behind in (although lead the world in) for sixty years.
YetAnotherBob posted at 2:33 pm on Mon, Nov 15, 2010.
I have lived in several states, and Arizona spends less and provides less resources for schools than any other state I have seen. Some sources say we are currently 50th in the US by a comfortable margin.
My wife teaches school, and Mesa doesn't even provide paper for handouts in class.
I remember the flack several years ago when it was shown that many school buildings in Arizona were condemned as unsafe. Some have tried to hold class in August without adequate AC.
I can see the reasons for not wanting to gold plate the schools, but face reality. We spend less on education per student than ANY other state. We pay teachers less. We don't provide supplies. No wonder we have the highest dropout rate around.
But, we have a testing system that the State Administrators can't pass. Big whoop! I'm sure that fixes everything. If it doesn't work out, then look for someone to blame. Having a scapegoat will fix it. Blame the Teachers, blame the Administration, Blame the President, or the Governor, or the last President or Governor. But don't change anything.
It's a sure recipe for failure.
This is just an idea, but, what if instead of trying to find a scapegoat, our Legislature, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, and our School Administrations provided resources for the Teachers in the Classrooms. After all, it's in the Classrooms where the education happens. We can have all the bureaucracy in the world (some think we do) and it won't accomplish anything if we don't provide teachers and the resources they need to teach. Providing resources and encouragement to parents helps too.
We've tested the kids to death, and the results came in. They spend too much time taking useless tests, and not enough time learning.
Will anything change?
Rich posted at 5:55 pm on Mon, Nov 15, 2010.
"Will anything change?"
Yep, the State's broke, so schools get less money. The head of the system is a career politico and a Republican, so expect a lot less money. But then all Aristotle needed to teach men who advanced the world a thousand years was a grove of trees. School, especially in Arizona, does more to interfere with education than foster it. When a drama teacher in a Scottsdale high school tells me that the merchant of Venice is Shylock, you can throw money at it until the cows come home for all the good it will do.
k33j88 posted at 7:37 am on Tue, Nov 16, 2010.
[smile]
k33j88 posted at 7:47 am on Tue, Nov 16, 2010.
I've been employed by the public school system for nearly 7 years now. The simple rule is "Pound the Basics". English, math and the sciences are what's most important. Not "feel good programs". If a child is disruptive, expell him/her, cannot make the grade?, put them with their peers, encourage critical thinkers, We must toss aside the "liberal mindset" of educators and provide students with an unbiased view of all topics. Let the children decide without any pre-conceived ideas or prejudices. Then let the chips fall where they may.