Preview of Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman - Still Not Finalized Yet

Friday: 7:30 WFS followed by panel discussion
Saturday: 4:30 WFS, 7:30 -ITBWFS followed by panels
Sunday: 5:30 - ITBWFS

Our film is being previewed along with Waiting for Superman at the Maysles Cinema in Harlem tomorrow (Saturday) and Sunday. Tonight at 7:30 they are showing WFS but GEM members will be on the panel, as we will tomorrow and Sunday. I'll be there tonight and Saturday. This is not the final version - I'm actually still interviewing charter school parents today and tomorrow for a final section of the film, which is about an hour long. Lots of exciting reactions - maybe even Diane Ravitch at the premiere if we can work dates out. Requests for our film are coming in from around the nation, a sign that all the hype around WFS has backfired.

I have always felt the film would reach the already committed and not do much for fence sitters, a goal being to activate people who are outraged at the attacks on public education. So this comment is very important to me since the commenter has a close relative who is a TFA alum and was a former charter school teacher and is now in a policy position in an urban environment ravaged by charters. She was also involved and still is in advertising and media.

Hi Norm:
Just finished viewing your film that answers "waiting for superman"...and I think your 'oeuvre' is just SUPER. AND DESERVES TO BE VIEWED ON N.Y. 1, MNN (for sure), maybe channel 21,....other public access channels throughout country......and wherever else you can place it. Sure there are some fuzzy images and too fast "pans"...but the editing is terrific. I wish you luck and success with it. The message must be heard. I am convinced.

Those fuzzies and fast pans are the result of my amateur attempts at cinematography, but considering this was literally a no budget film using the lowest level of equipment and edited in imovie by working teachers in their spare time, it is quite an achievement.

Fergusan's 'Inside Job' Has More to Say About Education Than Guggenheim's 'Waiting for Superman' on school reform

As I watched Charles Ferguson's amazing movie "Inside Job" about the financial meltdown and how market based concepts were responsible, I thought he is the guy who could make a fabulous movie about the public education meltdown as a result of the ed deform movement which is based on the very same concepts that brought down the economy. I know. A lot of people have been hankering for Michael Moore (who ironically, the Real Reformers ran into Moore - scroll down for the RR video - on the way to rally at the opening of WfS). But Ferguson really nails it. Alas, without Ferguson or Moore we have to make our own film, The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman, which we hope to release in a month or so.

Well, here is the article by Kevin Welner I've been hoping to write for the past few months or so about "Inside Job." It's great to be scooped. Saves so much time. Valerie Strauss introduces it at the Answer Sheet.

Why 'Inside Job' bests 'Waiting for Superman' on school reform

By Valerie Strauss

One can only assume that the critics in the Broadcast Film Critics Association who bestowed their 2011 Best Documentary award to Davis Guggenheim's Waiting for Superman did not know how tendentious the film is, or else they might have honored a film that was more straightforward, in the tradition of classic documentaries. Superman is up for a Golden Globe Award, too, and is on the shortlist for Academy Awards in the feature documentary category.

Here a comparison between Waiting for Superman and a competitor, called Inside Job. Though the latter film isn’t about education reform, Kevin G. Welner, the author of the following piece (which appeared on Huffington Post), writes about why Inside Job better explains it than does Superman. Welner is a professor of education policy and program evaluation in the School of Education at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and director of the National Education Policy Center.

By Kevin G. Welner
Over the past couple months, I’ve been asked to participate in a few panel discussions about Waiting for Superman. The film presents a stark, moving portrayal of the denial of educational opportunities in low-income communities of color. But while the movie includes statements such as "we know what’s wrong" and "we know how to fix it," viewers of the movie are hard-pressed to identify those causes and solutions -- other than to boo and hiss at teachers’ unions and to cheer at the heroic charter school educators.

So in the panel discussions we try to make sense of that simplistic black-hat/white-hat story. We argue about whether the movie offers a fair and complete picture (it doesn’t even come close, unfortunately). But we never get to deeper issues about what’s wrong and how to fix it.

I thought about that when leaving a showing of the other prominent documentary currently showing, called Inside Job. It offers an explanation of how the current economic crisis came about, describing the securitization of mortgages; the extraordinary leveraging of assets; the regulatory capture by Wall Street leading to minimal enforcement of federal regulations -- a deregulation intended to spur innovation; and the fraud, greed, hubris and general belief among hedge fund titans and others in the financial services world that they are infallible.

The film also points out the growing and now extreme inequality of wealth distribution in the United States. "The top 1 percent of American earners took in 23.5 percent of the nation’s pretax income in 2007 -- up from less than 9 percent in 1976."

Consider those final three items: (1) the advocacy of deregulation in order to free up innovation, (2) hubris and general belief among hedge fund titans that they are infallible, and (3) increased wealth inequality.

If Superman had explored these issues instead of bashing unions and promoting charters, moviegoers might have walked away understanding a great deal about why the families it profiled and so many similar families across America face a bleak educational future.

The movie certainly showed scenes of poverty, but its implications and the structural inequalities underlying that poverty were largely ignored. Devastating urban poverty was just there -- as if that were somehow the natural order of things but if we could only ’fix’ schools it would disappear.

Rick Hanushek is put forth, saying that if we fire the bottom 5 to 10 percent of the lowest-performing teachers every year, our national test scores would soon approach Finland at the top of international rankings in mathematics and science. But no mention is made of the telling fact that Finland had, in 2005, a child poverty rate of 2.8 percent while the United States had a rate of 21.9 percent. That gap has likely gotten even bigger over the intervening five years.

Rather than addressing these poverty issues, Superman serves up innovation through privatization and deregulation. We’re shown charter schools that give hope to these families. But what we’re not told is that the extra resources and opportunities found in these charters are funded in large part with donations from Wall Street hedge fund millionaires and billionaires.

Problems of structural inequality and inter-generational poverty are pushed aside in favor of a ’solution’ grounded in the belief that deregulation will prompt innovation, all the while guided by the infallible judgment of Wall Street tycoons. It’s no wonder that Inside Job better explained the school crisis than did Waiting for Superman.

Follow my blog every day by bookmarking washingtonpost.com/answersheet.

 UPDATED: Jan. 17: Note comment below from "In the trenches" and link to site, which I added to the blogroll.

Did Ravitch Review Derail the Waiting For ‘Superman’ Oscar Campaign?

And just like that, we have an Oscar knife fight on our hands. Fun! I’ll bring the nachos.
----Movie Line, by by S.T. VanAirsdale

Diane Ravitch’s essay is the most important public-relations coup that Sony Pictures Classics, director Charles Ferguson and the rest of the Inside Job team will have at their disposal all year? Ravitch even points out the connection between the pro-charter camp and Wall Street, citing three New York Times stories “about how charter schools have become the favorite cause of hedge fund executives.” in language virtually borrowed from Ferguson’s excellent financial-meltdown exposé, she goes on to conclude:

Waiting for “Superman” is a powerful weapon on behalf of those championing the “free market” and privatization. It raises important questions, but all of the answers it offers require a transfer of public funds to the private sector. The stock market crash of 2008 should suffice to remind us that the managers of the private sector do not have a monopoly on success.

Whoop Dee Do! I love that connection to the Ferguson "Inside Job." If only we could get him to do the ed deform exposure movie? The full piece is below but first time out for a commercial:
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The NYC DOE goes begging to give away free tickets to WfS as I posted at Norms Notes with the letter a DOE official sent out:

Psst, Hey Buddy, Want a Free Ticket to Waiting for Superman?

The DOE can't even give them away. As one pundit wrote:

This is odd. Why is the NYC Department of Education promoting a film that claims the public schools managed by DOE are failures and children must flee DOE schools to enroll in a charter. I don't understand.

Another says:

Why is an administrator with the NYC Department  (Board) of Education offering to make tickets available (her words)  "to those council members whom were unable to attend the movie previously"?

And this:

Why is it the same "crew" who support centralization (Mayoral control,  control by test scores, etc) and libertarian decentralization (charters)??

Commercial break over
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Blockbuster headline at Movie Line regarding the Oscar push for Waiting for Superman.

Did Scorching Critic Just Derail the Waiting For ‘Superman’ Oscar Campaign?

I haven’t seen Waiting For “Superman”, director Davis Guggenheim’s documentary about America’s failing public school system — and the possible solutions that may be found in more exclusive, smaller charter schools, particularly in urban areas. But Lord knows I’ve heard about it, from rhapsodies at the Toronto Film Festival to stratospheric praise at Rotten Tomatoes to Oprah Winfrey’s two — two! — WFS showcases. Even the President is on the bandwagon, which has careened toward next February’s Oscar finish line at the front of the documentary pack. At least until this week, anyway.

Education historian Diane Ravitch takes Guggenheim and Co. to school (oof, sorry) at the New York Review of Books, where a meticulous reading of “Superman” yields a devastating takedown of the film roundly picked by many observers to sweep the year’s most coveted doc prizes — up to and including the Academy Award. Some of the film’s blind spots are alluded to in Michelle Orange’s cautious endorsement here at Movieline, but Ravitch goes deep — way deep — on what “Superman” not only elides but simply gets wrong [and I quote at length for maximum context]:

The proportion of charters that get amazing results is far smaller than 17 percent.Why did Davis Guggenheim pay no attention to the charter schools that are run by incompetent leaders or corporations mainly concerned to make money? Why propound to an unknowing public the myth that charter schools are the answer to our educational woes, when the filmmaker knows that there are twice as many failing charters as there are successful ones? Why not give an honest accounting?

The propagandistic nature of Waiting for “Superman” is revealed by Guggenheim’s complete indifference to the wide variation among charter schools. There are excellent charter schools, just as there are excellent public schools. Why did he not also inquire into the charter chains that are mired in unsavory real estate deals, or take his camera to the charters where most students are getting lower scores than those in the neighborhood public schools? Why did he not report on the charter principals who have been indicted for embezzlement, or the charters that blur the line between church and state? Why did he not look into the charter schools whose leaders are paid $300,000-$400,000 a year to oversee small numbers of schools and students?

Guggenheim seems to believe that teachers alone can overcome the effects of student poverty, even though there are countless studies that demonstrate the link between income and test scores. He shows us footage of the pilot Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier, to the amazement of people who said it couldn’t be done. Since Yeager broke the sound barrier, we should be prepared to believe that able teachers are all it takes to overcome the disadvantages of poverty, homelessness, joblessness, poor nutrition, absent parents, etc. […]

Perhaps the greatest distortion in this film is its misrepresentation of data about student academic performance. The film claims that 70 percent of eighth-grade students cannot read at grade level. This is flatly wrong. Guggenheim here relies on numbers drawn from the federally sponsored National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). I served as a member of the governing board for the national tests for seven years, and I know how misleading Guggenheim’s figures are. NAEP doesn’t measure performance in terms of grade-level achievement. The highest level of performance, “advanced,” is equivalent to an A+, representing the highest possible academic performance. The next level, “proficient,” is equivalent to an A or a very strong B. The next level is “basic,” which probably translates into a C grade. The film assumes that any student below proficient is “below grade level.” But it would be far more fitting to worry about students who are “below basic,” who are 25 percent of the national sample, not 70 percent.

Guggenheim didn’t bother to take a close look at the heroes of his documentary. Geoffrey Canada is justly celebrated for the creation of the Harlem Children’s Zone, which not only runs two charter schools but surrounds children and their families with a broad array of social and medical services. Canada has a board of wealthy philanthropists and a very successful fund-raising apparatus. With assets of more than $200 million, his organization has no shortage of funds. Canada himself is currently paid $400,000 annually. For Guggenheim to praise Canada while also claiming that public schools don’t need any more money is bizarre. Canada’s charter schools get better results than nearby public schools serving impoverished students. If all inner-city schools had the same resources as his, they might get the same good results.

And on… and on… and on. “Waiting for ‘Superman’ is the most important public-relations coup that the critics of public education have made so far,” Ravitch writes. “Their power is not to be underestimated.” Ouch. More importantly for our admittedly frivolous purposes, though, can I just say Diane Ravitch’s essay is the most important public-relations coup that Sony Pictures Classics, director Charles Ferguson and the rest of the Inside Job team will have at their disposal all year? Ravitch even points out the connection between the pro-charter camp and Wall Street, citing three New York Times stories “about how charter schools have become the favorite cause of hedge fund executives.” in language virtually borrowed from Ferguson’s excellent financial-meltdown exposé, she goes on to conclude:

Waiting for “Superman” is a powerful weapon on behalf of those championing the “free market” and privatization. It raises important questions, but all of the answers it offers require a transfer of public funds to the private sector. The stock market crash of 2008 should suffice to remind us that the managers of the private sector do not have a monopoly on success.

And just like that, we have an Oscar knife fight on our hands. Fun! I’ll bring the nachos.
· The Myth of Charter Schools [NY Review of Books via The Awl]

_______________

Read Ravitch's full review: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/nov/11/myth-charter-schools/?pagination=false

Ravitch Reviews Waiting for Superman: The Myth of Charter Schools at NY Review of Books

Excerpt:

Most Americans graduated from public schools, and most went from school to college or the workplace without thinking that their school had limited their life chances. There was a time—which now seems distant—when most people assumed that students’ performance in school was largely determined by their own efforts and by the circumstances and support of their family, not by their teachers. There were good teachers and mediocre teachers, even bad teachers, but in the end, most public schools offered ample opportunity for education to those willing to pursue it. The annual Gallup poll about education shows that Americans are overwhelmingly dissatisfied with the quality of the nation’s schools, but 77 percent of public school parents award their own child’s public school a grade of A or B, the highest level of approval since the question was first asked in 1985.

Waiting for “Superman” and the other films appeal to a broad apprehension that the nation is falling behind in global competition. If the economy is a shambles, if poverty persists for significant segments of the population, if American kids are not as serious about their studies as their peers in other nations, the schools must be to blame. At last we have the culprit on which we can pin our anger, our palpable sense that something is very wrong with our society, that we are on the wrong track, and that America is losing the race for global dominance. It is not globalization or deindustrialization or poverty or our coarse popular culture or predatory financial practices that bear responsibility: it’s the public schools, their teachers, and their unions. 

 MUST READ FULL REVIEW

The Wall Street Journal Comes Calling on GEM: Who's Really on the Moral Defensive Now?

Did Real Reformer/GEM protest at film make Rupert's crew nervous?

This was the lead in an editorial in today's Wall Street Journal:

The new film "Waiting for 'Superman'" is getting good reviews for its portrayal of children seeking alternatives to dreadful public schools, and to judge by the film's opponents it is having an impact.

Astoundingly, the WSJ devoted one of its 3 major editorials today to the Grassroots Education Movement-led rally at the opening of the film on Sept. 24. My take is that it was our protest that had the real impact for the WSJ to do this editorial condemning the Real Reformers and trying to tie it into the unions.

Not only am I quoted but there is a plug for our upcoming film "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman," – the trailer has already topped 6000 hits and our rally film has almost 800 hits.

Some more funnies from the editorial:

....leaving the monopolists to the hapless recourse of suggesting that reformers are merely the tools of hedge fund philanthropists.
....The odd complaint is that donors to charter schools include some hedge fund managers. [my emphasis]
....We saw a trailer for this anti-"Superman" film, which denounces most of the leading advocates for charter schools. The irony is that most of those criticized are Democrats or noted liberals [we actually agree here] who've been mugged by public school reality.

The editorial closes with:

The teachers unions continue to wield enough power to deny choices to these students, but their days as political supermen are numbered.

Ahhh, so right. The days of top-down worm-like teacher unions' days are hopefully numbered. As CORE in Chicago has proven. Yes, the editorial writers at the WSJ and the ed deformers should be worried.

Read this back story of my interview with the WSJ and then read the full editorial, but don't break a rib laughing.


I get this call late last week from someone named Bari Weiss who writes for the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal. Okaaaay, we know where she stands on ed deform before she utters another word. She wants to talk about "Waiting for Superman" and the protest held in front of the theater by GEM and the Real Reformers. I know, I know Bari. You loved the film and didn't love our protest. But Bari is not going to tell me that openly. She is posing as an unbiased reporter, after all.

So we talk for a good amount of time - at least 20 minutes or more. I tell her the protest consisted of public school parents and teachers. She asks about GEM and the protest. I tell her these are mostly young, activist teachers, some even Teach for America alums – an interesting development in that most of them have spent the overwhelming bulk of their careers working under BloomKlein. In some cases their activism has been fueled when their schools have been invaded by charters run by sons of billionaires, who get favored treatment over the public school. In other words, the actions of the ed deformers have done a whole lot o' organizing by default.

Then Bari gives herself up with this question: "What do you say to parents who I speak to who love their charter schools?" She brings up that loooong waiting list.

Oooh, boy. I go to town. "For every charter school parent who loves their school, I'll match you a hundred to one of public school parents who love their school. Why aren't you talking to them?

And why aren't you talking to the charter school parents who hate their charters schools? Or the numerous parents who have removed their children from the charter? Or who have been counseled out?" I tell her about the parent of special ed children who I interviewed at the Parents Across America/GEM/NYCPA press conference at Rockefeller Center last week. This parent had a child make the lottery for Harlem Success Academy but when they realized she was a 12-1-1 child, they told her her child couldn't be serviced. We know Bari ain't goin' there. This is the Wall Street Journal, after all.

And I got to town on that phony PR drummed up waiting list crap. I talk about the PR budgets of charter schools and ask her how much of a budget does she think public schools get for glossy PR brochures. I don't know if I brought up HSA's own head of PR Jenny Sedlis and how much she gets paid.

She asks me about myself and I tell her chapter and verse that I am not an anti ed deformer because of some ideology but because I spent 30 years in a classroom in the inner city and spent 40 years fighting the old status quo and am now fighting the new status quo. "How about that class size issue," I ask? I tell her about the difference between having 24 and 28 in a class. I even bring up how much longer it takes to line them up and take them to the bathroom with even just a few more kids. And some more blah, blah, blah.

Then we talk union and how the UFT had zero to do with this protest. At this point I hold back in criticizing the UFT since I am representing GEM and the RR's as the press contact and not my own positions on the UFT. So I am careful. I tell her that if she googles me personally she will see how the UFT views me and I view them and that personally I have been a critic for a long time though GEM has been focused on broader issues of defending public education than the UFT so far. But many progressive real reformers see the UFT as being way too cooperative with the ed deformers and not on the side of real reform. I think I mention Chicago.

Bari comes back with, "That's the left doing the criticising." Ahhh, that reveals where she might be going with this. I tell her there may be leftists involved it is broader than that. She then brings up the "other" group led by Marjorie Stamberg who were protesting at the same time and place. She wanted to know if that protest was part of ours. She even asked if it was ISO (International Socialists). Here this got tricky. Navigating through the left for someone like me who doesn't always get all the left messaging is always tricky.

I told her that ISO was working with us and that this was another group called Class Struggle. I told her it was a separate protest that GEM and the Real Reformers were not involved in planning and that when we heard about it we asked them to join our rap but that they declined and wanted to get their message across. I wanted to be clear and not have the Wall Street Journal brand this as some kind of left wing conspiracy. I could imagine her rolling her eyes.

I ask Bari if she is an education writer. She says "No." She certainly seems to be aware of the push button ed issues. I tell her I'm impressed. She tells me she also enjoyed the conversation and asked if it was ok to call again. "Anytime," I said. I won't hold my breath.

Before you get to the editorial itself, here are a few comments for your guided reading

Here is Mariama Sanoh, Vice President of the NY Charter Parents Association, one charter school parent Bari didn't talk to.

We’re still waiting for Superman here in Charterland

http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2010/10/were-still-waiting-for-superman-here-in.html 

Note that Bari Weiss was present at the rally but did not interview one participant. Not one of the 50 people who were there to protest. Yet she spent 160 words of a 560 word editorial quoting one Harlem parent who was there with his son. I don't know if this was the same parent who was outside giving out literature, but there are stories out that some people were paid to do so at various theaters. Note he is a parent at Democracy Prep, which has been notorious for certain undemocratic processes.

Hating 'Superman'
Teachers unions are on the moral defensive.

* http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882404575520160925291820.html

The new film "Waiting for 'Superman'" is getting good reviews for its portrayal of children seeking alternatives to dreadful public schools, and to judge by the film's opponents it is having an impact.

Witness the scene on a recent Friday night in front of a Loews multiplex in New York City, where some 50 protestors blasted the film as propaganda for charter schools. "Klein, Rhee and Duncan better switch us jobs, so we can put an end to those hedge fund hogs," went one of their anti-charter cheers, referring to school reform chancellors Joel Klein and Michelle Rhee and Education Secretary Arne Duncan. The odd complaint is that donors to charter schools include some hedge fund managers.

Or maybe not so odd. Teachers unions and the public school monopoly have long benefitted from wielding a moral trump card. They claimed to care for children, and caring was defined solely by how much taxpayers spent on schools.

That moral claim is being turned on its head as more Americans come to understand that teachers unions and the public bureaucracy are the main obstacles to reform. Movies such as "Waiting for 'Superman'" and "The Lottery" are exposing this to the larger American public, leaving the monopolists to the hapless recourse of suggesting that reformers are merely the tools of hedge fund philanthropists.

The Manhattan protest was sponsored by the Grassroots Education Movement, which was co-founded by Norman Scott, a retired public school teacher. Mr. Scott says the group has nothing to do with the United Federation of Teachers, and that it's comprised of New York City teachers and parents who have been "adversely affected by charter schools." Mr. Scott told us he and several others are developing their own film, "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for 'Superman.'" That's a nod to Davis Guggenheim, who directed Al Gore's climate change documentary before he did "Superman."

We saw a trailer for this anti-"Superman" film, which denounces most of the leading advocates for charter schools. The irony is that most of those criticized are Democrats or noted liberals who've been mugged by public school reality.

Though the protestors were the main spectacle that day outside the theater, two others in the crowd provided a counterpoint. Charter school parent Daniel Clark Sr. and his son Daniel Jr., a ninth grader at Democracy Prep, came down from Harlem. "The reason there's such a gravitational pull" to such schools, Mr. Clark says of parents in poor neighborhoods, "is not because they love charter schools. It's because they're the only game in town."

Mr. Clark thinks "Waiting for 'Superman'" is helping people get it. "There's a lack of information in general about the charter schools . . . the movie puts it in personal terms. You can see the kids, you can see the anxiety in the families." He describes his son as "a typical kid on 133rd street. The only difference is that he got lucky enough to get into a charter school. . . . God knows where he would be if he was at the public school he was meant to go to."

The waiting list in Harlem to attend a charter is more than 11,000 and nationwide it is an estimated 420,000. The teachers unions continue to wield enough power to deny choices to these students, but their days as political supermen are numbered.

After burn
Some ed deformer found a typo in our Truth About Charter pamphlet - a double negative - and condemned us as teachers for that error. I wonder - if he reads this editorial and finds a spelling mistakeiIn the WSJ whether that means capitalism is about to fall?

GEM Heroes on TV and Broadway

Boy am I glad I passed on the appearance on Fox Friends early Sunday morning. There is no way I could have performed with such grace and sagacity as Julie Cavanagh and Mona Davids did. I would have blown my top over the narrow and short, tight format. Right after watching it I felt bad for being involved in dragging Julie home from out of town and causing her to lose half a night's sleep. But she called right after and was really upbeat. Boy, it's good to get some optimism thrown at you.

Julie responded on the "union protecting bad teachers" issue brilliantly, making the point she would not be sitting there if not for tenure which allows teachers to join parents in advocating for children. She slammed them by pointing out how anti-union right to work states have some of the worst outcomes in the nation while the much lauded Finland has a unionized teaching corps.

Julie did a more effective job in one minute than MulGarten have done in 15 years.

Mona said it all: "class size matters." Leonie must have been doing cartwheels.

What can you say about Mona Davids, who I met a little over a year ago when she was dubbed Moaning Mona for her take no prisoner approach to defending charters and attacking teachers. How quickly she has morphed into Magnificent Mona, becoming an ally of so many activists in NYC, always quick with info and assistance. And she did our movie web site.(http://www.waitingforsupermantruth.org)

You can see Julie and Mona on Fox http://video.foxnews.com/v/4350208/film-analyzes-education-system-failures

I've been working with Julie on various projects for about a year - I only met her last summer - and she delivers every single time. Helping get rallies organized at Bloomberg's house or the opening of Waiting for Superman? A press advisory or press release? A leaflet? A policy statement? Making a film? Working with teachers and parents at her school to fight back against a charter invasion? Giving wise advice on almost anything? Bingo. I don't tie my shoelaces without asking her whether I should start with the right one of the left one.

Oh yeah, and she also teaches a class of special ed kids with severe difficulties.

One of the best things I have ever done is introducing Julie to Leonie Haimson - what a powerhouse that combo has proven to be.

One of the most laughable things about the WFS film is that Michelle Rhee is the hero and not Julie Cavanagh or Leonie Haimson or Julie's school parent pal, the awesome Lydia Bellachene.Or any number of people we've been meeting.

But then again that is the whole idea of the film - The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman - (oh yeah and Julie is also working on the screenplay - does that woman ever sleep?) - we are making in response. Pointing to the parents and educators in the trenches who are the real heroes.

Inconvenient Truth Behind Superman - The Trailer

And there were a hell of a lot of them out there on Friday, old, young, in between - including ICE stalwarts James Eterno and Ellen Fox. ICE, GEM, NYCORE, ISO, a TJCer. What a party!

Where was the UFT?
One of the first things I was asked by both the NY Post and a reporter from Fox was about the UFT. I didn't go into my 40 year history of being a critic but told them that this rally was not only independent of the UFT even if by mostly UFT members, but that many of the people rallying didn't view the UFT as fighting the Real Reformer battle and in fact saw them as making too many compromises with the ed deformers.

It is funny that ed deform slugs like Whitney Tilson are branding the rally as a UFT operation. Boy is this guy clueless. And he's not the only ed deform numb skull (What's in a Not? An Ed Deform Knothead.) 

And by the way, our trailer has 3000 hits in the 5 days it has been out. We're working on a follow-up based on Friday's "Will the Real Reformers Please Stand Up?"

Here are some other reports on the rally at the GEM blog along with some pics:

GEM REAL REFORMERS: Smashing Broadway Success!

Afterburn
I spent a whole day Sunday editing footage from Friday. I went up to Williamsburg to work with another GEMer on the project and we almost finished before we both got wiped out. We had an exciting day piecing together the footage and trying for a coherent piece. (We included the footage of Michael Moore who they just happened to run into.) The creativity between us really flowed - you forget how creative video editing can be until you are immersed in it.

This stuff for us amateurs is complex - matching sound and video of the 5 or 6 performances we taped on 3 cameras. It is shaping up but won't be done as well as we would have liked since we are in a rush and using Imovie instead of Final Cut Pro, which I don't know and need my friend to do for me. But I'm saving him for work on the actual film. Some of this stuff makes my hair hurt.

G'Night!

Paul Moore: Wishing On A Star Now?

Miami teacher Moore's response to Klein's Huffington Post piece on Waiting for Superman:

Chancellor Joel Klink*, I sincerely want you to enjoy your warm fuzzy delusions about "Waiting For Superman" because they may not last very long. I mean, did you hear what happened to Michelle Rhee? She's plays a "chancellor" just like you right? And she was one of the stars of your movie right?

Excuse my French, but damn Joel, she didn't even make to the big premier yesterday in NYC and LA, before she was turned into a quivering bowl of jello standing next to the man who will fire her soon in DC. If you haven't heard about Sept. 14th in Washington, that mayor that Bill Gates put in charge of the public school system, Adrian Fenty, got stomped in a re-election bid. I mean he got beat like a hedge fund manager trying to steal something from Sen. Perkins there in the city! Go figure. Rhee, the "warrior woman", campaigned for him and everything.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't she like to mouth the same hypocritical blather you do about education being "the Civil Rights struggle of our generation" while overseeing a thoroughly racist public school system. You may want to retool that Newt Gingrich-ish slogan, paragon of the Civil Rights Movement that he is. It looks like people may be on to you folks. Rhee kind of made it easy. Just before the election she entertained her new teachers with a story about taping the mouths of Black children shut to keep them quiet. According to her, there was blood when the tape came off, but for some reason she wasn't arrested. Would have been off to the rubber room under your leadership right? And I know you are slicker than Michelle, all that CEO training, and you don't have any classroom stories to tell, because you've never set foot in a classroom, except to visit one of your precious charter schools and say hello to Eva or Geoff.

But I digress, because I just have to tell you the most startling thing of all. As a civil rights crusader, you need to really put your ear up close to this essay now. D.C. is broken up into eight or nine wards for purposes of voting. In the wards where white voters are concentrated, four out of five supported Adrian Fenty. I mean Joel, those people love themselves some Bill Gates, some quisling mayor, and a chancellor who will tape those Black kids mouths shut and take a broom to the teachers. But listen, in the African-American wards, where parents actually have their children in the DC public schools, and where the Black teachers replaced by white Teach For America missionaries live, voted four out of five to run Michelle Rhee out of town!

Joel, you do know that Superman is fictional character? Ironically, he was a D.C. Comics creation. Seems like an omen maybe. You might want to check and see if there's a seat for you on Bloomberg's plane to Bermuda when Superman doesn't show up.

* The misspelling of CEO of Bertelsmann Inc. Joel Klein's name was an intentional act of ridicule and an homage to the long running TV series Hogan's Heroes. My apologies to the family of the late actor Werner Klemperer and his memory for associating him with an unaccomplished bureaucrat like Klein.

Real Reformers Also Wear Capes- and they ran into Michael Moore too

This is going to be a quickie because I have all day commitments to our FIRST LEGO League Kickoff at NYU/Poly in downtown Brooklyn (come on down).

Before I get to the rally, make sure to check out the video I took of Diane Ravitch and Eva Moskowitz at the Economist Forum last week.  I got exclusive Ed Notes interviews with both.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oREkNH2_Z8M

Yesterday's rally sponsored by GEM at the opening of "Waiting for Superman" was highly successful.
One of the interesting sidelights:

They met at the fountain at Lincoln Center to rehearse their rap song "Will the Real Reformers Please Stand Up?" and ran into Michael Moore who was there for the NY Film Festival opening. The irony is too delicious since people have been trying to reach Moore to do a documentary on the ed deform scam. Since he wasn't responding, we decided to do our own film. We have some tape of the RRs talking to Moore and his response it is a shame they are scapegoating teachers.

Here is a Fox report where they naturally spent more time talking to pro movie people and ignored all the people wearing Real Reformer capes.

 http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/education/teachers-protest-waiting-for-superman-20100924

I hear I am quoted in today's NY Post but don't know what I said.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/protesting_teachers_give_it_an_2wHWfAa38YOjPzpdYYotJO



A booker for Fox Friends saw me quoted and invited me on for tomorrow morning to discuss the film but since I didn't see it yet and have a full day and won't be able to catch it today, I may have to decline. We are trying to get one of the people involved in our response to WFS - The Inconvenient Truth About Waiting for Superman - to confirm. Still waiting.


Make sure to go to:  www.waitingforsupermantruth.org to view the trailer for the grassroots documentary response to "Waiting for Superman"...

Tomorrow we are editing the footage from our rally and should have some good stuff up by Sunday night.

In the meantime here are some quick pics I took. The people I am working with are so brilliant. Note the tags they were wearing to engage people in conversation.

Katie Couric Assistant Comes Calling- Be at Lincoln Square Today at 6PM to See Real Reformers

I watched holding my sides laughing as Katie Couric interviewed WFS' Davis Guggenheim, who seems more pathetic every time I see him. (He loves unions by the way. Only not teachers unions.) If you read the review in today's Times they make the point that Randi Weingarten comes off as the villain in the film. What a joke when the Real Reformers also see her as a villain, but for entirely different reasons - like her abandonment of the fight for education equality - no matter what she says - remember the mantra - watch what she does - like appease the deformers on just about every single issue - and she was part of the deal with Rhee in DC. And Detroit - Oh, My! And Gates in Seattle.

So presenting Randi as our rep is beyond a joke.

Then there was that awful teacher who wants to give up tenure for money. Doubly pathetic. And they didn't exactly have a lot of screen time even if they had more to say.

So when I got this email from Erica Anderson who works at CBS with Katie urging me to promote her interviews with Guggenheim, I resisted the urge to delete.

Norm,

I read your post (http://bit.ly/9l9rjb) on Waiting for Superman in Education News Online. You brought up some very thoughtful points which is why I want to share with you the just-released interview on @KatieCouric today. Today Katie interviewed Davis Guggenheim and brought on a panel of educators from Columbia University’s Teacher’s College to pose questions to him.

I hope you will consider watching the videos and sharing with the readers of Education News Online. The only request I have is that you provide a credit to @KatieCouric on CBSNews.com.

Kind Regards,

Erica Anderson
DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS | @KATIECOURIC

Hi Erica,
Thanks for getting in touch. I would be interested in promoting Katie's interview with Davis Guggenheim but am ambivalent when there are so few voices in those videos. The people you had up there representing "our side" were fairly pathetic. It is not about salary to many teachers like the one you talked to.

For an educator like me who spent 35 years working in a high risk neighborhood in Brooklyn, mostly teaching elementary school, the things Davis Guggenheim has to say are almost laughable. Notice how he uses the term "status quo" for the old guard when in fact the new status quo has been the very "reforms", or deforms as we are referring to them, that have been in effect in places like Chicago for 16 years and in NYC for 7 years and have proven to be a failure. He talks about the 20% of charter schools that are doing great things. You don't think that 20% of the public schools are also doing great things? With unionized teachers with tenure yet.

It is no accident that Michelle Rhee has gone down in flames in DC. To call her a hero when the very community that she was supposed to be "saving" undermines Guggenheim's film.

We have a group of young dynamic teachers here in NYC who call themselves Real Reformers. I am working on a film with them called "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman" and you can see the trailer at http://www.waitingforsupermantruth.org/. I urge you and Katie to watch it.

Today at the opening of Waiting for Superman" at the Loews 68th st theater, these teachers will be there to perform their rap version of Eminem's "Will the Real Slim Shady Please Stand Up?". We are calling it "Will the Real Reformers Please Stand Up?"

Many will be wearing homemade Superman capes and other logos. They include former Teach for America teachers who are staying in the classroom. Twenty and Thirty year old teachers who are committed to their students and also to saving the public school system from the charter school onslaught and market bases solutions (like merit pay - believe me these teachers would get merit pay because many of them are so good - ask them why they are against it)  that have brought the US economy down in flames. Many have had their students negatively affected by the charter school invasion of their schools.

Read a fabulous review of Waiting for Superman by one of these teachers I posted on my blog:
http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2010/09/reviewing-waiting-for-superman-real.html

So if you want to talk to Real Reformers, send a crew over to the theater today or we can arrange for them to be available to talk at Katie's convenience. I'm betting she will walk away with a whole new point of view and see Davis Guggenheim's film for what it is.

Here is the press advisory.


Press Advisory                         

Date:  Thursday, September 23, 2010   

Contact:

Norm Scott: 917-992-3734

Parents and Teachers, the Real Reformers, Organize Response to “Waiting for Superman”

When:  Friday, September 24^th, 6:00 P.M.

Where: Lincoln Square 13 Movie Theater, NY, NY

On Friday, September 24^th, parents and teachers will participate in a demonstration outside of the premier of “Waiting for Superman”.  The film, which has garnered significant publicity in recent days, has taken the lead in framing the conversation about education reform.  The Real Reformers reject this framework and intend to offer an alternative voice to the conversation.

Parents and teachers will be located outside of the Loews Lincoln Square movie theater at 6:00 P.M. The Real Reformers will stand up and present their demands and vision for real education reform.  The Grassroots Education Movement will provide literature, a special feature, and will be releasing the trailer for their upcoming documentary, “The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman”, which will be shown in New York City neighborhoods, and across the country, beginning in late October. 

Together, parents and teachers are united in calling for Real Reform Right Now:  Smaller Class Size, Excellent Community Schools for ALL, More Teaching- Less Testing, Parent Empowerment and Leadership, Equitable Funding for ALL Schools, Anti-Racist Education Policies, Culturally Relevant Curriculum, Expanded Pre Kindergarten and Early Intervention Programs.

View the Trailer for GEM’s upcoming documentary at:  www.waitingforsupermantruth.org or www.grassrootseducationmovement.blogspot.com

Additional Contacts:

Lisa Donlan, Parent: 917-848-5873

Mona Davids, Parent: 917-340-8987

Sam Coleman, Teacher:  646-354-9362

Julie Cavanagh, Teacher: 917-836-6465

Reviewing Waiting for Superman: A Real Reformer Stands Up

The following review was written by a teacher with a decade of experience teaching special ed who got to see an advance screening of "Waiting for Superman" the other night. The teacher is one of the GEM people working on the response: The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman. See the trailer at: http://www.waitingforsupermantruth.org/

Still Waiting

by RR (Real Reformer)

Sept. 22, 2010

I had the opportunity to attend an advanced screening of “Waiting for Superman” tonight.  I fully expected to be nauseated by what I perceived to be corporate-backed propaganda, with the predictable message of teacher unions as the villain and so-called reformers as heroes.  The film’s premise and claims are uninformed and drastically miss the boat in terms of creating a narrative regarding the real issues our public school system faces.  Further, the film completely neglects to engage in any meaningful discussion of the real reforms needed to improve educational opportunity for our children. 

Some highlights (or lowlights if you will)… 

Claims vs. Truth 

Claim:  “We know that it is possible to give every child a great education,” (based on the success of charter schools).   

Truth: Charters in general, and in particular the ones featured in this film, sort and select students, serve far less ELL students, students receiving special education services, and students who qualify for reduced and free lunch compared with their neighboring public schools.  The truth is, charters do not outperform public schools, even with every advantage, including smaller student to teacher ratios, the ability to discharge students at will, and increased autonomy.

========

Claim:  “There is usually only one mainstream school in every school district in America that is above average.”   

Truth:  I do not presume to know the stats on this, but the claim is completely unsupported in the film and would venture to say untrue.  As a perfect example, District 15 in Brooklyn has many schools that are above average.

========

Claim:  “If you don’t go to college, you are screwed in America.”   

Truth:  One of the purveyors of this claim in the film is Bill Gates who says we cannot have American innovation without our kids going to college.  This from one of the most significant innovators of our time, who, that’s right, didn’t get a college degree.

========

Claim:  “KIPP schools are better schools because they won’t let kids fail.”  “You can’t argue with KIPP’s data.” 

Truth:  KIPP students and parents sign a “Contract for Excellence” and if the contract is not followed, they can be dismissed from the school.

========

Claim: “Even progressive educators believed that the achievement gaps in our education system could not be closed.”   

Truth:  As a progressive educator, I am horrified by this claim made as a general and factual statement, and can personally attest that it is untrue.

========

Claim:  “Kids that go to charter schools (featured in this film I believe is the context) do not just do better than poor kids, they do better than everyone.” 

Truth:  Some charter schools do better than public schools, some do worse, the majority, do the same.

========

Claim:  “If we replace bad teachers with average teachers we can catch up to Finland in just a few years.” “Unions are a menace and an impediment to reform.”  “Teacher union contracts say you can’t fire them.” “Good teachers teach 150% of curriculum in a year, bad teachers only teach 50% of curriculum in a year.” “Teachers get tenure if they just breathe.”  “It should be simple, put teachers in a school house where they fill children’s heads with knowledge, but we have made it more complicated.” 

Truth:  The simple blame game, painting teachers and teacher unions as villains is a completely unsupported claim.  Virginia, a right to work state, has some of the worst educational outcomes in the country.  Finland, touted with some of the best educational outcomes in the film, is a pro-union system.  Teachers do matter, but their tenure is not decided by them, it is decided by principals.  Teachers do matter, but we do not write the standards, curriculum, and tests.  Teachers do matter, but we live in a climate of extreme external pressure that prevents us from actually teaching.  Teachers do matter, but so do parents, principals, education officials, economic opportunity, school and community programs. The list goes on and on.  The fact is, the vast majority of teachers are good teachers, who work hard, and whose ability to speak out with parents and advocate for children is protected only by their tenure. Imagine a system where teachers could not advocate with parents for children!

There are many more claims I could refute in the film, but this has already served as a spoiler for anyone who actually wants to see the film, and frankly, I’m tired.   

I taught all day, met after school with parents and educators working on an initiative for our school, and then went and saw a film that basically said:  ‘Teachers and their unions bad.  Charters good.’  I’ve had enough for one day!

 I will end this with one final note…

One of the children in the movie, the story I found to be most touching and compelling, lived with his grandparents, never really knew his mother, and his father died at a young age because of drugs.  The tenderness of this child, the wisdom he shared well beyond his years, and the hopes he has for his time at SEED ( he dramatically finds out he has been accepted at the very end of the film after being on a waiting list), quite literally moved me to tears.  One of the last scenes in the film is him on his bunk bed at SEED; he leans over, and tacks up a picture of him with his father from years ago.

I have known countless children who share his story, I have had the privilege to teach many, to love them all, and one of them, who I’ll call Junior (who is now nineteen), came to visit me last week.  At first he talked about how he was looking for a college to go to. He clearly wanted me to be proud of him. But then put his head in his hands and said, “I can’t lie to you, you was my best teacher, I dropped out of school before I finished.”  

My heart sank. All of the deformer attacks on teachers rushed through my mind.  Does this make me a bad teacher?   Through my tear filled eyes, I asked him why.  He told me that his parents had been in and out of jail, on and off drugs, and in and out of shelters from the time he left me in fifth grade.  He explained that it became too difficult to keep up. He said he had been waiting for a transfer from a high school in the Bronx. He waited for the DOE to take care of his paperwork for two months, and eventually he gave up.  I checked with a few contacts, found him a program that will support him with getting his GED and job training, and reminded him, as I do with all of my students, that I am always here, whenever and if ever you need me. 

I have worked in one of the neediest communities in Brooklyn for over ten years as a teacher of children with learning differences.  I have students in jail.  Students I have never heard from again.  Students who come to see me regularly.  Students who got scholarships to private schools.  Students who scored high on tests.  Students who scored low.  Students who are tickled with their job pushing shopping carts at a local store.  Students who shed their special education label and navigate or navigated their way through general education programs. 

What is the measure of my success as an educator?  Is my worth narrowly tied to student outcomes like test scores and graduation rates?  Is an educator only successful, if his/her students are successful?  What is the definition of successful?  Junior may not be a success in the so-called reformers eyes, but given the insurmountable odds he has faced and the countless adults who have disappointed him in his life, the fact that he found me again after all of this years and felt safe enough to tell me the truth, to make himself vulnerable, and to ask for help to improve his life highlights the narrow lens with which this film, and we as a people, view education in our society.   

It’s complicated.  There are no easy answers.  Charters are not a panacea.  Teachers and their unions are not villains, nor are we superheroes.   It is true Junior is a “drop-out”, but I do not consider him to be a failure, nor do I consider myself to be a failure.  As a teacher, there are many factors I cannot control.  While I cannot be superman, my students have shown me year after year that to the vast majority of them I am their hero, and they are mine.  That is all the ‘data’ I need.

If we want to begin to have a real dialogue about real reform, we must address the economic benefits for some that come by excluding large portions of our population from economic access via equitable educational opportunities.   If I believed for one second that the current reform agenda held the promise of equalizing educational opportunities for all, I would embrace it, and would be the first standing on the front lines fighting for it.  Instead I find myself firmly planted on the other side; the side of real reform with the belief that we can have great community public schools for ALL children if only we stopped waiting and started taking authentic action.  We allocate on average $33,000 a year per prison inmate while we allocate an average of $9,000 a year per pupil in our public schools.  Something is gravely wrong with these numbers.  If we can hold teachers accountable to data, shouldn’t we hold our policy makers to the same standard?  It is time to take the long view.  Will the Real Reformers please stand up?

Movie Trailer to be Released- The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting For Superman

There's been lots of excitement in GEMville over the last few days. We finally finished the trailer for our film last night and expect to release it within the next 48 hours. We are also working on our performance art and will announce a rehearsal and follow-up performance tomorrow of our song "Will the Real Reformers Please Stand Up?"

I got a call from a teacher going home on the bus yesterday who said she was so excited when she saw the lyrics. We hope people can join us as we announce the dates. Imagine a performance of hundreds of people on the steps of Tweed? Maybe only a dream but not impossible.

As for the film, now that the trailer is done we have to start editing the massive amount of footage we have accumulated. There is a story line being developed. We expect the film to run about 28 minutes and hope to make it available to schools and groups that request it - would be a great lunchtime event. We're aiming for an end of October release but since all the other people involved other than me are working educators, we will see how it shapes up. And then I also got a part as Vinnie the whinney, whimp, henpecked card player in Rockaway Theatre Company's upcoming production of The Odd Couple and rehearsals are starting - and all the other actors have been in scads of shows and this is my first. So why do I feel that I never retired?

I'm going to be at the UFT Chapter Leader meeting today passing out the new GEM newsletter and more info about the film and performances so stop by and say hello if you will be there.


Here is what I posted the other day.

Will the Real Reformers Please Stand Up?

Real Reformers have been working to counter the Waiting for Superman and MSNBC Education Nation (see NYC Educator today: Ship of Fools.)

GEM has been organizing around this and working with parents and teachers around the city to produce out own movie. Look for the trailer to be released at the GEMNYC blog and Ed Notes in a few days. GEM will also be organizing performances at various locations in the city of the eminem song "Will the Real Slim Shady Please Stand Up?" with lyrics rewritten by the GEM crew. While singing, some people will stand up for Real Reform with these signs:

7 "real reforms" 

     

Real Reform #1:  Smaller class size

Real Reform #2:  Excellent community school for ALL

Real Reform #3:  More teaching less testing

           

Real Reform #4:  Parent empowerment and leadership

Real Reform #5:  Equitable funding for all schools

Real Reform #6:  Anti-racist education policies

Real Reform #7:  Culturally relevant curriculum

Here are the lyrics. Start warbling (and if you want to know when and where these "surprise" performances will be taking place, email me off line.)

May, I have your attention please?

May, I have your attention please?

Will the real reformers please stand up?

I repeat, will the real reformers please stand up?

We might have a problem here…

These deformers don’t gotta real plan in their pack, but we do

We reject their agenda and you should too!

You think they have ideas for real reform?

Half them been looking for ways to make cash since they were born.

“But guys, what if its not lies, wouldn’t it be great?” (nerdy voice)

Why, so these guys can sell their charter plate?

Mess with our kids’ future fate?

Naw, Superman is here and not too late. (sarcastic)

Klein, Rhee and Duncan better switch us jobs,

So we can put an end to those hedge fund hogs.

They put teachers on blast in the newspaper?

“ all you need is quality teachers…. deerrrr!” (mocking voice)

We will expose their agenda and open your eyes

And show the world their drive to privatize… (yell:  ahhhhhhh)

sick of the law and pr groups all you do harms kids

So we have been sent here to expose you,

And there’s a million reformers just like us,

Who teach like us, who have kids like us,

who care like us, real reformers for just’us

just trust us, parents and teachers unite like us…

Cause we the real reformers, yes the real reformers

All you other deformers are just speculating

So won’t the real reformers please stand up,

Please stand up, please stand up? (reapeat 2x)

Waiting For Superman Challenged by Teachers in San Francisco: An insult to teachers and students

Before I get to this report, I wanted to give you an update on our own actions here in NYC in response to the film – at least what I am at liberty to say right now. GEM (Grassroots Education Movement) is moving ahead on our own film – The Inconvenient Truth About Waiting for Superman – which we hope to have completed by the end of October. Hopefully the trailer will be finished in time for the Superman release next week. We will debut it here on Ed Notes. We are also working on some songs around the theme of the "Will the Real Reformers Please Stand Up" and might even perform it in various locations and meetings. We will be looking for volunteers to join in so start gargling. We may even have instruments. If you are planning to see the film it is opening in LA and NYC on Friday, Sept. 24 and will be showing at the Lincoln Square cinemas near Lincoln Center. I can write the rave reviews from the anti-union press right now. Some of us are going that night so we can produce a fact sheet to refute the inconvenient truths for our movie. Email me for details if you want to join us.

An insult to teachers and students

September 14, 2010

A NUMBER of members of Educators for a Democratic Union (EDU) and a few leaders from our union, United Educators of San Francisco (UESF), attended the advanced screening of Davis Guggenheim's Waiting for Superman.

We were there to pass out some leaflets and challenge the director of the movie, who would be speaking at the end.

What about the movie?

Yikes! Let me try and summarize: The problems with public education is bad teachers, the tenure that protects them and the unions that protect tenure. The problem is not funding, because plenty of money has been thrown at schools to succeed. The solution is charters. Also, there is some criticism of "tracking," which is probably the only part of the movie I agreed with.

That's about it. When Guggenheim took questions afterward, he opened with the fact that he was a "friend of public education," that he liked unions, and that he was not saying charters were the answer.

The problem was that the entire thrust of his movie contradicted that. It was crazy.

UESF leaders and EDUers were able to get questions out to him that challenged the frame of his movie: Why are you attacking unions? Why don't you mention funding? Or the larger political questions facing the country?

Guggenheim was mostly patronizing, saying that he couldn't include "everything." Regarding unions, he said he was in a union (the Director's Guild) and he supported unions and the protections they provide. Presumably, he is for protections for everyone except teachers. He also called himself a leftist, saying that believed in social justice...after bashing unions and teachers.

I stuck around afterward to invite Guggenheim to come to Mission High School and actually see how public education works to serve our neediest students. I also told him that I was disappointed by his attack on unions, which had been the only protection many of us had this year when the budget ax came swinging down.

I overheard him talking to an aide saying "Wow! This was a tough crowd." She replied, "Well, it is San Francisco."

I was surprised by this, because he had only fielded four or five questions at most. We hadn't even started!

Finally, for a movie titled Waiting for Superman in which "Superman" is supposed to be a great teacher (white and male, I guess), this movie did not contain a single interview with a teacher. It had a grainy camera inside a class which showed teachers reading a newspaper. It showed clips from School of Rock and the Simpsons but no teachers

Who was interviewed? Principals of charters, D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee and, of course, Bill Gates' ugly mug was all over the movie.

My final question to Mr. Guggenheim is, if you are really "Waiting for Superman" why do you spend so much time in your movie interviewing Lex Luthor?

Andy Libson, San Francisco

http://socialistworker.org/2010/09/14/insult-to-teachers-and-students

Still Waiting for Superman

Things are heating up over the upcoming release of the pro-charter, anti teacher union Waiting for Superman film. A bunch of us had a conference call tonight to discuss a reaction for teachers and parents calling for real reform.

Here are some links I put up on Norms Notes.

Dan Brown on Waiting For Superman

This is the most important part of his essay-- the part that might actually influence what happens in American classrooms-- and it's simplistic to the point of uselessness. I know that Guggenheim is a movie director and not necessarily a policy wonk, but by making Waiting For Superman he should assume responsibility for the reforms he's pressing. His recommendations are so vague that many would-be reformers can and are using the same language to promote untested, potentially dangerous initiatives.

Susan Sawyer's Waiting for the Truth

 the film's conclusion is as simplistic as it is misleading: charter schools are good, and public schools, as they stand currently, are bankrupt. We knew from some of our own reporting that New York City was home to a collection of successful and innovative public schools that could challenge this assumption. But even more curious, the film undercuts its own message midstream by reporting that "only one in five charters is producing good results."

charter schools are funded through a combination of public and private funds, but they are independently run. They are not subject to the same level of scrutiny or accountability as traditional public schools.
Furthermore, many charters have been criticized over the years for making little to no room for students with special needs or English language learners. These students tend to be sent instead to low-performing public schools, further eroding their chances for success and the school's ability to improve.
Other school success factors go unmentioned, such as access to healthy food, exposure to rich language, a safe neighborhood, a stable home life and a supportive community. As in any story, there's only so much space or time to make a point, but still.

 his film promises to enlighten audiences about the educational injustices school kids face. It will inevitably leave viewers moved by the plight of the children, yet also unable to see any workable solutions beyond creating more charter schools.
That's more than inconvenient. It's tragic.

From Gotham Schools

• “Waiting for Superman” director Davis Guggenheim thinks teachers are most important. (HuffPost) - 

At my house the other night, the suspense was more intense than a thriller. My wife, daughter and I were huddled over a computer in the kitchen. I had control of the mouse, but clearly I wasn't going fast enough scrolling down the list, because my wife snatched it from my hand. Then my daughter shrieked, "Mom!, it's right there! See!!!" There it was, the list of fourth graders and which teacher was assigned to each student -- her little nine year old finger, hunting for her name. She saw it first and starting squealing, then my wife jumping up and down (I've always been the slow reader) But yes, yes!!!! It was there. We got the teacher we wanted. I joined in the celebration high five-ing my daughter, but more importantly my wife because we knew the single most important factor in determining her success this year would be the teacher she sees at the front of the classroom each day.

I wonder if Guggenheim's daughter would be so excited at the teacher she is getting if she went to a KIPP school? Then again, is he saying that the school he sends his daughter to has teachers who are not all excellent? What is it about this particular teacher they are so excited about? High test scores? How does he define "success"?