From the Washington Posts Answer Sheet
by Valerie Stauss
The documentarians who select the films for Academy Award nominations in the feature documentary category got it right: “Waiting for Superman” was not good/accurate enough to be selected.
The snub to Davis Guggenheim’s tendentious film was well-deserved, given that classic documentaries are factual and straightforward, and don’t, as did "Superman," fake scenes for emotional impact.
Academy Award nominations are heavily political, yet this film didn’t make the cut even though President Obama called it “powerful” and welcomed to the White House the five charming students who starred in the film.
Advertising campaigns have been known to vault films into Academy contention, but not even a $2 million grant provided by the Gates Foundation to market “Superman” worked.
Though "Superman" was on the shortlist for an Academy Award in the feature documentary category, apparently the people who vote on the nominations -- people who actually make documentaries -- saw too many problems with “Waiting for Superman.”
And there are many, large and small.
Guggenheim edited the film to make it seem as if charter schools are a systemic answer to the ills afflicting many traditional public schools, even though they can’t be, by their very design. He unfairly demonized Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, and gave undeserved hero status to reformer and former D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee. Guggenheim compared schools in Finland and the United States without mentioning that Finland has a 3 percent child poverty rate and the United States has a 22 percent rate.
One scene showed a mother touring a charter school -- and saying things such as, “I don’t care if we have to wake up at 5 o’clock in the morning in order to get there at 7:45, then that’s what we will do” -- that turned out to be staged; she already knew her son didn’t get in, according to The New York Times.
Then there was the case of one of the five students featured in the film, Emily Jones, who lives on the suburban San Francisco Peninsula and who, according to "Superman," was desperate to escape her traditional public high school, Woodside High, where she would be doomed to mediocrity.
Except that it wasn’t true. In an interview with John Fensterwald of the Silicon Valley Education Foundation, she said that Woodside “is a great school” that she really liked; she just liked Summit Prep Charter School better.
Late last year, in a piece on Movie Line’s Web site, editor S.T. VanAirsdale asked whether education historian Diane Ravitch’s scathing review of Superman in The New York Review of Books would derail the movie’s chances of nabbing an Oscar.
Just maybe it did.
And maybe this will help persuade those who believed that "Superman" unflinchingly showed reality that, in fact, it didn't, and that it is time to take a new look at public education that doesn't demonize teachers and traditional public schools.
(For the record, the films that did get nominations in the feature documentary category are: Exit through the Gift Shop,Gasland, Inside Job, Restrepo and Waste Land.)
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/school-turnaroundsreform/why-oscar-snubbed-superman---.html?wprss=answer-sheet
Showing posts with label david guggenheim. Show all posts
Showing posts with label david guggenheim. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
Education Matters calls for Oprah Winfrey Boycott
Perhaps the biggest appeal Oprah Winfrey has for her millions of fans is her every woman demeanor. She comes across as someone you could sit down and have coffee with, there is an innate connection. Unfortunately when it comes to education and what to do next Ms. Winfrey proves how disconnected she is.
Her stance on education reform puts her squarely in the billionaires for education reform, blame the teacher camp. Her solutions like theirs are punitive and seek to dismantle public schools. In effect whenever she talks about education she snubs her nose at the hundreds of thousands of hard working dedicated professionals nationwide and the children they teach too.
I think it is time we snubbed our noses back.
I think it’s time we said Ms. Winfrey when you want to talk about education bring teachers on your show, not billionaires like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckenberg, or public school hating film directors like David Guggenheim. Teachers more than them will have a better idea what works and what doesn’t. Even Oprah’s education idol Michelle Rhee only spent three years in a class room, before her running a Teach or America like program landed her the chancellorship of Washington D.C.s schools, of which I will add, her tenure was so polarizing that when the people of the capital voted for a new mayor in reality they were voting against her.
Oprah Winfrey has a powerful soap box which she could use for positive change but instead she has used it to denigrate teachers and public education. As a teacher I say enough and hope all other teachers and people who care about and believe in public schools will say enough as well
Chris Guerrieri
School Teacher
Her stance on education reform puts her squarely in the billionaires for education reform, blame the teacher camp. Her solutions like theirs are punitive and seek to dismantle public schools. In effect whenever she talks about education she snubs her nose at the hundreds of thousands of hard working dedicated professionals nationwide and the children they teach too.
I think it is time we snubbed our noses back.
I think it’s time we said Ms. Winfrey when you want to talk about education bring teachers on your show, not billionaires like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckenberg, or public school hating film directors like David Guggenheim. Teachers more than them will have a better idea what works and what doesn’t. Even Oprah’s education idol Michelle Rhee only spent three years in a class room, before her running a Teach or America like program landed her the chancellorship of Washington D.C.s schools, of which I will add, her tenure was so polarizing that when the people of the capital voted for a new mayor in reality they were voting against her.
Oprah Winfrey has a powerful soap box which she could use for positive change but instead she has used it to denigrate teachers and public education. As a teacher I say enough and hope all other teachers and people who care about and believe in public schools will say enough as well
Chris Guerrieri
School Teacher
Friday, December 24, 2010
Where the achievment gap begins
by Susan Ochshorm
Davis Guggenheim's Waiting for "Superman" hit movie screens this fall, just as the nation's 56 million children were heading back to school. The documentary, which puts the U.S. public school system under the microscope, exposing all warts, has inspired fierce debate among educators and reformers, many of whom have bristled at its strong critique -- or villainizing, as they charge -- of unions and teachers. They point to the absence of innovative models of public schools. Also given short shrift in this cinematic expose -- now up for an Oscar -- is early childhood education.
What happens to children from birth to 5, before they reach the school-house door, is nothing less than a revelation. Neuroscientists, who have been studying children's brains for the past three decades, confirm the dazzling pace of brain development in these early years. By age 2, the number of synapses reaches adult levels, and by age 3, children's brains are twice as active as those of adults. Sensitive, stimulating, and enriching early care and education actually creates the architecture of the brain, building a child's capacity to learn and grow -- cognitively, emotionally, and socially -- and establishing a foundation for later academic achievement and life success.
Researchers have long documented the positive outcomes of high-quality early childhood education, including readiness for school, greater academic achievement, higher rates of high school and college completion, lower rates of incarceration, and higher incomes. And labor economists point to the substantial economic benefits for investing in early childhood education. To successfully reform our nation's public school system, early childhood education must be an integral part of the equation.
Too many of our country's youngest children, however, lack the optimal circumstances for growth and development. According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, of the 25 million young children under the age of 6 in the United States, 46 percent live in low-income families and 24 percent are growing up in poverty. The high levels of family stress and trauma often associated with poverty may result in discontinuity in the quality of children's daily care and education, compromising children's readiness for school.
A recent synthesis of readiness research by the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory confirms that young children's cognitive and social skills in kindergarten are of long-term importance. Kindergarten teachers rate high among readiness indicators physical well-being, social development, and curiosity, along with the ability to communicate needs, thoughts and enthusiasm for learning. While reliable tools for assessing children's readiness are still evolving, anecdotal evidence from states across the United States confirms that growing numbers of children -- many of them low-income -- are struggling in kindergarten.
Indeed, studies show that at least half of the educational achievement gap between poor children and their more advantaged peers is evident in the kindergarten classroom. Children from low-income families often start school with limited language skills as well as social and emotional problems that inhibit learning. And those who start behind are much more likely to stay behind. Today, for example, the average African-American or Hispanic high school student achieves only at the level of the lowest quartile of white students. Black and Hispanic students are also much more likely than white students to drop out, and less likely to graduate from high school, complete college, and earn a living that offers entry into the middle class.
The persistence of the achievement gap has fueled education reform for decades, with early childhood education waxing and waning on the policy agenda. The needs of youth and those who educate them in K-12 classrooms and beyond, are equally urgent, and have justifiably demanded attention and resources as America's global standing in education continues to plummet. This summer, the College Board announced that the United States ranks 12th among 36 developed nations in college completion rates. On October 15, at the first White House Science Fair, President Obama deemed students' performance in math and science "unacceptable," citing a study that found American 15-year-olds ranking 21st in science and 25th in math among their peers worldwide. We must do better, he exhorted, or risk being left behind in the global economy. The release, last week, of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) results, only ups the ante. "It's a Sputnik moment," Obama declared.
Fifteen -- or 20, for that matter -- is much too late to start turning things around. Learning begins at birth.
Just a few days before Waiting for "Superman" was released, Nobel-Prize-winning economist James Heckman wrote a letter to the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Reform. His question: What's the best way to develop human capital to increase workforce capability, enhance productivity and social cohesion, and assure America's economic competitiveness in the global economy? His answer: Invest in comprehensive early childhood development and education, from birth to age 5, especially for our most vulnerable children and families.
Reform strategies that focus exclusively on elementary, middle, secondary, and post-secondary education will not work. Philanthropic and public initiatives that favor one element of the system over another and ignore early childhood in the process are condemned to failure. We can't afford to waste those earliest years of development, where the achievement gap is born.
Taken from the Hffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-ochshorn/where-the-achievement-gap_b_798701.html
Davis Guggenheim's Waiting for "Superman" hit movie screens this fall, just as the nation's 56 million children were heading back to school. The documentary, which puts the U.S. public school system under the microscope, exposing all warts, has inspired fierce debate among educators and reformers, many of whom have bristled at its strong critique -- or villainizing, as they charge -- of unions and teachers. They point to the absence of innovative models of public schools. Also given short shrift in this cinematic expose -- now up for an Oscar -- is early childhood education.
What happens to children from birth to 5, before they reach the school-house door, is nothing less than a revelation. Neuroscientists, who have been studying children's brains for the past three decades, confirm the dazzling pace of brain development in these early years. By age 2, the number of synapses reaches adult levels, and by age 3, children's brains are twice as active as those of adults. Sensitive, stimulating, and enriching early care and education actually creates the architecture of the brain, building a child's capacity to learn and grow -- cognitively, emotionally, and socially -- and establishing a foundation for later academic achievement and life success.
Researchers have long documented the positive outcomes of high-quality early childhood education, including readiness for school, greater academic achievement, higher rates of high school and college completion, lower rates of incarceration, and higher incomes. And labor economists point to the substantial economic benefits for investing in early childhood education. To successfully reform our nation's public school system, early childhood education must be an integral part of the equation.
Too many of our country's youngest children, however, lack the optimal circumstances for growth and development. According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, of the 25 million young children under the age of 6 in the United States, 46 percent live in low-income families and 24 percent are growing up in poverty. The high levels of family stress and trauma often associated with poverty may result in discontinuity in the quality of children's daily care and education, compromising children's readiness for school.
A recent synthesis of readiness research by the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory confirms that young children's cognitive and social skills in kindergarten are of long-term importance. Kindergarten teachers rate high among readiness indicators physical well-being, social development, and curiosity, along with the ability to communicate needs, thoughts and enthusiasm for learning. While reliable tools for assessing children's readiness are still evolving, anecdotal evidence from states across the United States confirms that growing numbers of children -- many of them low-income -- are struggling in kindergarten.
Indeed, studies show that at least half of the educational achievement gap between poor children and their more advantaged peers is evident in the kindergarten classroom. Children from low-income families often start school with limited language skills as well as social and emotional problems that inhibit learning. And those who start behind are much more likely to stay behind. Today, for example, the average African-American or Hispanic high school student achieves only at the level of the lowest quartile of white students. Black and Hispanic students are also much more likely than white students to drop out, and less likely to graduate from high school, complete college, and earn a living that offers entry into the middle class.
The persistence of the achievement gap has fueled education reform for decades, with early childhood education waxing and waning on the policy agenda. The needs of youth and those who educate them in K-12 classrooms and beyond, are equally urgent, and have justifiably demanded attention and resources as America's global standing in education continues to plummet. This summer, the College Board announced that the United States ranks 12th among 36 developed nations in college completion rates. On October 15, at the first White House Science Fair, President Obama deemed students' performance in math and science "unacceptable," citing a study that found American 15-year-olds ranking 21st in science and 25th in math among their peers worldwide. We must do better, he exhorted, or risk being left behind in the global economy. The release, last week, of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) results, only ups the ante. "It's a Sputnik moment," Obama declared.
Fifteen -- or 20, for that matter -- is much too late to start turning things around. Learning begins at birth.
Just a few days before Waiting for "Superman" was released, Nobel-Prize-winning economist James Heckman wrote a letter to the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Reform. His question: What's the best way to develop human capital to increase workforce capability, enhance productivity and social cohesion, and assure America's economic competitiveness in the global economy? His answer: Invest in comprehensive early childhood development and education, from birth to age 5, especially for our most vulnerable children and families.
Reform strategies that focus exclusively on elementary, middle, secondary, and post-secondary education will not work. Philanthropic and public initiatives that favor one element of the system over another and ignore early childhood in the process are condemned to failure. We can't afford to waste those earliest years of development, where the achievement gap is born.
Taken from the Hffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-ochshorn/where-the-achievement-gap_b_798701.html
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)