We had at least 40 of us in one classroom and the teacher refused to teach. This is our country. By the time they finish eighth grade, they will have doubled their math and reading scores. Last Friday night I watched Davis Guggenheims new documentary, Teach, which was broadcast in on CBS.Guggenheim, you may recall, is the filmmaker who brought us Waiting For Superman, the shameless propaganda-fest that signaled the full-on nuclear stage of the corporate-driven war on public education (also known as the stream The answer is we need great public education for all of our schools. Kids coming into middle school and fifth grade with first grade reading abilities, leaving in eighth grade with a 100 percent proficiency, outscoring kids in Scarsdale, New York. I've been amazed by what's possible. >> Final words with our panel, next after a short break. Stevenson feeds into Roosevelt, one of the worst-performing schools in Los Angeles. GUGGENHEIM: The issue is not just lousy teachers. By what name was Waiting for Superman (2010) officially released in India in English? We need to get involved and take ownership over this and go to the schools and tutor, go to the schools and mentor. /ArtBox [ 0 0 595.27600 841.89000 ] CANADA: There are two things. And I don't want to make this about the presumptive mayor. And she thought I was crying because it's like Santa Claus is not real and I was crying because there was no one coming with enough power to save us. People -- but this room needs to get bigger. >> Thanks to all of our guests. >> >> Though money doubled, reading and math scores have flat-lined. Tomorrow morning Joes going to be live from Learning Plaza. That means in the midterms. So we've got to open up this issue of innovation and we've got to make sure that in those places we allow real educators to come in and redesign this thing so it works. /GS1 17 0 R And the next morning Im driving my kids in the minivan to school and they go to a great private school in Los Angeles. SCARBOROUGH: John Legend, final thoughts? You fought the law and the law won. SCARBOROUGH: It really is. RHEE: Heres the thing. Anthony's class visits the Seed School, the first urban public boarding school in the country. This scene is an important one because it highlights how the acceptance of students into charter schools is determined by the luck of the draw and how some students are not able to enter into the public school of their choice solely because luck was not on their side. BRZEZINSKI: Ill tell you right now, Randi, I want to know after the break why we can't use pay to inspire teachers. WebWaiting For "Superman" has helped launch a movement to achieve a real and lasting change through the compelling stories of five unforgettable students such as Emily, a >> SCARBOROUGH: Davis? endobj This is a documentary about our failing education system and the tears we saw in this room are about our children and how our schools are leaving them behind. Waiting for "Superman" is a 2010 American documentary film written and directed by Davis Guggenheim and produced by Lesley Chilcott. BRZEZINSKI: Randi, really quickly. If I don't, Ill just be with my friends. I mean I think that's what this whole debate is about in many ways. We need to do a lot more of what Debbie Kenny is doing in that school but we need to do whats going on in lots and lots and lots of public schools because at the end of the day, every single teacher I know wants to make a difference in the lives of kids. /Type /Page /TrimBox [ 0 0 595.27600 841.89000 ] (END VIDEO CLIP) BRZEZINSKI: And there are kids that don't make it. NAKIA: The schools in my area don't measure up as far as the reading is concerned, the math is concerned. And what teachers have told us is that focus instead on the tools and conditions we need to do our jobs. Obviously at the end most people watching this movie teared up. Its so interesting you say that because Mika, Chris, our EP, myself, everybody thats seen this movie says first of all, they break down and cry at the end of this movie and then when they go home and they look at their children, children who can go to really great schools, they look at their own children differently. Let me answer your question first. Rhee said that only a small number of teachers and principals cheated. 1h 51m. The principal wants her to stay. [32][33][34][35][36], A teacher-backed group called the Grassroots Education Movement produced a rebuttal documentary titled The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman, which was released in 2011. /T1_1 20 0 R Ravitch says that a study by Stanford University economist Margaret Raymond of 5000 charter schools found that only 17% are superior in math test performance to a matched public school, and many perform badly, casting doubt on the film's claim that privately managed charter schools are the solution to bad public schools. /Rotate 0 BRZEZINSKI: Why not inspire them with pay? Come on out. And the city of Indianapolis said you're the most effective ninth grade reading teacher in our city and we're going to give you a great reward, five days later they had to fire her because the contract said she's the youngest teacher and she has to go Now, there's no one -- bad person in the process. The filmmakers deliberately kept the camera on certain students and their families, like Nakia and Bianca, in order to show how those who did not get into charter schools felt extremely disappointed and emotional because they had hoped to be accepted into a schoolthat would not fail them. /Contents 36 0 R /Type /Catalog In this incredible movie, "Waiting For Superman," Davis Guggenheim introduces to us some of the heroic parents who struggle to provide a better future for their children. /Type /Page I think if we actually got to what constitutes a good teacher and had that kind of standard we'd all be in the same place on that and there are about 50 or 60 districts right now, I made a proposal in January about how to overhaul evaluation. There are winners and losers. David Guggenheims Waiting for Superman looks at how the American public school system is failing its students and displays how reformers have attempted to You could fail those kids for another 20 years, everybody keeps their job, nobody gets the go. SCARBOROUGH: Do you think he's going to do the right thing now that the teachers union is giving him a million dollars? RHEE: You wake up every morning and you know that 46,000 kids are counting on you. These are your schools, your communities. We can't wait and talk about this another seven, eight, ten years. It's shameful. "[10] Joe Morgenstern, writing for The Wall Street Journal, gave the film a positive review writing, "when the future of public education is being debated with unprecedented intensity," the film "makes an invaluable addition to the debate. SCARBOROUGH: All right, Davis, Davis, you said at the beginning you didn't want to get involved in this project. Feel free to edit or add to this page, as long as the information comes directly from the Waiting for Superman. SCARBOROUGH: Really quickly. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Daisys path to medical school begins with eighth grade algebra which she'll need to take when she moves up to Stevenson Middle School. One of them is Nakia. It is impossible and we can fix it and I think that's what this movie gets to. NAKIA: Shes 7 now. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ANTHONY: I want to go to college, get an education. [15] Deborah Kenny, CEO and founder of the Harlem Village Academies, made positive reference to the film in a The Wall Street Journal op-ed piece about education reform. We're in a crisis. Yes, first or second grade skills. >> They'll talk about this issue. [30] In Ayers' view, the "corporate powerhouses and the ideological opponents of all things public" have employed the film to "break the teacher's unions and to privatize education," while driving teachers' wages even lower and running "schools like little corporations. BRZEZINSKI: Why didn't they add up? /CropBox [ 0 0 595.27600 841.89000 ] Of course, Washington has problems going back decades. /CropBox [ 0 0 595.27600 841.89000 ] >> BRZEZINSKI: No. NAKIA: Yes. RHEE: Yes, that's right. Since charter schools do not operate with the same restrictions as public institutions, they are depicted as having a more experimental approach to educating students. People couldn't believe you could do it. /Properties << endobj How do you get past that? SCARBOROUGH: Welcome back to our education nation special on "Waiting For Superman." He wrote "Shine," the theme song for "Waiting For Superman." /T1_0 24 0 R WEINGARTEN: Theres nothing wrong with what Geoffrey just said. /Type /Page /T1_1 24 0 R We have to fix this thing and it means the adults have to take leadership. We're seeing all this great success in Harlem, there were forces that were trying to make sure that that couldn't be replicated on a larger scale. Even during the MSNBC town hall today, there were teachers who say I don't care about tenure. All we're going to do is pay good teachers more money. Where does the union take some responsibility in this? /Length 868 PG. GUGGENHEIM: And the stakes for them. Have your mom and dad told you about the lottery? Webwaiting for superman movie transcript+filetype:ppt+filetype:pdf. He's a Grammy award winning songwriter. So there are teachers who are having this debate within the spectrum of your organization. You don't come off well in this movie. We love good teachers. << That's what our union has been trying to do for the last two years. ", "Film's anguished lesson on why schools are failing", "Protesting teachers give 'Waiting for Superman' an 'F', "Catching up with WAITING FOR SUPERMAN's Davis Guggenheim", "At the Critics' Choice Awards: Winners Are Social Network, Inception, Firth, Portman, Leo, Bale | Thompson on Hollywood", An Inconvenient Superman: Davis Guggenheim's New Film Hijacks School Reform, "Michelle Rhee's Cheating Scandal: Diane Ravitch Blasts Education Reform Star", "Waiting for Superman" star on cheating scandals, Eager for Spotlight, but Not if It Is on a Testing Scandal, FRONTLINE: The Education of Michelle Rhee, "NYC teachers counter 'Waiting for Superman' with film of their own", "Waiting For "Superman": How We Can Save America's Failing Public Schools", Critics Say Documentary Unfairly Targets Teachers Unions and Promotes Charter Schools, Black Reel Award for Outstanding Documentary, Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest, Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Documentary Feature, George Harrison: Living in the Material World, DallasFort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Documentary Film, Summer of Soul (Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), National Board of Review Award for Best Documentary Feature, Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse, Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, Producers Guild of America Award for Best Documentary Motion Picture, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Waiting_for_%22Superman%22&oldid=1118430069, Documentary films about American politics, Documentary films about education in the United States, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 27 October 2022, at 00:08. CANADA: Can I just say this -- [ applause ] this is the one area and Ive heard, Ive heard this suggested. I mean, from my perspective, it really seemed like what was scary to people was this idea of beginning to differentiate folks. [3], Geoffrey Canada describes his journey as an educator and recounts the story of his devastation when, as a child, he discovers that Superman is fictional, that "there is no one coming with enough power to save us.". SCARBOROUGH: Thank you so much. There are a couple of things leaders, in which we all are, could do. LEGEND: My last thing I would say, we have to realize that these kids are our kids. We'll be joined also by Grammy award-winning singer/songwriter John Legend and our friend at "MORNING JOE" as well. And at the same time, have some due process so that we guard against our arbitrariness. /Font << CANADA: The thing I think Chancellor Klein and Mayor Bloomberg have done, they really looked for people to come into the city who had a proven track record. [37] It criticizes some public figures featured in Waiting for "Superman", proposes different policies to improve education in the United States and counters the position taken by Guggenheim. BRZEZINSKI: All right. They couldn't add basic first grade skills, they couldn't have it. RHEE: Were not going to be able to solve the problem going one city at a time. SCARBOROUGH: Why are you going to get fired? WebSummaries. LEGEND: We need to be clear, you know, sometimes it sounds like everybody is on the same team up here because we all sound like we agree. Because we talked to Randi before. That was teachers talking to each other and talking to the world about what teachers needed. 8 0 obj >> So look, all of us on this stage, whether it's Geoffrey or Michelle or Davis, myself, the two of you, we all care passionately about the children. /ProcSet [ /PDF /Text ] There are core values we have to have. I want to talk about New York for one second. endobj The issue is, and we saw it and heard it in the town hall today a lot, we need to have instruments like they do in every other business to effectively judge and assess teachers. /Font << WebFILM SUMMARY With passion and urgency, WAITING FOR SUPERMAN advocates for the educational welfare of Americas children in a public school system that is severely SCARBOROUGH: As far as -- well -- LEGEND: Why is there a cap? [4][5][6] On Rotten Tomatoes the film has a "Certified Fresh" approval rating of 90% based on reviews from 118 critics. The film portrays the deep sadness that Bianca and her mother feel when Bianca is not accepted into the charter school as the two embrace one another at the end and Nakia dries her daughters tears (Guggenheim 1:37:35). What's Mayor Bloomberg doing right? stream BRZEZINSKI: They were underperforming it. Theres a lot of schools that I want to take you to Davis, great public schools where we are breaking the sound barrier, too. >> WebShop for waiting for superman documentary transcript filetype:lua at Best Buy. This is about the kids in the movie, and this is about how those of us on this stage help kids. There are two Americas right now when it comes to education. BRZEZINSKI: Nakia, thank you. I want the system to be better. These students range in It's the school that Deborah Kenny runs. SCARBOROUGH: You mean against -- RHEE: Against Fenty, my boss. Ravitch also writes that many charter schools are involved in "unsavory real estate deals" [31], In 2011, many news media reported on a testing score "cheating scandal" at Rhee's schools, because the test answer sheets contained a suspiciously high number of erasures that changed wrong answers to right answers. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You see the cages up here. Because you would think that the parents of those children that Michelle was in there shaking up the system to save those children, if those parents would have rallied, but we have gotten so used to failure, we tolerate failure in places like D.C. and central Harlem and Detroit, we just tolerate that failure and we've got to say to this nation, no more. JOE SCARBOROUGH: Good evening. Waiting For Superman was more widely released than any other documentary, and among the highest-grossing documentaries of 2010. "[18] Kyle Smith, for the New York Post, gave the film 4.5 stars, calling it an "invaluable learning experience. By showing its audience that even charter schools close their doors to some students, which them forces these students to attendfailing public schools, the video illustrates howthere are still flaws to the American public school system and challenges that need to be addressed. I said mommy wanted you to stay in your school and she finished my sentence. /Type /Pages SCARBOROUGH: How do we do it, Geoffrey? It reveals that the two major problems Towards the end of the film, there is a segment that illustrates the charter school lottery as it takes place for different schools. By Stephen Holden. END VIDEO CLIP BRZEZINSKI: All right. SCARBOROUGH: You also told me that there was a split in the civil rights community, that older members of the civil rights community sometimes fought younger members of the civil rights community who were reformers. "Waiting for Superman" ( Superman & Lois), an episode of Superman & Lois. We love hard-working teachers. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Vergosa, Andrew. But when I saw you after the film, and I would -- being macho, hey, Davis, how you doing, man? Why is that? The film shows how the audience members, filled with prospective students and their families, all sit with apprehensive looks on their faces as they anxiously listen to the names and numbers of the children who are called and are therefore accepted into the charter school by luck of the draw. I knew -- as Davis said, I knew what was going to happen before she knew what was going to happen. WebSynopsis. RHEE: You know what, heres the thing. There's a lot of people in this country that aren't feeling what we feel. /Contents [ 9 0 R 10 0 R 11 0 R 12 0 R 13 0 R 14 0 R 15 0 R 16 0 R ] "[22] Anderson also opined that the animation clips were overused. /TT0 48 0 R The filmmakers made sure to film how Nakia becomes increasingly more anxious and concerned as time passes during the lottery, but fewer spots become available and her daughters name has not been called (Guggenheim 1:32:49). Now, a couple of years ago, an independent group called Ed Sector actually surveyed a whole bunch of teachers and asked teachers the question about whether they needed or wanted a union. So they were trying to impose a cap on the number of charter schools that could be had in New York. First, I loved that town hall today. Because I know he's easily influenced to do things he shouldn't do. And what the teachers wanted in Washington were the tools and conditions for them to do their jobs. This isn't some Hollywood drama or a romance flick. GUGGENHEIM: Ive seen the movie hundreds of times. "[20], The film also received negative criticism. Randi said something that was fascinating. SCARBOROUGH: Why would you spend a million dollars to defeat a mayor? WebFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. There's a problem with our system and who know that there are children in this country who are falling behind. SCARBOROUGH: Davis, let's begin with you. I have a good feeling about this. /CropBox [ 0 0 595.27600 841.89000 ] I want to hear what some of those steps are, specific ones. Joe and I saw the movie a few days ago and we literally walked up Broadway, I think it was, in complete silence, both feeling very twisted and angry about what we had seen. WEINGARTEN: I think look, again, we had a moment in time where we actually got to an agreement. CANADA: Look, no business in America would be in existence if it ran like this. Michelle Rhee, the former chancellor of the Washington, D.C. public schools (the district with some of the worst-performing students at the time), is shown attempting to take on the union agreements that teachers are bound to, but suffers a backlash from the unions and the teachers themselves. We increased student achievement levels. SCARBOROUGH: Not a Bush apostle. /Resources << The contract says she has to go. I think he wants to do the right thing. Make sure the tenure is not ever construed as a job for life. NAKIA: I was disturbed. I have a 12-year-old that goes to public school. And the audience in this room just finished watching an extraordinary powerful film called "Waiting For Superman" which opened just a few days ago. New York City on a bad day outpaced Washington on a great day. WEINGARTEN: Yeah, of course. endobj There are also comparisons made between schools in affluent neighborhoods versus schools in poorer ones. /Length 866 /MediaBox [ 0 0 595.27600 841.89000 ] Because what's happened in so many instances, is that the evaluation system is what's broken. My kids have won the lottery. NAKIA: The public schools in my neighborhood don't add up to what I want from her. /GS0 47 0 R BRZEZINSKI: When we come back, we'll be joined -- SCARBOROUGH: One thing we do agree on -- BRZEZINSKI: We have to go. Guggenheim, Davis. GUGGENHEIM: Absolutely. It is about working together to create problem solving contracts and ultimately, Michelle, it's not about you or I. [31] Ravitch served as a board member with the NAEP and says that "the NAEP doesn't measure performance in terms of grade-level achievement," as claimed in the film, but only as "advanced," "proficient," and "basic." She was assigned in January. 40 years later we're still fighting for equality and one of the biggest barriers to achieving quality is the fact that so many kids in our country can't get a great education. Educ 300: Education Reform, Past and Present, an undergraduate course with Professor Jack Dougherty at Trinity College, Hartford CT. David GuggenheimsWaiting for Supermanlooks at how theAmerican public school system is failing its students and displays how reformers have attempted to solve this problem. Ravitch said that "cheating, teaching to bad tests, institutionalized fraud, dumbing down of tests, and a narrowed curriculum" were the true outcomes of Rhee's tenure in D.C. "[23], Author and academic Rick Ayers lambasted the accuracy of the film, describing it as "a slick marketing piece full of half-truths and distortions" and criticizing its focus on standardized testing. But, Mondello It starts with teachers becoming the very best, leaders removing the barriers of change, neighbors committed to their school, you willing to act (Guggenheim 1:45:05-1:45:28). WebTRANSCRIPT: WAITING FOR SUPERMAN PANEL DISCUSSION WITH: NBC'S JOE SCARBOROUGH; NBC'S MIKA BRZEZINSKI;DAVIS GUGGENHEIM, DIRECTOR, << RHEE: I do. Somebody who's fighting for kids like Daisy is John Legend. KENNY: We catch them up to basic level and we accelerate them to proficient. I said I don't want to go up. I cry for him sometimes. Educational reception and allegations of inaccuracy. /GS0 18 0 R Davis, god bless you. Davis Guggenheims Documentary, Waiting for Superman explores the corrupt American School system. /MediaBox [ 0 0 595.27600 841.89000 ] [2] The film criticizes the American public education system by following several students as they strive to be accepted into competitive charter schools such as KIPP LA Schools, Harlem Success Academy and Summit Preparatory Charter High School. They were the right things for kids but they made the adults incredibly uncomfortable. And we have to have everyone, even parents, recommitted, you know, even school officials, district heads, superintendents, unions, all of us have to move off a position of self-interest like I do with my own kids, sending them to private school, like the unions do, I think, preserving the status quo. The issue is we have to all do this together with good contracts, with all of us on the same side, getting to help good teachers, getting supportive principals, getting a curriculum and the wrap-around services that Geoff does that cradle to college service. All of my kids have gone to public school. More importantly than our union, the new mayor is committed to it. The second thing is, I think the frustrating thing to me about panels like this, when we get going we have to stop. Michelle and I love great teachers. It seems to me, Davis, that you done get -- teachers don't get evaluated like every other business. We're going to do it with a man who made this film and some of the people who were in it. /GS1 17 0 R GEOFFREY CANADA, PRES. endobj You cannot say -- you can't say, well, the problem with charter schools is they only serve some of the kids when in fact you are advocating for caps on those effective charter schools. WEINGARTEN: Michelle and I may disagree on the particulars of this, but there are about 50 or 60 districts that are using the proposal that we made and ultimately we think if we do that, if we fix teacher evaluations so it's about teacher development and evaluation, we can fix this problem. John, tell us how you got involved in this. But the issue in terms of the election, went far further than education. /Properties << "Geraldo at Large." }>=Uw2cS=V. I9kZJw^EAOd j]Y[wl-e06E#/mlyTbE9f}@8 a/ ^} Where you tried to focus on good teachers in Washington. >> Geoffrey Canada has done it. BRZEZINSKI: You can hear the distrust here. /Properties << The good guys/heroes are low-income American parents, hoping to provide a good education for their children. WebThe documentary Waiting for Superman, directed by Davis Guggenheim, is a film that shows how school systems are today. And this is not America, the idea that one kid could have a great education and one kid can't. SCARBOROUGH: If you're going to lock kids in Harlem out of that process and let a few see the light and see the -- that seems to me to be immoral. There are people who have figured out systems of improving education and the mayor was very aggressive in bringing those folk into New York City and saying to them, we're going to remove the obstacles for you all to do your work. But I do think though Davis even though we may disagree there wasn't a public school or a public school teacher that was pictured in this film, people have done amazing jobs. You know that process has to be fixed. Yet instead of examining this critical issue objectively, the movie Waiting for "Superman" cites false statistics in their effort to scapegoat teachers, unfairly blaming them for all the failures of our urban schools. In fact you come off quite badly. SCARBOROUGH: What have you learned since getting involved? We even tolerate mediocre teachers. It's must-see TV. WEINGARTEN: No one, you know, teachers in at least our union would be the first to tell you, we rail against this system in some ways as much as Geoff and Michelle. The answer is no. Is there any give here? The bottom line is, you cannot say that you support removing ineffective teachers when then I fire ineffective teachers and you slap me with lawsuits and you slap me with the grievances. In fact, those are the very areas where he has success. Walk in and I still want every kid to win. The site's consensus states: "Gripping, heartbreaking, and ultimately hopeful, Waiting for "Superman" is an impassioned indictment of the American school system from An Inconvenient Truth director Davis Guggenheim. /Font << BRZEZINSKI: When the results came down, we watched you respond, we watched her respond. It matters who your local representative is. 1. /ProcSet [ /PDF /Text ] 4,789 Views. /T1_0 52 0 R E]D[JWlwH{,j73?Mazd. They clearly illustrate that no matter the area, teachers are failing America's youth at an alarming rate.. SCARBOROUGH: All right. Weve seen some innovation spread more than one place. Compute answers using Wolfram's breakthrough technology & knowledgebase, relied on by millions of students & professionals. By the time she leaves Stevenson, only 13 percent of her classmates will be proficient in math. So even though we may disagree about that, what this film does, it creates a moment in time. That's why -- SCARBOROUGH: To John's point, though -- WEINGARTEN: So we never -- SCARBOROUGH: Unions fought like hell against these successful charter schools being able to expand in New York State. The only disagreement that I think our union has had in terms of the way in which things have gone, is that our folks have desperately wanted to have a voice in how to do reform. Feb 22, 2013. 57 percent of Daisys classmates won't graduate. BRZEZINSKI: Okay. What's amazing about these tears, I knew about the film for months and just knowing the system, I knew how it was going to end. We're turning to you now. [1], The film has earned both praise and negative criticism from commentators, reformers, and educators. We increased graduation rates. MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Take a look at some of the reactions from just a few minutes ago as people watched this movie. SCARBOROUGH: Fantastic. We applaud everybody for joining us on this stage. Because we do understand if we're going to fix this problem, we're going to have to figure out how to get you guys together and make this work. RANDI WEINGARTEN, PRES., AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS: Sure. The film is extremely eye-opening, showing just how bad a state most of our education systems are in. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. They want to know what good teaching looks like and they want to emulate it. << /ExtGState << /Rotate 0 I went up and I saw a revolution, a revolution that you helped start. I want to say something about what John just said. That youre not going to look American with our 15,000 school system and say we're going to charter them, that's just not going to happen in my lifetime. BRZEZINSKI: Thank you. RHEE: I'm just wondering, if the AFT was putting a million dollars into mayoral campaigns all across the country just based on who the teachers liked, I would buy that argument.