If I have kids, I don't want kids to be in this environment. >> The answer is we need great public education for all of our schools. I actually have teachers in my family who really think is this is a terrific movie because it exposes for them how complicated it is, how important it is to get great teachers in the classroom and what a difference they can make. /Length 868 GUGGENHEIM: Absolutely. [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. I want to talk about New York for one second. 2 0 obj It reveals that the two major problems According to Waiting for Superman, from 1971 to today, America has gone from spending an average of $4,300 per student to $9,000 per student, (adjusting for inflation). Many of them. %PDF-1.3 /T1_1 24 0 R /Parent 1 0 R 9 0 obj It's must-see TV. [31] (The film says, however, that it is focusing on the one in five superior charter schools, or close to 17%, that do outperform public schools.) 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. (END VIDEO CLIP) BRZEZINSKI: And there are kids that don't make it. We have to go to break. It's the school that Deborah Kenny runs. 100 percent of the kids pass the science regions. PG. What were the results of the kids who came in and were about to graduate this June, late May, what is the change that has happened with these children? << >> Gripping, heartbreaking, and ultimately hopeful, Waiting for Superman is an impassioned indictment of the American school system from An Inconvenient Truth SCARBOROUGH: Fantastic. BRZEZINSKI: Randi, really quickly. And the next morning Im driving my kids in the minivan to school and they go to a great private school in Los Angeles. (d acJ4@%Q8C/! SCARBOROUGH: Last in, first out. A teacher wants to stay. It's not sexy to vote in the midterms but it matters who, you know -- BRZEZINSKI: Oh, yes it is. The fact that there are currently not enough spaces in American schools should also be viewed as one of the primary factors defining their failure to meet the needs of students (Guggenheim). /Contents [ 39 0 R 40 0 R 41 0 R 42 0 R 43 0 R 44 0 R 45 0 R 46 0 R ] Michelle and I love great teachers. More importantly than our union, the new mayor is committed to it. If Anthony goes to Souza, odds are he'll enter high school three to five grade levels behind. This is about the kids in the movie, and this is about how those of us on this stage help kids. You say no one wants lousy teachers but there are a lot of really lousy teachers who are protected by this current system. 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. Where does the union take some responsibility in this? 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. /Type /Page We can't achieve equality or humanity and justice for everybody if we can't make sure that every kid gets a good education. John, tell us how you got involved in this. I went up and I saw a revolution, a revolution that you helped start. BRZEZINSKI: When we come back, we'll talk more about that. 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 We should let Randi respond. Why did you pick this topic? 8 0 obj I mean, from my perspective, it really seemed like what was scary to people was this idea of beginning to differentiate folks. I think what's happened in places like Washington and I saw it compared to New York City. You try to make reforms and it causes a problem. Obviously at the end most people watching this movie teared up. SCARBOROUGH: They can't. She said Washington, D.C. even on its best day, wasn't like New York City on its worst day. RHEE: First, I think I would be remiss if I did not point out to everybody that there's been a lot of talk about public schools, public schools. /TrimBox [ 0 0 595.27600 841.89000 ] 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. [16], The film has also garnered praise from a number of conservative critics. I want to ask you another really quick question and then go around to the rest of the panel. At the end of the film, there is writing that states: The problem is complex but the steps are simple. >> And the idea that we now can do it means that we have a very moment right now to say let's take those things, let's take those ingredients and bring them into mainstream schools. LESTE BELL, DAISYS TEACHER: She chose her college and she wrote a letter to the admissions and asking them to allow her to attend their college. SCARBOROUGH: John Legend, final thoughts? We love good teachers. Randi was talking about instead of focusing on bad teachers, focusing on good teachers. These are your schools, your communities. 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. Compute answers using Wolfram's breakthrough technology & knowledgebase, relied on by millions of students & professionals. And that's something that no parent wants their child to ever be a witness or to hear when they're going to school. >> SCARBOROUGH: As far as -- well -- LEGEND: Why is there a cap? 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. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lets get started. /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 ] If you look at what the Kipp schools have done or the uncommon schools, they've been able to replicate this model over and over. GUGGENHEIM: And fight for these kids. >> 6 0 obj A good education, therefore, is not ruled out by poverty, uneducated parents or crime and drug-infested neighborhoods. In response to this problem, many reformers, including Geoffrey Canada, have tried to look for solutions. It's about those kids. WEINGARTEN: The issue in terms of the D.C. election was our members and others really like Vincent Gray. "Waiting for Superman" ( Superman & Lois), an episode of Superman & Lois. /ProcSet [ /PDF /Text /ImageC ] "[30], Diane Ravitch, Research Professor of Education at New York University and a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, similarly criticizes the film's lack of accuracy. SCARBOROUGH: We really had. /MC0 31 0 R >> ANTHONY: Its bittersweet to me. Eighth graders at Kipp L.A. Prep get triple the classroom time in math and science. "Waiting for Superman," a fascinating new documentary, is drawing attention to the state of our public school, directed by Davis Guggenheim, who brought us 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. BRZEZINSKI: You can hear the distrust here. /Properties << SCARBOROUGH: Geoffrey Canada, some remarkable things are happening in Harlem. >> /GS1 17 0 R They do allow us to figure out what's working and we should replicate it and what's not and we should close those charter schools that arent working so that we actually develop a science in our business about what works in what kinds of environments and in what kinds of communities. However, the film shows how even charter schools leave some children behind, as those who are not chosen by the luck of the draw in the lottery system, are not able to attend the charter schools of their choice. /Resources << "[20], The film also received negative criticism. I know they are. /TrimBox [ 0 0 595.27600 841.89000 ] All you have to do is listen to people in Washington about it. /MediaBox [ 0 0 595.27600 841.89000 ] endobj We had at least 40 of us in one classroom and the teacher refused to teach. /GS0 18 0 R E]D[JWlwH{,j73?Mazd. DAISY: I want to be a nurse. KENNY: Now studying Shakespeare, passing the regions in physics, passing the regions in chemistry, 100 percent in U.S. history across the board, all of them are going to go to college. There is a perception out there that is the union that is standing in the way of principals firing bad teachers. SCARBOROUGH: The nation's capital. Statistical comparisons are made between the different types of primary or secondary educational institutions available: state school, private school, and charter school. Geoffrey Canada: I was like what do you mean he's not real. SCARBOROUGH: Right. What if I made a movie that gets people to care about other peoples children and fight for other people's children as much I fight for mine. People -- but this room needs to get bigger. [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.". 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. /GS1 17 0 R 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. There are two Americas right now when it comes to education. /MediaBox [ 0 0 595.27600 841.89000 ] We can run the school the way we want, which is to give our teachers the power to teach. /ProcSet [ /PDF /Text ] So the kids who came to us in 8 plus 3 they would couldn't the like this. I was really tired. How do you explain that to a child? SCARBOROUGH: Not a Bush apostle. >> I knew -- as Davis said, I knew what was going to happen before she knew what was going to happen. RHEE: Yes, that's right. The film shows how Geoffrey Canadas solution to this problem was to create charter schools that would give children and their parents more options within the public school system and would hopefully raise academic performance, decrease dropout rates, andincrease the number of students who attend college. SCARBOROUGH: No doubt about it. I'm just wondering. I support public schools. A lot of times, the unions, for instance, were fighting to -- fighting the right to have more charters in New York. Your last really big film was "Inconvenient Truth." I'm feeling it. /TT0 48 0 R But do you think Michelle Rhee was trying to improve the performance of the teachers in her district, was she trying to make the schools better? We have to take ownership. /BleedBox [ 0 0 595.27600 841.89000 ] That's what our union has been trying to do for the last two years. SCARBOROUGH: Right. And I don't want to make this about the presumptive mayor. It took a little while to get the money straightened for this green light and 80 percent of the teachers voted for that agreement. I knew what the final scene would look like and I still broke down three times. SCARBOROUGH: Do you think he's going to do the right thing now that the teachers union is giving him a million dollars? Take a look. /ExtGState << BRZEZINSKI: On Tuesday morning at 8:00 a.m. from this very stage, General Colin Powell and his wife on "MORNING JOE." Because I seen what you do, Ive seen what Deborah Kinney has done, Ive seen what a lot of people have done out there and it seems to me, the model is find an extraordinary person, put them in a school, let them run that school. /Parent 1 0 R Waiting for Superman.2010. [39], There is also a companion book titled Waiting For "Superman": How We Can Save America's Failing Public Schools.[40]. The film will focus on the times when Superman is younger, with an emphasis on how he balances his Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing . Waiting for "Superman" is a 2010 American documentary film written and directed by Davis Guggenheim and produced by Lesley Chilcott. /ExtGState << 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. No one can go home and stick their head in the sand. SCARBOROUGH: I tell you what, that was the part of the movie where Daisy, you saw her crossing her fingers and write physically got nauseated. Because what is wrong with what he's saying? SCARBOROUGH: It really is. << We applaud everybody for joining us on this stage. endobj SCARBOROUGH: Its about jobs. & CEO, HARLEM CHILDRENS ZONE: I think the real important issue for us to face as Americans is if we don't fix this, we will not remain a great country. KENNY: Right. And at the same time, have some due process so that we guard against our arbitrariness. You do not come off as the hero of this movie. HdT]H|G?GdW{MND)>qOX3cL>NHjr5i:bSqu >> BRZEZINSKI: No. 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. Davis, I want to go to you on this one. /Contents 36 0 R American schools face frequent budget cuts, but its not all about the money. Thank you so much. WebShop for waiting for superman documentary transcript filetype:lua at Best Buy. And what we're finding in some schools we should spread throughout all the schools in this nation. "[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. /Rotate 0 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. DAISY: I want to go to a medical college or a veterinarian college because I really want to become a surgeon. 1h 51m. Yes, there should be fairness. I think the question about whether school reform can continue at as an aggressive rate under him is whether hes going to be able to stand up to the fact that SCARBOROUGH: Let me ask you this Michelle. ?zBzD%YC1_PVu,fkGsM'2Hnm^]6_1W|qpff&,+y cWoM~UNxa*_EE}=}z/P__~:Y)z `'4Q!-ccE"?6HD6JW (b]Jl BP> 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. "[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. Nakia joins us here tonight. LEGEND: Yes. "[19] Forbes' Melik Kaylan similarly liked the film, writing, "I urge you all to drop everything and go see the documentary Waiting For "Superman" at the earliest opportunity. It's about places that have failed for 30, 40, 50 years, we can't do the same thing this year that we did last year. schools. WEINGARTEN: Yes. BRZEZINSKI: And the reaction that we saw just moments ago was the same, these are people who know. The union itself has instead of focusing on good teachers and how we need to help them, give them the tools and conditions, we have always focused on, you know, the due process protections. You have to live in the district. JOE SCARBOROUGH: Good evening. That was teachers talking to each other and talking to the world about what teachers needed. By the time she leaves Stevenson, only 13 percent of her classmates will be proficient in math. No one wants lousy teachers. /ProcSet [ /PDF /Text ] /Contents 33 0 R 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. SCARBOROUGH: The reformer. " YR0^hC#mlj'@]Gc2x}SVvP[sL,yD1-ut |c,{CG1 RHEE: Were not going to be able to solve the problem going one city at a time. There are a couple of things leaders, in which we all are, could do. You have to pull out a bingo ball and call your number. 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. Connecticut and Hartford education policy resources, Creating a Dual-Language Magnet School for Hartford Region, Sources on Trinity student protests since 2007, Jack Dougherty and Trinity College Educ 300 students, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, An Uncommon Critique: How A Charter Networks Success Safeguards Student Experiences, The Evolution of Gender Inequality At Trinity College: A Study Through Different Publications, Higher Education for Dreamers After the Failed DREAM Act. That was in the second grade, because my father had passed. Davis, god bless you. Where has the union misstepped to help us get to where we are today? /CropBox [ 0 0 595.27600 841.89000 ] How do we spread that from Harlem across America? BRZEZINSKI: Nakia, thank you. BRZEZINSKI: Okay. 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. You all have your numbers, right? 1 0 obj UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Daisy and her parents have found one other option. SCARBOROUGH: Okay. Since many charter schools are not large enough to accept all of their applicants, the selection of students is done by lottery. But it's not just Harlem -- if my movie, I call it, they're breaking a sound barrier. And I couldn't understand that why did it take this much to go through all of this? Documentary. Waiting For Superman was more widely released than any other documentary, and among the highest-grossing documentaries of 2010. And systems that actually help create continuous improvement. ", "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. I said that's right, but that was mommy's choice to put you in that school. /Font << It's shameful. Randi said something that was fascinating. endobj /BleedBox [ 0 0 595.27600 841.89000 ] SCARBOROUGH: OK. You talked about it. That's amazing. Andrew O'Hehir of Salon wrote a negative review of the film, writing that while there's "a great deal that's appealing," there's also "as much in this movie that is downright baffling. /MC0 37 0 R Why were you frightened to send her to school. In a documentary called Waiting for Superman, contemporary education issues that the U.S. has been facing for several decades are addressed. BRZEZINSKI: You also knew that a little girl like Daisy can be a vet or a doctor or anything she wants to be if she's given the tools to do it. NAKIA: Shes 7 now. I've never seen anything like it in my life. Thank you for joining us. People couldn't believe you could do it. I said I don't want to go up. CANADA: Look, no business in America would be in existence if it ran like this. /MC0 28 0 R You went into the lottery system for your daughter. Waiting For Superman has helped launch a movement to achieve a real and lasting change through the compelling stories of the struggles students, families, NAKIA: The schools in my area don't measure up as far as the reading is concerned, the math is concerned. /CropBox [ 0 0 595.27600 841.89000 ] GUGGENHEIM: The dream of making a movie like this is conversations just like this, the fact that you and NBC and Viacom and Paramount and Get School bring a movie to the table and let people in this room have a real conversation about to fix our schools is essential. Because politically, these -- the things that we were doing, closing down schools, firing teachers, moving principals, those were not politically popular things to do. Judith and Jose have decided to enter Daisy into the Kipp lottery. I have a good feeling about this. SCARBOROUGH: Okay, Michelle -- WEINGARTEN: We agreed at times. /Font << SCARBOROUGH: Maybe next segment. /GS0 18 0 R But can we really get Geoffrey Canadas in every public high school across America? I know you have to say your side of this and this is hard for all of us. 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. One of the saddest days of my life was when my mother told me Superman did not exist, the We're here at the site of our education nation summit launching today at NBC News and MSNBC. Teachers in this country want to make a difference in the lives of kids. >> CANADA: Well you know what? This is where the work gets tough, because innovation, this is about innovation. We increased student achievement levels. /Kids [ 4 0 R 5 0 R 6 0 R 7 0 R 8 0 R ] And this is not America, the idea that one kid could have a great education and one kid can't. Having made a film on the subject in 1999, documentary filmmaker. Walk in and I still want every kid to win. We increased attendance rates. /Contents 30 0 R Acquiring that good education is the daunting challenge they face. >> That's so important to help level the playing field for kids who may be disadvantaged. Be the first to contribute. And it's just -- it changes your perspective. Waiting For "Superman" is an inside look at the problems with education in America. "[9] Scott Bowles of USA Today lauded the film for its focus on the students: "it's hard to deny the power of Guggenheim's lingering shots on these children. And we're going to figure out, we're going to get people together here. Throughout the documentary, different aspects of the American public education system are examined. An examination of the current state of education in America today. So we're going to differentiate and we're going to recognize and reward the highest performing teachers and we're going to look at the lowest performing teachers and we're going to remove them from the system. 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. Thanks to all of our guests. It's happening in D.C. It is impossible and we can fix it and I think that's what this movie gets to. By the nature of who my family is. /ProcSet [ /PDF /Text ] And that most of them are getting a really crappy education right now. WEINGARTEN: I live in New York -- RHEE: You put $1 million into a mayoral campaign.
