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Special Features
Four additional inspiring teacher/student stories
Changing the Odds: A look at innovative programs that are changing public education
Public Education Updates: Changes which have taken place since the making of the film
A Conversation with Davis Guggenheim
The Future Is In Our Classrooms
The Making of "Shine": the film’s title track by musician John Legend Commentary by Director Davis Guggenheim and Producer Lesley Chilcott
Changing the Odds: A look at innovative programs that are changing public education
Public Education Updates: Changes which have taken place since the making of the film
A Conversation with Davis Guggenheim
The Future Is In Our Classrooms
The Making of "Shine": the film’s title track by musician John Legend Commentary by Director Davis Guggenheim and Producer Lesley Chilcott
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
In a documentary sure to get parents and teachers talking--and arguing--An Inconvenient Truth director Davis Guggenheim offers an eye-opening overview of America's ailing educational system. Geoffrey Canada, founder of the Harlem Children's Zone, serves as his primary speaker. As a kid in the Bronx, Canada learned that Superman didn't exist, which broke his heart, but also inspired him to help other underprivileged children. Aside from Canada and Washington, DC, school chancellor Michelle Rhee, Guggenheim profiles Anthony, Francisco, Bianca, Daisy, and Emily, engaging young people without access to institutions adequate to their needs (Guggenheim concentrates on the inner city). Bianca's single mother, for instance, sends her daughter to a private facility in New York, but that ends when she can no longer afford the tuition. The five families choose the charter school option, but not every child will win the lottery, since applicants outnumber spaces (in Bianca's case, 767 apply for 35 slots). Guggenheim also questions teachers' unions, which sometimes act against the best interests of students. He's particularly concerned about underperforming instructors who suffer no disciplinary measures due to tenure, but he credits the dedicated professionals who help at-risk kids beat the odds. The film ends with a potentially happy outcome for one subject, but updates on the others fail to materialize. After investing in their stories, it's natural to expect more information. Guggenheim otherwise provides a persuasive argument that involved parents will always have an advantage over those who accept whatever comes their way--no matter how ineffective. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Product Description
From the Academy Award-winning Director of An Inconvenient Truth comes the groundbreaking feature film that provides an engaging and inspiring look at public education in the United States. Waiting 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 Silicon Valley eighth-grader who is afraid of being labeled as unfit for college and Francisco, a Bronx first-grader whose mom will do anything to give him a shot at a better life. Waiting For “Superman” will leave a lasting and powerful impression that you will want to share with your friends and family.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
210 of 253 people found the following review helpful
By David
Format:DVD
One of the most remarkable components of the film was the discussion of a proposal of Michelle Rhee -- the Chancellor of the District of Columbia Public Schools system -- to pay teachers in the district up to $140k based on merit, if tenure would be ended in the district. In the world capital of democracy, the teacher union leaders refused to let this proposal go to a union vote.
This short story is nestled into the middle of the film but describes the flavor of the rest of the movie. "Waiting for 'Superman'" is a shock and awe that delivers convincing arguments that good teachers are what matters to student learning but the U.S. school system cannot let shining stars shine or fire the bad apples, and the worse-off neighborhoods are hit the hardest. One of the major arguments of the film is that teacher tenure* has to go. It makes its case for each point with facts, figures, clear arguments, and examples. The film intensely wraps it all together with emotional connections to a half-dozen students followed through the film, each hoping to literally win the lottery and get a spot in a top charter school.
The film isn't all attack, and it shows several success stories in the form of top charter schools. Many of these schools have graduation rates of nearly 100%, and nearly all students go onto college. Interestingly, many of the charter schools take students who were already behind and from neighborhoods with schools that are classified as drop-out factories (where a minority of students graduate).
"Waiting for 'Superman'" examines the problems, and it shows what is possible.
See this film. Understand the issues. Push for reform.
- - -
* Tenure started with professors at universities. However, professors are never guaranteed tenure when they start their positions, and it typically takes about ten years -- "ten-ures" -- before they earn it. Many never achieve it. Yet K-12 public school teachers who have been only teaching for three years at the same school can achieve tenure, and they don't even have to go through a review to be granted tenure.
This short story is nestled into the middle of the film but describes the flavor of the rest of the movie. "Waiting for 'Superman'" is a shock and awe that delivers convincing arguments that good teachers are what matters to student learning but the U.S. school system cannot let shining stars shine or fire the bad apples, and the worse-off neighborhoods are hit the hardest. One of the major arguments of the film is that teacher tenure* has to go. It makes its case for each point with facts, figures, clear arguments, and examples. The film intensely wraps it all together with emotional connections to a half-dozen students followed through the film, each hoping to literally win the lottery and get a spot in a top charter school.
The film isn't all attack, and it shows several success stories in the form of top charter schools. Many of these schools have graduation rates of nearly 100%, and nearly all students go onto college. Interestingly, many of the charter schools take students who were already behind and from neighborhoods with schools that are classified as drop-out factories (where a minority of students graduate).
"Waiting for 'Superman'" examines the problems, and it shows what is possible.
See this film. Understand the issues. Push for reform.
- - -
* Tenure started with professors at universities. However, professors are never guaranteed tenure when they start their positions, and it typically takes about ten years -- "ten-ures" -- before they earn it. Many never achieve it. Yet K-12 public school teachers who have been only teaching for three years at the same school can achieve tenure, and they don't even have to go through a review to be granted tenure.
97 of 122 people found the following review helpful
By Robin
Format:DVD
In Waiting for Superman, David Guggenheim's riviting documentary about America's school systems, he asks the question many parents have been asking. If our teachers are central to the performance of a school, how can we reconcile poor performance with an uncritical view of teachers? Are bad schools only in slums? Can children brought up in poverty excel in school?
Waiting for Superman is not an attack on teachers. If anything its a testament to the critical importance of good teachers. Guggenheim's research shows the amazing effect that good teaching can have on a very large population of students. But he also presents the corallary. Just as good teaching saves lives, bad teaching destroys them. And unfortunately Americans have allowed a system to develop where good teachers get no rewards and bad teachers are almost never fired. The problem is not necessarily spending. We have more than doubled our per student expenditures since the 1960s (even adjusting for inflation) and are turning out graduates who are not college ready.
Guggenheim follows the history of American schools showing how up until the 1970s American public schools were the best in the world. He shows how the lack of global competition made us look awfully good. Unfortunately schools need to be better then they were fifty years ago, when they were expected to turn out high school classes where 20% of the kids went to college. Nowadays schools need to turn out graduating classes where just about everybody is ready for a four year college--and very few school districts are doing it. To make the story hit home, Guggenheim profiled several students waiting to get into Charter Schools, schools which are run by different rules than most public schools, and have a history of success. Watching these children observe the lottery that will determine whether they can attend, will break your heart.
He also profiles Michelle Rhee, the take-no-prisoners Superintendent of the Washington, DC school system. As someone who lives right outside of DC, I have watched Rhee and applauded loudly as she has taken on every special interest that holds back education in Washington, DC. The movie showcases her wins in improving DC test scores. Unfortunately it misses the final chapter of Rhee's career, the defeat of Mayor Adrian Fenty, who put his own career on the line, in the interest of the children of Washington, DC. Rhee's future in DC is unknown but the incoming Democratic candidate for Mayor, who will run unopposed in November, supports many of the practices that Rhee fought. As Rhee sadly points out, much of this problem is adults not wanting to confront other adults.
Waiting for Superman is not an attack on teachers. If anything its a testament to the critical importance of good teachers. Guggenheim's research shows the amazing effect that good teaching can have on a very large population of students. But he also presents the corallary. Just as good teaching saves lives, bad teaching destroys them. And unfortunately Americans have allowed a system to develop where good teachers get no rewards and bad teachers are almost never fired. The problem is not necessarily spending. We have more than doubled our per student expenditures since the 1960s (even adjusting for inflation) and are turning out graduates who are not college ready.
Guggenheim follows the history of American schools showing how up until the 1970s American public schools were the best in the world. He shows how the lack of global competition made us look awfully good. Unfortunately schools need to be better then they were fifty years ago, when they were expected to turn out high school classes where 20% of the kids went to college. Nowadays schools need to turn out graduating classes where just about everybody is ready for a four year college--and very few school districts are doing it. To make the story hit home, Guggenheim profiled several students waiting to get into Charter Schools, schools which are run by different rules than most public schools, and have a history of success. Watching these children observe the lottery that will determine whether they can attend, will break your heart.
He also profiles Michelle Rhee, the take-no-prisoners Superintendent of the Washington, DC school system. As someone who lives right outside of DC, I have watched Rhee and applauded loudly as she has taken on every special interest that holds back education in Washington, DC. The movie showcases her wins in improving DC test scores. Unfortunately it misses the final chapter of Rhee's career, the defeat of Mayor Adrian Fenty, who put his own career on the line, in the interest of the children of Washington, DC. Rhee's future in DC is unknown but the incoming Democratic candidate for Mayor, who will run unopposed in November, supports many of the practices that Rhee fought. As Rhee sadly points out, much of this problem is adults not wanting to confront other adults.
248 of 324 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I recommend seeing this documentary for the stories and indelible images (the lottery at the end will stay with you), but I encourage viewers to keep in mind a few facts that the documentary either overlooks or mentions only briefly. It is these omissions that will allow most viewers to leave with two spurious conclusions:
1) Public education everywhere is a failure, and 2) Charter schools are the answer.
First, the documentary conspicuously ignores the issue of inequality created by our current public school funding scheme. Instead, the viewer is told about the major sources of funding (federal, state, and local), but it's never mentioned that the vast majorority of funds come from state and local taxes, with property taxes being the principal determinant of how much is spent per pupil within a school district. The viewer is also told that, on average, we are spending twice as much per pupil than we were 30 or 40 years ago, after adjusting for inflation. What isn't explained is that while the average expenditure has gone up, the range from lowest to highest expenditures has also increased. In other words, the current average is inflated by the fact that some school districts have plenty to spend, so much so that students are given laptops and the schools have pristine facilities. In the movie, viewers get a glimpse of one such school, but it is never explained how such schools can afford all the wonderful amenities and how these schools skew the average per pupil figures; Viewers are just told that some students struggle in those environments too, which of course some do. But when you have huge financial discrepancies between school districts, you also have huge discrepancies in teacher pay, textbook allotments, facilities upkeep, etc., etc. And while people loath to discuss the impact of financial inequities (echoes of "class warfare"), resources DO influence educational outcomes. It's true that you can't just throw money at the problem and expect everything to be magically fixed, but it's also true that you can't allow resources to be so unequally distributed and expect it to have no impact at all. Read Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools for the back story.
Second, the narrator only briefly mentions that 1 in 5 charter schools are exceptional. Well, guess what? That's about the same rate of exceptional public schools! The research on charter schools suggests that charters are about as likely to succeed or fail as public schools (see Privatizing Education: Can The School Marketplace Deliver Freedom Of Choice, Efficiency, Equity, And Social Cohesion? for an overview of the research). What makes this so important is that in most cases, charters have a student selection process that almost guarantees high quality students, and once students enroll, most charters can expell problem students back to the regular public school. The documentary shows the lottery process by which many charter schools select their students. But which parents do you think enroll in the lottery? By and large, these are the proactive and involved parents who expect a lot from their children. So ask yourself: Who ISN'T in the lottery? Based on such selection and retention processes alone, we should expect charter schools to far outperform public schools, but they don't. Sure, there are exceptional charter schools -- some of which are spotlighted in the movie -- but these anecdotal cases are NOT representative of larger trends. In fact, many charter schools fail in their first one or two years of operation and lose their charters. The documentary does not spend a single moment telling that side of the story.
Having said all this, I largely agree with the documentary on the issue of teacher unions. Teacher unions represent a huge impediment to reform, and the unions protect the weakest teachers again and again. Any real effort to improve public education will have to include some shifting of power from the unions back to the school boards, but this shift will need to be done carefully. The documentary does a fantastic job showing the problem of tenure and how this has led to the artificially high rate of teacher retention. The unions have won tenure and pay raises based almost entirely on time in the classroom, rather than performance. Obviously this complicates reform, but there is additional context that the documentary ignores. For example, good teachers are often assigned the most difficult students. In such an environment, student test scores could actually make the best teachers appear incompetent, and the incompetent appear masterful. Again, this is just another instance where the documentary glosses over issues and allows the viewer to come away unfairly biased. We are led to believe that hamhanded "reformers" like Michelle Rhee are always right and the teacher unions are always wrong.
In short, this documentary is worth watching, but don't believe everything you see!!!
1) Public education everywhere is a failure, and 2) Charter schools are the answer.
First, the documentary conspicuously ignores the issue of inequality created by our current public school funding scheme. Instead, the viewer is told about the major sources of funding (federal, state, and local), but it's never mentioned that the vast majorority of funds come from state and local taxes, with property taxes being the principal determinant of how much is spent per pupil within a school district. The viewer is also told that, on average, we are spending twice as much per pupil than we were 30 or 40 years ago, after adjusting for inflation. What isn't explained is that while the average expenditure has gone up, the range from lowest to highest expenditures has also increased. In other words, the current average is inflated by the fact that some school districts have plenty to spend, so much so that students are given laptops and the schools have pristine facilities. In the movie, viewers get a glimpse of one such school, but it is never explained how such schools can afford all the wonderful amenities and how these schools skew the average per pupil figures; Viewers are just told that some students struggle in those environments too, which of course some do. But when you have huge financial discrepancies between school districts, you also have huge discrepancies in teacher pay, textbook allotments, facilities upkeep, etc., etc. And while people loath to discuss the impact of financial inequities (echoes of "class warfare"), resources DO influence educational outcomes. It's true that you can't just throw money at the problem and expect everything to be magically fixed, but it's also true that you can't allow resources to be so unequally distributed and expect it to have no impact at all. Read Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools for the back story.
Second, the narrator only briefly mentions that 1 in 5 charter schools are exceptional. Well, guess what? That's about the same rate of exceptional public schools! The research on charter schools suggests that charters are about as likely to succeed or fail as public schools (see Privatizing Education: Can The School Marketplace Deliver Freedom Of Choice, Efficiency, Equity, And Social Cohesion? for an overview of the research). What makes this so important is that in most cases, charters have a student selection process that almost guarantees high quality students, and once students enroll, most charters can expell problem students back to the regular public school. The documentary shows the lottery process by which many charter schools select their students. But which parents do you think enroll in the lottery? By and large, these are the proactive and involved parents who expect a lot from their children. So ask yourself: Who ISN'T in the lottery? Based on such selection and retention processes alone, we should expect charter schools to far outperform public schools, but they don't. Sure, there are exceptional charter schools -- some of which are spotlighted in the movie -- but these anecdotal cases are NOT representative of larger trends. In fact, many charter schools fail in their first one or two years of operation and lose their charters. The documentary does not spend a single moment telling that side of the story.
Having said all this, I largely agree with the documentary on the issue of teacher unions. Teacher unions represent a huge impediment to reform, and the unions protect the weakest teachers again and again. Any real effort to improve public education will have to include some shifting of power from the unions back to the school boards, but this shift will need to be done carefully. The documentary does a fantastic job showing the problem of tenure and how this has led to the artificially high rate of teacher retention. The unions have won tenure and pay raises based almost entirely on time in the classroom, rather than performance. Obviously this complicates reform, but there is additional context that the documentary ignores. For example, good teachers are often assigned the most difficult students. In such an environment, student test scores could actually make the best teachers appear incompetent, and the incompetent appear masterful. Again, this is just another instance where the documentary glosses over issues and allows the viewer to come away unfairly biased. We are led to believe that hamhanded "reformers" like Michelle Rhee are always right and the teacher unions are always wrong.
In short, this documentary is worth watching, but don't believe everything you see!!!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
A must-see if you are interested in the American education system
You must watch this if you are interested in understanding the US educational system. Although it doesn't provide any solutions, it's a good overview of the problem in urban and... Read more
Published 9 days ago by Albert
5.0 out of 5 stars
Highly recommended!
If you want a no-nonsense, fact-based review of the American education system today, see this. A bit depressing, but it certainly explains alot.
Published 11 days ago by notkidding
2.0 out of 5 stars
You get what you pay for...
Unless US tax payers start paying for quality education we are destined to fail as a nation. Money will solve the majority of the problems. Read more
Published 12 days ago by Skip Stone
3.0 out of 5 stars
Waiting for "Superman" [Blu-ray]
Waiting for "Superman" [Blu-ray] ... This is a good DVD to learn about how the school system has let the children down and that the educational system needs to make... Read more
Published 12 days ago by Michael
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sad but Honest Commentary on Public Schools
This movie is fairly balanced regarding the real issue of public education and the desperate need for change. Unfortunately, there's no super hero coming to save us.
Published 19 days ago by A. Williams
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great
This was a great movie! Opened my eyes in many ways. It is a must see movie for parents, students, and Education majors.
Published 23 days ago by Dawn Risk
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent
For anyone who has an open mind about public education and the ability to change their opinion, I would strongly recommend this movie. It should inspire a fundamental shift.
Published 1 month ago by Diane J. Cobb
5.0 out of 5 stars
Waiting for Superman
This documentary is an indictment of the public school system and exposes the self serving unions that are the real impediment to education. Well done and very factual! Read more
Published 1 month ago by windjammer
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Eye Opening Documentary
I watched this with my son who just completed high school. There were so many points in this documentary that we could relate to. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Kris Thrasher
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very informative.
I found this documentary to be very informative and well put together. The producer of this movie was able to capture your attention with the story of a few young children from... Read more
Published 1 month ago by JacobG
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