Mollie Bruhn: Challenging “Waiting for Superman” in Kappan Mag

Our film was not the first nor the only thing to clue people in to the dangers of the corporate reform movement, but “The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman” has proven to be an important piece of the ever-growing pushback and effort to preserve public education... Mollie Bruhn in Kappan on the making of "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman."

This article is available at PDK for the public until end of February:
http://www.kappanmagazine.org/content/95/5/47.full.pdf+html

Watch the film here or click the tab at Ed Notes.

When Mollie isn't writing she has Max read to her.

When the editor of Kappan, the organ of Phi Delta Kappa, an international association of professional educators, contacted GEM/Real Reform Studios last spring about doing an article on the making of "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman" many of us were busy with organizing in MORE and Change the Stakes, the two branches that had emerged out of the Grassroots Education Movement - the teacher/UFT oriented MORE and the parent dominated CTS.

There was no time to get back into more film work with Real Reform Studios, especially since two key people, Mollie Bruhn and Darren Marelli were about to have a baby. I offered to start writing the article but as usual got involved with too many things. Once Mollie got settled with new baby Max and also took a child care leave, she picked up the project and did a wonderful job in chronicling the work we did. Mollie is too modest to talk about her enormous impact on shaping the film. Her article captures the great synergy the entire crew developed as we engaged many of the leading people in NYC fighting ed deform in the making of the film.

When we began making the film in August 2010, the deform movement was rising like a rocket. I feel we were amongst the first people out of the box with a powerful deterrent that helped lead the counterattack that has gained so much speed since then.

Kappan has just published Mollie's article.

Challenging “Waiting for Superman”

1. Mollie Bruhn

+ Author Affiliations

1. MOLLIE BRUHN is a kindergarten teacher for the New York City Department of Education and was an editor for “The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman.”

Abstract

A group of New York City public school teachers, angry about the depiction of public schools in ‘Waiting for Superman,” decide to make their own film about the realities of the current education reform movement. They persevered even though they had no budget when they started and lacked a background in filmmaking. ‘The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman’ was released in May 2011 and has proven to be an important piece of the ever growing pushback against corporate education reform. 

You can read it here:
http://www.kappanmagazine.org/content/95/5/47.full.pdf+html

Here are a few pics.

"Waiting for Superman Makes List of Famous Documentaries That Were Shockingly Full of Crap

Waiting for "Superman" -- Charter Schools Kind of Suck, Too

[NOTE: SEE OUR RESPONSE TO WFS HERE]

Read more: http://www.cracked.com/article_20585_6-famous-documentaries-that-were-shockingly-full-crap.html#ixzz2btdYTlUR

The Film:
Waiting for "Superman" is one of those documentaries that made everyone who watched it instantly call their friends and tell them they had to drop everything they're doing and see it right away. Even President Obama declared himself a huge fan.

According to this award-winning film, only 20 to 35 percent of eighth graders in the U.S. read at grade level, an alarming statistic that explains so much of the Internet. It follows a number of families as they try to get into charter schools, which offer a free alternative to the crushing bureaucracy that is killing our public education system. Tragically, not all of the families get in, damning those kids to schools where they'll hopefully at least be taught how to tell when their pimp is cutting their crack with too much baking soda.

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The Fallacy:
Waiting for "Superman" was all about improving the country's education, but it's so poorly researched and one-sided that it might actually be making things worse.

Let's start with that "only 20 to 35 percent can read well" statistic: The real number is closer to about 75 percent. Also, you might remember a throwaway line about how only 1 in 5 charter schools performs better than public schools -- yeah, that's sort of a big deal, movie. Thirty-seven percent of charters actually perform worse.

Via Wikipedia
Unfortunately the director went to a charter school, so math isn't his greatest strength.

The film focuses on the charters that perform better, of course, but at least one of those is achieving its results through fishy means. One of the administrators of a school shown in the film, the Harlem Children's Zone, expelled an entire class of children that he feared would throw off his glowing performance statistics. It turns out that when teacher pay and/or school funding is tied to student performance, a model that the film advocates, it opens the door for all kinds of shady shit, including flat-out expelling low-performing students the day before the test to boost their numbers.
In the movie, not getting into a charter school is the worst thing that can happen to a poor family, but studies have shown that school choice itself matters little to a student's success -- shockingly, it's more about how seriously the students themselves and their families take their education. And that ghetto public school might not actually be so bad: According to administrators from Woodside High School, which the film claims only sends a third of its students to college and only graduates 62 percent of them, the film excluded students who go to out-of-state colleges in their statistics, and their graduation rate is more like 92 percent. Shit, being left behind is starting to sound awesome.

GEM Film Fires Up John Dewey Teachers and Teachers and State Legislators in Albuquerque/ Three NYC Screenings this Weekend

The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman

Lots of screenings in NYC and around the nation, with 3 here in NYC this weekend. Last night I hear between 20 and 30 people viewed the film, including "Battle for Brooklyn" director Michael Galinsky, whose film has been on the short list for an Academy Award nomination. Michael, whose child is in a school that came under Tweed interference has been a promoter of our film and the support and advice of a pro to us amateurs has been inspiring.

My question is why more NYC school-based people who read this blog are not showing the film which seems to have had such a positive impact on teachers under assault?

I was at the picket line at John Dewey this morning and had a great response from the small group of people who stayed after school yesterday to watch our response to WFS. I heard there was a standing ovation from people at a school under severe attack by the ed deform crowd at Tweed that they were inspired. One teacher told me she was hoping to show it to the entire staff during regent week next week.

Of course the UFT continues to snub a film that people say has been the best film response to ed deform and an inspiration for activism. Oh, that's right. The UFT doesn't really want working classroom people active. Only retirees. We made the film that the UFT with all its money should have.

At least some AFT locals are free to hold screenings and here is a great report from two teachers in New Mexico whose local president held a screening and invited 6 state legislators.

They sent this with a $20 check:

My husband and I are both teachers. We saw a viewing early on and wanted a copy of our own. This past week our union had invited members and state legislators to a viewing (it was very well received by all) to which we brought our copy just in case. It happened that our president's copy was scratched so we used ours. It was a rewarding evening. There were six senators and reps there --- we all got fired up.
I have gotten permission from my principal to play it for interested staff and others after school one day. Thank you for making it so readily available.
F and R
Albuquerque public schools
Albuquerque Teachers Federation #1420

There are 3 screenings this weekend and another at 6PM on Thursday at PS 84 in Williamsburg just 2 blocks from MS 50 which held a raucous hearing on Jan. 17 opposing the Moskowitz invasion:

Sat: Jan. 21, noon: Labor Goes to the Movies

Special Saturday Screening of The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman-- both films with WFS first so if you saw that go later.

January 21 - 12:00pm ,PSC Union Hall, 61 Broadway, 16th Floor
Please join us for our special back-to-back Saturday screening/discussion on January 21 of Waiting For Superman and The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman. One has received massive publicity and funding to promote charter schools as part of a neoliberal reform. The second one is a local NYC response, made by NYC schoolteachers, exposing the inaccuracy and inequity driving the charter school movement. We will view both films and have a discussion featuring Julie Cavanagh, one of the Inconvenient Truth producers, and PSC's Treasurer and author on the charter school movement, Mike Fabricant.
The screening is sponsored by the PSC and is open to the public.
PSC Union Hall
61 Broadway, 16th Floor
$2 donation
Refreshments served
RSVP Phone Number:
212 354 1252 ex 270
Email Address:
shughes@pscmail.org

Occupy Williamsburg sponsors 2 screenings:
Sunday at 2 and 4PM at Spectacle Theater in Williamsburg
124 South 3rd St. near Bedford Ave.


Sponsored by Community Education Council District 14
Thursday, Jan. 26 at 6PM
PS 84 - 250 Berry Street (between Grand and South 1st).

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Tonight: PS 215 School closing hearing in Rockaway at 535 Briar Place.

Labor Goes To the Movies Jan. 21 in NYC and May in Turkey: Screening of "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman

2011: Huzzah Huzzah "Incnvenient Truth behnd Waitng for Superman”-- documentry made by NYC teachers shown in evry state w/ no promotional $$  --Tweet from  susanoha Susan Ohanian

UFT continues boycott of GEM film
They love the GEM-made movie all over the world - including New Zealand and Turkey - except at the UFT which continues to boycott what many consider the most effective case made against the ed deformers. But then again, maybe, just maybe, the UFT doesn't want the case against ed deform made effectively.

I know, I know. Even many of my friends who are critical of the UFT look at me with cross eyes when I claim the UFT/Unity Caucus/AFT leadership is often on the other side of the line with one foot in the ed deform camp. But the boycott of our film, which if the leadership really wanted to educate the members and should show it at the Delegate Assembly, is a perfect example.

Atlanta

Dear Friends,
I was unable to attend our local showing in Atlanta of Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman, but I just got to watch my own copy… 
Just superb, folks. I’m making copies for friends teaching in departments of education, for public school teacher friends, and anyone else I can think of.  And I’m trying to figure out a way to legitimately use it in my first-year composition classes at Morehouse. And more. I’m busted financially, but I want to at least send you a tiny thank you. Million thanks for your work, your voices. --- Cindy

New York: Jan. 19: Park Slope - details on request.

New York: Jan. 21

The ITBWFS will be shown by the PSC as part of its Labor Goes To the Movies series on Sat. Jan 21 along with Waiting for Superman.


http://www.psc-cuny.org/calendar/labor-goes-movies-3


Labor Goes to the Movies
January 21, 2012 - 12:00pm


Special Screening and Discussion of Waiting for Superman and the documentary it inspired, The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman.


Waiting for Superman (Davis Guggenheim, USA, 2010)
From the director of An Inconvenient Truth, the most galvanizing film of last year attempted to explain the causes and effects of the failing US schools system. Although the director has claimed that he did not intend to create a pro-charter, anti-union bias, the film highlights the work of charter school and privatization advocates. These “heroes” blame ineffective teachers and their unions for preventing reform. The critical and popular acclaim for this film has sparked widespread discussion about education reform, as well as a counterpoint documentary. Come see why the American Federation of Teachers called Waiting for Superman “scathing” and “potentially dangerous” to US teachers.


The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman (Julie Cavanagh, Darren Marelli, Norm Scott, Mollie Bruhn, Lisa Donlan, USA, 2011)


In response to the criticisms in the popular Waiting for Superman, a group of public school teachers and education activists proposed a different set of problems and solutions to the US education crisis. The result is a counter-narrative suggesting that low-budgets, lack of teacher support, standardized testing, systemic poverty and myriad other factors are to blame for drop-out rates and low scores. The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman challenges the common misperceptions and offers feasible solutions for students in New York City and the rest of the country.


Email Address: shughes@pscmail.org
Location Name: PSC-CUNY office
Address: 61 Broadway, 16th Floor

Turkey: Laborfest

Hello,
I am writing you on behalf of the Organising Committee of the VII. International Labour Film and Video Festival in Turkey.

Our Labor  Film festival is an enterance-free and prize-free festival that has been screening approximately 50 films around 25 countries each year.
You can find information about the first year's activities in an article at this link:
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2006/zeltzer230506.html

We would like to screen  your film  called "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman " during our festival in May 2012 in Turkey.
We need you permission and DVD copy.

Kind Regards,
Coordinator
Önder Özdemir

New Zealand

Hi all
Just seen your video on YouTube and want to say I really enjoy the
discourse you are creating. It is scary times in New Zealand. We had a
recent election and are under a National (centre-right wing) government again. Days after they won they announced that they want to start creating charter schools. They will begin in Christchurch (our quake stricken city) and South Auckland (poor area of Auckland). This rhetoric was not present during their campaigning. I don't know what will happen but we are going to fight against it if we can. Keep up the good work.
Kylie

Just survived my first year of teaching

============

Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on the right for important bits.

GEM'a ITBWFS Film Showing at PS 75

Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on the right for important bits.

The Convenient Truth About My Road Trip to SUNY Cortland, Part 1

11/11/11 - Been waiting  a hundred years to write that.

Happy Armistice Day everyone. That was what we called it when I was a kid. Just read that 116,000 Americans died in the Great War - most over a very short period of time. We visited the War Memorial Museum in London not long ago and I had to be torn away - just trying to imagine what being part of that was like.

I realize I have too much to say so I am making this a 2-parter. (See part 2 here.)

Last Update: 5:30pm

Part 1
I got back Thursday from my overnight trip to SUNY Cortland, a small state school not far from Syracuse. I was representing the Grassroots Education Movement film "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman." The surprising demand for our film as a counter to WFS in colleges has been amazing. (See the note I attached at the end of this post as an example of the kind of email we get every day.) Of course need I remind you that the UFT continues to boycott our film while failing to come up with an adequate response to the ed deformers - but then again when they try to straddle the line how can they? At the TC panel when an audience member attempted to brand the union as opposing standardized testing, Julie pointed out that union has basically supported high stakes testing (though you hear whimpers now and then about how awful it is.)

This was the 4th panel I have been on over the past 2 weeks. Up to now I have backed off these panels, deferring to so many of our great young spokespeople who are so facile with the issues. But with all our classroom people so busy, the the 3rd string is going in - me.

Let's see now, I was at Hofstra, NYU, Teachers College and Cortland. All in 2 weeks. Whereas NYU and TC were post screening QandAs, at Hofstra and Cortland I was expected to speak for 15 minutes.

Yikes! A speech. I really have never done much of that so I had to do a lot of thinking, a dangerous thing, continuously worried I would have a Rick Perry moment.

The speaking events did not follow a screening so the audience did not necessarily see our film. Both had a focus of sorts on charters - at Hofstra I was in a debate of sorts with a NYC Charter School Center rep. I did OK but felt me remarks should have been tighter but I had trouble putting the case against ed deform into 15 minutes. That experience helped me organize a better presentation at Cortland which I hope to further refine just in case I have to do it again.

I did have some trepidation about heading into the land of academia where I am not that comfortable. I did not leave the classroom and I believe that no matter what people say deep down those who did leave must be wondering what was wrong with me.

But as you'll see, the experience at Cortland was A+ all the way.

I want to thank Alexis Abramo of the Teacher Professional Development Network at SUNY Cortland for organizing the event and taking great care of us. She got us plane tickets and hotel rooms and even picked us up at the airport. She arranged a full day for us including lunch, dinner and a conference room for us to work in preparing our remarks, also treating us to lunch and organizing a dinner with much of the faculty before the panel. And she brought us chocolate snacks.

Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz

By "us" I mean Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz a professor at Teachers College, Columbia who I flew up with. I  briefly met Yolanda at one of the New Teacher Underground meetings this past summer where she was a guest speaker. As we went around the room announcing how many years the teachers were in the system, we heard numbers from one to four - until they came to me. My "35 years" blew some people away. She came over to thank me for my years of service and gave me a big hug. We chatted and realized we were both on the same panel in Cortland.

So when we met again as we were boarding the plane and found we were sitting next to each other, we began a rich conversation about education that went on - except for a some breaks during the day - until we closed down the restaurant in the hotel later that night after a delicious late post dinner snack. We would have kept going except Yolanda had to catch a 5:30AM flight back.

I found out on this trip that Yolanda is one of those incredibly supportive people who expresses appreciation to everyone for what they do - really always thinking of others - one of those Teach for America alum who really gets it.

After lunch we went to a bag lunch seminar run by Lalitha Vasudevan, another Teachers College Prof and a good buddy of Yolanda's. There was a small group of future teachers in the room and I was impressed by their fervor and commitment to teaching. I was thinking whether these fully trained teachers preparing for a career who were not Teach For America 6 week short-term wonders would go the way of the Dodo bird.

Many of you  may remember the anti-Teachers College frenzy that went on in the early years of BloomKlein during the Lucy Calkins craze where teachers felt that the TC method was being forced down their throats. Well, being exposed to these ladies for an entire day certainly had a positive impact on me.

After dinner, we went over to the lecture hall. Both films had been screened

Sandra Vergari

3 times over the last week but I was concerned that people in the audience may not have seen the film. So I asked for a brief segment to be shown.

In addition to Yolanda and myself the panel also included Sandra Vergari who has done extensive research on charter schools. Sandra was there to provide a neutral perspective on charter schools to counter my rabid anti-charter stance while Yolanda was taking a position somewhere between Sandra and I.

In Part 2 I will talk about the panel, the audience (mostly students with a batch of professors) reaction and my impressions of a day spent in the bowels of academia.

---------------------
Afterburns
In our movie, Sam Coleman from GEM and NYCORE, a teacher at PS 24 in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, makes some powerful statements about how high stakes testing has affected his school, which services so any English language learners. He says when asked why his school doesn't do as well on the tests Sam says, "You're asking the wrong question. What's wrong with your tests?" Here is a great piece on Sam's school, which by the way has a number of activist young teachers working with NYCORE. (Thanks to Gotham Schools for the link). It is noteworthy that the DOE offered reams of support for the principal and the work the school is doing.

A look into a dual-language program at Brooklyn’s P.S. 24. (Feet in Two Worlds)
-------------------------
Our Film at UNM

Hi there,
I am part of the Peace Studies Program here at the University of New Mexico and we are interested in doing a large scale (hopefully!) screening of the movie at the start of next year where we plan to try to raise some money for your work and local education reform efforts.  In the meantime - we would like to show it to a small group of students and faculty this coming Monday (Nov. 14) in order to figure out a specific set of talking points and how to prep. classes and the public in advance of the film and to better prepare for a post film discussion. Last semester we did the same with 'Waiting for Superman' and were able to quite successfully debunk the film...  We hope to take as good of a look at your film in order to highlight its attributes...When we showed 'Waiting for Superman' last semester (to an audience of about 100+ people), we had invited the New Mexico Secretary of Education - Hannah Skandera (formerly of Florida fame) to engage in a debate with our in state NEA Union President.  She cancelled at the last second when she realized that the crowd on campus might be critical of her - so we had a great time deconstructing the film without her!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Valerie Strauss

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Whoop Dee Do! I love that connection to the Ferguson "Inside Job." If only we could get him to do the ed deform exposure movie? The full piece is below but first time out for a commercial:
_________________________

The NYC DOE goes begging to give away free tickets to WfS as I posted at Norms Notes with the letter a DOE official sent out:

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

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

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

Another says:

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

And this:

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

Commercial break over
_______________________

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

_______________

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

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

Excerpt:

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

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

 MUST READ FULL REVIEW

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

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

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

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

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

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

Some more funnies from the editorial:

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

The editorial closes with:

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We’re still waiting for Superman here in Charterland

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

GEM Heroes on TV and Broadway

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Inconvenient Truth Behind Superman - The Trailer

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

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

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

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

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

GEM REAL REFORMERS: Smashing Broadway Success!

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

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

G'Night!

Paul Moore: Wishing On A Star Now?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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


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

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

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

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

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

So presenting Randi as our rep is beyond a joke.

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

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

Norm,

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

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

Kind Regards,

Erica Anderson
DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS | @KATIECOURIC

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here is the press advisory.


Press Advisory                         

Date:  Thursday, September 23, 2010   

Contact:

Norm Scott: 917-992-3734

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

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

Where: Lincoln Square 13 Movie Theater, NY, NY

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

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

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

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

Additional Contacts:

Lisa Donlan, Parent: 917-848-5873

Mona Davids, Parent: 917-340-8987

Sam Coleman, Teacher:  646-354-9362

Julie Cavanagh, Teacher: 917-836-6465