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The American Public School System is an crisis, failing millions of students, producing almost as many drop-outs as graduates, and threatening our economic future. By 2020, the United States will have 123 million high-skill jobs to fill-and fewer than 50 million Americans qualified to fill them.
Educators, parents, political leaders, business people, and concerned citizens are determined to save our educational system. This book, which delves more deeply into the issues raised by the acclaimed documentary film, offers powerful insights from some of those at the leading edge of educational innovation, including:
Waiting for "Superman" is an inspiring call for reform and includes special chapters that provide resources, ideas, and hands-on suggestions for improving the schools in your own community as well as throughout the nation.
For parents, teachers, and concerned citizens alike, Waiting for "Superman" is an essential guide to the issues, challenges, and opportunities facing America's schools.
Prologue---The Problem
1 A Nation Still At Risk 3
PART I THE FILM
Introduction: Waiting for "Superman"---The Story Behind the Movie 15
Voices from Waiting for "Superman" 23
2 The Making of Waiting for "Superman" Davis Guggenheim Guggenheim, Davis 27
3 The Road to Super Tuesday Lesley Chilcott Chilcott, Lesley 49
PART II FRANCISCO
Introduction: Francisco's Story 67
4 How School Kill Neighborhoods---and Can Help Save Them Bill Strickland Strickland, Bill 69
5 The Difference Is Great Teachers Eric Hanushek Hanushek, Eric 81
PART III EMILY
Introduction: Emily's Story 103
6 Calling All Citizens Eric Schwarz Schwarz, Eric 105
PART IV ANTHONY
Introduction: Anthony's Story 125
7 Putting Kids First Michelle Rhee Rhee, Michelle 127
8 Five Foundations for Student Success Randi Weingarten Weingarten, Randi 143
PART V BIANCA
Introduction: Bianca's Story 165
9 What Really Makes a Super School? Jay Mathews Mathews, Jay 167
PART VI DAISY
Introduction: Daisy's Story 187
10 Bringing Change to Scale: The Next Big Reform Challenge Geoffrey Canada Canada, Geoffrey 189
11 Educating America's Young People for the Global Economy Melinda Gates Gates, Melinda 201
PART VII WHAT YOU CAN DO
12 How you can Make a Difference The Alliance for Excellent Education 215
13 Web Sites and Organizations Devoted to Children, Schools, and Education Reform 229
14 Mom Congress Lesson Plan for Change Editors of Parenting magazine 253
Notes 265
Index 271
AnaMardoll
Posted December 5, 2010
Waiting for "Superman" / 978-1-586-48928-1 I haven't yet seen the documentary that this book is a companion text to; although it was recommended highly to me, I missed it in theaters and it hasn't come available to rent yet. Still, I was curious enough about the documentary and knew just enough to be dangerous about the subject material, so I bought this companion text and plowed right in. Results are...mixed. This book is basically a compilation of essays from different people on the subject of American public school reform. Some of the authors have more expertise than others; wishing no disrespect, some of the essay authors seem to have experience limited only to specific charities or boutique schools, with very little scientific data to back up some of their opinions. It's probably telling that the essay included here that I thought was the most powerful and best researched was the one that criticizes the documentary (and by extension the book) for (a) relying too much on largely out-of-date anecdotes about "bad" teachers and union problems and (b) (possibly inadvertently) pushing the notion that a few boutique schools will solve the problem. It's this essay that points out for all the many pages spent here criticizing unions, there's not any actual strong data presented against unions - a pretty frustrating omission in a documentary! And focusing on the "bad" teachers ignores the more important issue that "bad" teachers often can become "good" teachers with the appropriate training and feedback. Focusing on a cooperative method of evaluation and training seems, to me, to be more important than "fire all bad teachers!" which seems to ignore the problem of where their replacements are going to come from. Moving on, other oddities in the various essays on display here include... An author who thinks it's admirable for a charter school principle to randomly threaten parents with "immigration authorities" if their kids miss a day of class. An author who argues against smaller classroom sizes because ze really doesn't seem to understand how scientific data is collected (to wit, halving a class size and handing off half to a new teacher, and then measuring the combined literary/math scores of both classes at the end of the year doesn't control for the quality of the new teacher; a meaningfully controlled study would measure 1 teacher with X students and compare that against the SAME teacher with X/2 students). An author who argues that principals need to be replaced with "CEO" figures because in a corporation, when something goes wrong, everyone knows the CEO is responsible - an assertion that makes me doubt the author has ever WORKED at a large corporation. An author who wants to reform the school system to resemble the American HEALTH CARE system because - and I swear this is true - it's just so gosh-darn *efficient*. I don't really know what to say to that. I feel like I've been very harsh in my review thus far, and I want to stress that this is a VERY interesting book, with lots of fascinating viewpoints. I do recommend this book if you're a fan of the documentary or if you're interested in the subject matter, but I *do* think that people should read these opinion essays for what they predominantly are: opinions. ~ Ana Mardoll
4 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
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Posted October 10, 2010
I Also Recommend:
As a parent, I was deeply moved by what I read in this book. Not only did it at first make me want to pick up and move my kids to a better school, but then it made want to advocate for a better education for all children. I'd also recommend a great book on the power of forgiveness, it's called "When God Stopped Keeping Score." That book will open your eyes to many things in your life. It did just that for me.
4 out of 8 people found this review helpful.
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Posted December 26, 2011
As has been pointed out, the agenda of this book is more to promote the charter school industry and place blame for underfunded public schools on teachers' unions rather than on the politicians who have taken a hatchet to our children's future.
2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.RB49
Posted July 4, 2011
A promotional book for charter schools! This was so disappointing and simply rehashed some of the issues that everyone is so familiar with without a new insight.
2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.I work in the school system in Texas. Didn't realize how schools in other parts of the country worked. Shame that unions control so much. Lots of children missing out on a good education. We have a very low income and mostly made up of mexican students. I feel our students compared to the rest of the country are doing well. I plan to check out the movie from Redbox.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.ReadAllAboutIt
Posted November 20, 2010
There is nothing more heartbreaking then watching a child being destroyed in a failing school system. This country can find money to do the most insane things, but we won't invest in OUR future. The movie should be shown on every cities downtown on an outdoor movie screen...FOR FREE! When we stop caring about the very people who will run this country in the near future we stop caring about American! Everybody needs to wake up and get serious from Washingtion down or the US is going to be just another third world country that people only care about with it is news worthy...what are we doing?
2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Posted October 20, 2010
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Overview
The American Public School System is an crisis, failing millions of students, producing almost as many drop-outs as graduates, and threatening our economic future. By 2020, the United States will have 123 million high-skill jobs to fill-and fewer than 50 million Americans qualified to fill them.
Educators, parents, political leaders, business people, and concerned citizens are determined to save our educational system. This book, which delves more deeply into the issues raised ...