Waiting for Superman

[Hornius Emeritus]

Watched this documentary this past weekend and found it to be pretty compelling in its indictment of the American educational system. I wonder if any of you have seen it and what you thought about it.

 

[Larry T. Spider]

Dont't make the mistake of comparing an inner city school in a union state to an average school in Texas. They are completely different.

I found this take to be very true of the real problem: ]

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[general35]

i have mentioned this documentary on other threads. it is the best documentary ever done on our school system. what i found most compelling were the parents that want the best education for their children and are unable to do anything about it because the schools are so bad, the administrators that were quite candid in their unsuccessful attempts to try and implement real change, and the sorry attempts our schools do in preparing kids for college and the millions of high tech jobs that will become available to americans in the next 25 years but will have to be filled by people from other countries or outsourced all together to other countries because there will not be enough qualified applicants from this country.

 

[Larry T. Spider]

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[Bayerithe]

I watched the film and don't recall that many Finnish comparisons. The cultures here and there are also probably vastly different, when it comes to unions.

The film tackles several topics, such as unions, teacher performance, and charter schools, created using public money, but free from union contracts.

It's a pretty compelling case, seeing the %'s of students that end up going to college from charter schools vs normal public education.

It's not a bad argument here to say throwing more money at the systems isn't going fix the problem. As a nation, we need to address simple things like tenure and teacher unions, force parents to become more aware, and making teaching more appealing.

it's funny how the D.C chancellor introduced an option for teachers to give up tenure for a chance at higher salaries via merit based pay, but the unions saw it as so threatening to their culture, that they defeated this option from even becoming available to teachers.

it shouldn't be so hard to fire the bad teachers and replace them with a different teacher. At least make it simple to get rid of them during the summer, tenure be damned.

 

[Larry T. Spider]

I agree and disagree with the idea that we need to make teaching more appealing. Right now, if I were to quit, my principal would get between 300-400 resumes. There are clearly more people interested in teaching than there are spots open.

Anyway, how do you make the job more appealing? Lets look at the options.

Pay more - If I ever leave the field it will be to make more money. However, in the current political climate, i doubt we will see huge pay increases for teachers.

Job security - We are seeing the problems with having too much job security in some union states.

Merit pay - I work at a school that has this. I like the thought behind it but in practice it does not seem to work. First, I work hard because its what the job asks me to do. Not because I think I will get a better bonus at the end of the year.

There are a million other problems with it such as wild swings in teacher ratings from year to year depending on students, unfairness to best teachers that often get toughest students, and incentives to leave a tough school to go to a better school where making progress with students is easier.

Things that I would work on:
Find a way to make students and parents treat teachers with respect.

Find a way to hold parents responsible for certain things, including the behavior of their children.

Reduce paperwork.

 

[Larry T. Spider]

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[abqhornfan]

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