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United Way Cause Marketing Manager Promotes THAT Movie
Starbucks and United Way. Who's next? And the blogger doesn't say "See the film"; she picks up the religious zealot tone of the Superman slogan, entreating, "SIGN THE PLEDGE to see the film."
Reader Comment [on the United Way site]: I am quite disappointed in the United Way for supporting a film that bashes teacher unions. Teachers are among the strongest supporters of United Way, but now that they're getting political, maybe we should withhold our money from them. They obviously don't appreciate what we do every day in the classroom. Charter schools, most of which are non-union, do no better and in many cases worse than public schools. In fact the director of the film even mentions the poor performance of charter schools in the beginning of the film, but it doesn't seem to matter. We need a scapegoat for the perceived failure of public schools, so let's blame the teachers. United Way - get out of the political arena or risk alienating a large segment of your donors!
Reader Comment [On the United Way site]: "Superman" and the proponents of charter schools couldn't be more wrong.
I will be happy to buy you a copy of Diane Ravitch's book The Fall and Rise of The Great American School System to offer you a different perspective. Ms. Ravitch has done actual research, not just anectodal accounts to back her assertions. Unfortunately, she doesn't have the huge promotional budget of Mr. Canada or those pushing this "crisis" agenda. Ms. Ravitch spoke recently at Wayne State. I wish you would have come to hear her. She worked for the elder Bush administration and eloquently lays out how the push for a national curriculum in the 1980's was highjacked by basic skills testing and charter schools in an attempt to privatize public education, using children to push an extreme political agenda that demonizes teachers.
I am a public school special education teacher who is sick of people saying we don't care about kids. Are you kidding me?! Teachers spend all their waking hours worrying about and planning how to better serve their kids. Nevertheless, I've told my daughter who wants to follow my footsteps,"Don't do it!". The press, the politicians and everyone else who attended school and is looking for a scapegoat will blame you for any problem in our society. We are public enemy number one.
Regarding "Superman" you should know that a Stanford study published recently showed that only 14% of charter schools outperformed their public school counterparts. 37% did significantly worse and rest did as well as the public school. This is despite that fact that charter schools can "skim" the students with involved families who can navigate the application processes. The KIPP schools that have gotten so much praise have not found any secret. They are essentially an honors program. It is no surprise that committed kids with committed parents do better in school. The KIPP school in LA has a 60% student turnover before graduation. So if you don't keep up you leave and are replaced by another student who may. This type of education is fine, but they should call it what it is: It is an honors program in which you sink or swim. It is no surprise that kids in honors programs do better than the general population. Heck, Renaissance is one of the best schools in the state, that doesn't mean they have found a "secret" to educating all Detroit kids.
We are in the process of adopting three new children, one of whom is a 17yr. old student at Western High School in Detroit. He had a GPA of under 1.0 before he came to live with us last February. He earned a 3.4 for the fourth quarter last school year. That was at the SAME school with the SAME teachers. The only difference was his home life. He now has adults at home pushing him, checking up on him and with the schools and making him work. So please quit scapegoating teachers. Please recognize that teachers more than anyone want kids to succeed. please don't assume that every idea Michelle Rhee or Bob Bobb has is a good one. We are in the classroom. We are caring and committed despite the stereotypes you and others promote. We know what needs to be done but our superiors won't take our input.
Finally, you should be aware that this crisis is a politically motivated one. Our public schools as a whole are more successful than ever, no matter what Bill Gates says. PLEASE do some research.
-Nationwide, NAEP math scores are up significantly over the last thirty years.
- Reading scores are up slightly. ( This is true even though we are keeping significantly
more kids in school that in generations past would have dropped out.)
- The high school completion rate is up from 50% in the 1950's, and 60% in the 1960's to
88%!!
-The high school completion gap between Black and White adults has shrunk from 28% in
1961 to 4% and Black women are attending college at a higher rate than white men.
SO HOW DID HIGHER TEST SCORES, HIGHER HIGH SCHOOL COMPLETION RATES,AND A NARROWING RACIAL ACHIEVEMENT GAP GET TRANS LATED INTO FAILURE?
Conservative republicans have pushed this agenda with two purposes:
-They want to shrink public sector unions like they have successfully done in the private sector.
-Secondly they want to privatize public education.
They were unsuccessful with vouchers in the 80's and 90's, so this is the new strategy. This time they have many allies on the left with their sudden concern about poor children. This "right-left" alliance as Diane Ravitch refers to it is using children to push their political agenda. They use our poorest performing disricts to create a national crisis.
The real crisis we face is in wealth inequality. Ou richest districts grouped as a whole are at the top of any international rankings. The poorer a district is, in general, the poorer its scores are. This is true for a wide variety of reasons. (Unionized teachers teach in all these districts so they aren't the likely culprit since unions don't get the credit for Grosse Pointe etc..) In high poverty districts, student transiency, hunger, households in which education is not valued, the day to day stress of survival and many other reasons account for this gap. Addressing it would take a serious commitment of will and resources, but poverty is no longer on the political radar for Democrats or Republicans. It is too difficult. So lets just blame the teachers.
Sincerely,
A caring teacher who is also grateful for his union because it gives him protection to advocate for students.
Eddie Hejka
NOTE: Lauren Kensey is Manager of Cause Marketing at United Way Worldwide. She Twitters about this post below, about the NFL, and about Levi Johnston.
Waiting for Superman Raises Awareness and Sparks Discussion Around Education
by Lauren Kensey
Among 30 developed countries, the United Sates ranks a dismal 25th in Math and 21st in Science. In fact America ranks 20th in graduation rates. The problem does not end there. When a child doesn’t finish high school, they earn significantly less and are eight times more likely to end up in prison.
Waiting for “Superman” a new documentary from Oscar®-winning filmmaker Davis Guggenheim seeks to raise the national dialogue around the nation’s failing public education system and create tangible action to help the system reverse these startling statistics.
Cutting the number of high school dropouts in half by 2018 is a primary goal of United Way and to move towards this goal we have signed on as a Social Action Partner of the film. United Ways across the nation will help raise awareness of the documentary in order to catalyze a movement in support of our school children.
Although the movie will open September 24th, a groundswell of support is underway with almost 50,000 people pledging to see the film and The New York Times, MTV and NY MAG are already weighing in and starting the conversation.
We invite you to join us in creating an open dialog around education in America. Watch the trailer below and pledge to see the film. [emphasis added] Then stay tuned for how you can give, advocate and volunteer to help improve the public education system and help achieve our goal to cut the number of high school dropouts in half and create opportunities for a better life for our children. Visit waitingforsuperman.com/action and click "Get Local" to participate in a campaign in your community.
— Lauren Kinsey
United Way blog
2010-09-01
http://liveunited.org/blog/entry/waiting-for-superman-raises-awareness-and-sparks-discussion-around-edu/
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
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