Coming up, right after we're finished here, MSNBC will re-air the two-hour town hall. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you think she can do it? endobj You are not exactly what some would consider to be a conservative filmmaker. When I see from my own experience as a school teach are for six years when evaluations didn't work and less than 20 percent of them think that evaluations work right now. Guggenheim, Davis. WEINGARTEN: The issue in terms of education is there's no turning back on reform in education in Washington, D.C. Our union is committed to it. GUGGENHEIM: Weve won the lottery. I want to ask you another really quick question and then go around to the rest of the panel. BRZEZINSKI: These are compelling arguments that we all can agree on but, Randi, let me just put it to you this way. I think what's happened in places like Washington and I saw it compared to New York City. We'll be joined also by Grammy award-winning singer/songwriter John Legend and our friend at "MORNING JOE" as well. The video explores several of the problems within the system, and tells the personal stories of several families and communities who have been impacted and disadvantaged by the broken education system. But I think we have to get a layer deeper than just the platitudes that remain on the stage. And that means get involved. One of the saddest days of my life was when my mother told me Superman did not exist, the We actually have to change the political environment. Waiting for Superman.2010. The film shows how the audience members, filled with prospective students and their families, all sit with apprehensive looks on their faces as they anxiously listen to the names and numbers of the children who are called and are therefore accepted into the charter school by luck of the draw. I like to follow the evidence. JOHN LEGEND, SONGWRITER: Well, it's an interesting story because I was making this album "Wake-Up." >> /Font << 9 0 obj Through the stories of five children who wanted to attend a charter school, the film shows how one child was accepted and another child was accepted from the wait list while three children were not accepted at all. We can't have our school system running like this. The goal of the film is to create a successful public education system filled with great schoolsthat leave no child behind, andit calls for reform from all of usin order to reach that goal. One of the reasons for the high test scores, writes Ravitch, is that many charter schools expel low-performing students to bring up their average scores. WebWaiting for Superman/Transcript. They want to know what good teaching looks like and they want to emulate it. I mean, not all teachers are created equal. CANADA: Sure. /MediaBox [ 0 0 595.27600 841.89000 ] That was teachers talking to each other and talking to the world about what teachers needed. I want to say something about what John just said. LEGEND: My last thing I would say, we have to realize that these kids are our kids. So there are teachers who are having this debate within the spectrum of your organization. " YR0^hC#mlj'@]Gc2x}SVvP[sL,yD1-ut |c,{CG1 The issue here in terms of education -- SCARBOROUGH: Wait. He's a Grammy award winning songwriter. These people are the ones making the decisions. And a lot of times some of the older civil rights organizations have historically aligned with the unions. >> This is our country. /T1_1 24 0 R In some ways when we fought for sources for kids like my union did, we were fighting to help kids get what they needed. What happened there? /ExtGState << You tried to change things and chances are good, because of it, you're going to get fired. Find low everyday prices and buy online for delivery or in-store pick-up This is a documentary about our failing education system and the tears we saw in this room are about our children and how our schools are leaving them behind. SCARBOROUGH: First and foremost -- LEGEND: If we care about justice, if we care about equality in this country, we have to care about fixing education. Because we do understand if we're going to fix this problem, we're going to have to figure out how to get you guys together and make this work. SCARBOROUGH: This is a civil rights issue? It just came out this week. But when I saw you after the film, and I would -- being macho, hey, Davis, how you doing, man? The filmmakers deliberately kept the camera on certain students and their families, like Nakia and Bianca, in order to show how those who did not get into charter schools felt extremely disappointed and emotional because they had hoped to be accepted into a schoolthat would not fail them. And what teachers have told us is that focus instead on the tools and conditions we need to do our jobs. What have you learned as somebody who isn't a professional educator on what we need to do? CANADA: Look, no business in America would be in existence if it ran like this. schools. How do you explain that to a child? Why is that? BRZEZINSKI: Exactly. Because you would think that the parents of those children that Michelle was in there shaking up the system to save those children, if those parents would have rallied, but we have gotten so used to failure, we tolerate failure in places like D.C. and central Harlem and Detroit, we just tolerate that failure and we've got to say to this nation, no more. I'd like to follow up by asking you, that on "MEET THE PRESS" this morning, you said the union has taken steps to make teachers better, taken concrete steps. But we need to have real evaluation systems, which is what the union has been focused on, so that teachers are really judged fairly. >> RHEE: Heres the thing. DAISY: Isnt that when people play and they win money. We're just saying --. DAVIS GUGGENHEIM: No. Make sure the tenure is not ever construed as a job for life. That's amazing. KENNY: Now studying Shakespeare, passing the regions in physics, passing the regions in chemistry, 100 percent in U.S. history across the board, all of them are going to go to college. /T1_0 24 0 R BRZEZINSKI: Its very hard to watch this movie. BRZEZINSKI: Youre outnumbered. There's a cap in New York State because ultimately when George Pataki and I and others started to work on having charter schools in this state, there was an issue in terms of the economics and what would happen with moneys in terms of other districts. /ArtBox [ 0 0 595.27600 841.89000 ] Most will go to John Phillip Souza, which the "Washington Post" called an academic sink hole. My kids have won the lottery. Ht6R*bs7n& ]o m P:giwgRG+g;)Y 'J[+AH@f6=D.Ga5&0RL[?Xt6MU*/-waUN (END VIDEO CLIP) BRZEZINSKI: And there are kids that don't make it. And I couldn't understand that why did it take this much to go through all of this? These are your schools, your communities. /BleedBox [ 0 0 595.27600 841.89000 ] SCARBOROUGH: Do you think he's going to do the right thing now that the teachers union is giving him a million dollars? /Type /Page KENNY: Right. What's going on here? The only disagreement that I think our union has had in terms of the way in which things have gone, is that our folks have desperately wanted to have a voice in how to do reform. We've been talking about the teacher town hall hosted by Brian Williams earlier today. SCARBOROUGH: Right. Since many charter schools are not large enough to accept all of their applicants, the selection of students is done by lottery. "[11] Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly gave the film an A, calling it "powerful, passionate, and potentially revolution-inducing. I know, but you didn't have enough money. This film follows five children and documents them to see what their lives and schools are like. The issue is, and we saw it and heard it in the town hall today a lot, we need to have instruments like they do in every other business to effectively judge and assess teachers. You cannot say -- you can't say, well, the problem with charter schools is they only serve some of the kids when in fact you are advocating for caps on those effective charter schools. [32][33][34][35][36], A teacher-backed group called the Grassroots Education Movement produced a rebuttal documentary titled The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman, which was released in 2011. BRZEZINSKI: No. It's happening in Los Angeles. endobj RHEE: What I think it comes down to, people underestimate we did from the school system side everything we need to do. RHEE: It was actually 12 percent that were proficient in reading but he picked the better statistic because actually, only 8 percent of our children were proficient in math. Geoffrey Canada: One of the saddest days of my life was when my mother told me Superman did not exist. There's a lot of people in this country that aren't feeling what we feel. Having made a film on the subject in 1999, documentary filmmaker. >> SCARBOROUGH: What have you learned since getting involved? I knew what the final scene would look like and I still broke down three times. WEINGARTEN: A collaboration issue was where we disagreed at times. We'll hear from the audience as well. We'll be right back. Trying to hide the fact that I had been balling my eyes out, I said I can't -- I knew how this was going to end and I was still crying. /ArtBox [ 0 0 595.27600 841.89000 ] SCARBOROUGH: It really is. Michelle Rhee, the former chancellor of the Washington, D.C. public schools (the district with some of the worst-performing students at the time), is shown attempting to take on the union agreements that teachers are bound to, but suffers a backlash from the unions and the teachers themselves. WEINGARTEN: Look, we have schools in New York, like the school that Steve Barr and I run, which has a union contract, we're 100 percent of the kids path the math regions. Things such as the ease in which a public school teacher achieves tenure, the inability to fire a teacher who is tenured, and how the system attempts to reprimand poorly performing teachers are shown to affect the educational environment. SCARBOROUGH: It was about education. [8], Roger Ebert gave the film 3.5 stars out of 4 and wrote, "What struck me most of all was Geoffrey Canada's confidence that a charter school run on his model can make virtually any first-grader a high school graduate who's accepted to college. The film also examines teacher's unions. 5 0 obj endobj It's shameful. SCARBOROUGH: Hold on a second. >> Having said that, we have all done too much about focusing on bad teachers. Take a look. When you put a face on this issue, as we talk about the details of it, that's the thing I keep saying to myself, let's not forget as we argue and discuss and learn about this, let's not forget the kids. How do we spread that from Harlem across America? Why did you pick this topic? BRZEZINSKI: When we come back, we'll be joined -- SCARBOROUGH: One thing we do agree on -- BRZEZINSKI: We have to go. The union leaderships could take this on as a platform and say this is something we're going to commit to and give our membership behind this so we can show progress in taking on these issues. The most influential scene during this segment is when one of the students, Bianca, and her mother, Nakia, wait for Biancas name to be called as the lottery nears the end. endobj Our guests will include Governor Chris Christie, Newark Mayor Corey Booker and U.S. secretary of education Arne Duncan. How do you get past that? >> We can't achieve equality or humanity and justice for everybody if we can't make sure that every kid gets a good education. /Parent 1 0 R What's the big takeaway from "Waiting For Superman"? This is where the work gets tough, because innovation, this is about innovation. GUGGENHEIM: And the stakes for them. Nakia joins us here tonight. We applaud everybody for joining us on this stage. If I don't, Ill just be with my friends. /T1_1 57 0 R >> One of these amazing children is a boy named Anthony. WEINGARTEN: John. Yes, first or second grade skills. SCARBOROUGH: Why are you going to get fired? SCARBOROUGH: All right. I've been amazed by what's possible. Thats just one of the great things that we see. What if I made a movie that gets people to care about other peoples children and fight for other people's children as much I fight for mine. I went up and I saw a revolution, a revolution that you helped start. Where has the union misstepped to help us get to where we are today? What did you learn? Thanks to all of our guests. You don't have all sorts of external rules. Why is that such a frightening concept? >> BRZEZINSKI: Thank you. S/p?G4lt(20}G(8!h-D! 5 SCARBOROUGH: Right. You all have your numbers, right? "Waiting for Superman," a fascinating new documentary, is drawing attention to the state of our public school, directed by Davis Guggenheim, who brought us They have to go see this movie and have smaller conversations like this. /GS0 47 0 R Michelle, you have been on the wrong side of the debate over here. Coming up next, MSNBC's going to re-air the teacher town hall hosted by Brian Williams. This documentary follows a handful of promising kids through a system that inhibits, rather than encourages, academic growth, and undertakes an exhaustive review of public education, surveying "drop-out factories" and "academic sinkholes," methodically dissecting the system and its seemingly intractable We can run the school the way we want, which is to give our teachers the power to teach. It looks like we don't have any synopsis for this title yet. When they hear this back and forth, there's the sense of like, you know what, put my head in the sand, take care of my own kids because this debate has been going on for generations. Waiting for "Superman" is a 2010 American documentary film written and directed by Davis Guggenheim and produced by Lesley Chilcott. "[9] Scott Bowles of USA Today lauded the film for its focus on the students: "it's hard to deny the power of Guggenheim's lingering shots on these children. SCARBOROUGH: Not a Bush apostle. BRZEZINSKI: Welcome back. A teacher wants to stay. No one can go home and stick their head in the sand. The documentary follows SCARBOROUGH: If she's given the chance. << There's a problem with our system and who know that there are children in this country who are falling behind. In fact you come off quite badly. /GS0 18 0 R UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To come see, geography and love, thats it. >> [15] Deborah Kenny, CEO and founder of the Harlem Village Academies, made positive reference to the film in a The Wall Street Journal op-ed piece about education reform. /Kids [ 4 0 R 5 0 R 6 0 R 7 0 R 8 0 R ] The principal wants her to stay. I get to meet all the wonderful teachers out there. Were here to talk about the movie, to talk about education. Thank you so much for doing this and also sharing your story in the movie. I knew -- as Davis said, I knew what was going to happen before she knew what was going to happen. And that's something that no parent wants their child to ever be a witness or to hear when they're going to school. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Daisys path to medical school begins with eighth grade algebra which she'll need to take when she moves up to Stevenson Middle School. The good guys/heroes are low-income American parents, hoping to provide a good education for their children. BRZEZINSKI: Why not inspire them with pay? BRZEZINSKI: Nakia, thank you. The film criticizes the American public education system by following several students as they strive to be accepted into competitive charter schools such as KIPP LA Schools, Harlem Success Academy and Summit Preparatory Charter High School. /Rotate 0 BRZEZINSKI: They were picked off the street in a lottery. By showing its audience that even charter schools close their doors to some students, which them forces these students to attendfailing public schools, the video illustrates howthere are still flaws to the American public school system and challenges that need to be addressed. BRZEZINSKI: It was still painful. Michelle and I love great teachers. SCARBOROUGH: Last in, first out. [16], The film has also garnered praise from a number of conservative critics. You've done an amazing job there in Harlem. That means in the midterms. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. SCARBOROUGH: Right. Because there is no downside to failure. New York City on a bad day outpaced Washington on a great day. /Length 866 National Assessment of Educational Progress, Bill Gates Goes to Sundance, Offers an Education, "How Davis Guggenheim's Documentary 'Waiting for "Superman"' Will Further Fuel the Education Debate -- New York Magazine - Nymag", "Waiting for Superman Movie Reviews, Pictures", "How did 'Waiting for 'Superman's' ' Davis Guggenheim become the right wing's favorite liberal filmmaker? On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Waiting for Superman: Filmmaker Davis Guggenheim reminds us that education statistics have names: Anthony, Francisco, Bianca, Daisy, and Emily, whose Didn't get an answer on that. /GS1 17 0 R BRZEZINSKI: How old is she? Thank you for joining us. "[20], The film also received negative criticism. Have your mom and dad told you about the lottery? [37] It criticizes some public figures featured in Waiting for "Superman", proposes different policies to improve education in the United States and counters the position taken by Guggenheim. I think he actually wants to do the right thing. E]D[JWlwH{,j73?Mazd. That's what our union has been trying to do for the last two years. /Type /Page I think we all have to look in the mirror and say, what have we done wrong up until now and what do we need to do better? Because what's happened in so many instances, is that the evaluation system is what's broken. >> SCARBOROUGH: Fantastic. By the nature of who my family is. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Vergosa, Andrew. 100 percent of the kids pass the science regions. You fought the law and the law won. It's not sexy to vote in the midterms but it matters who, you know -- BRZEZINSKI: Oh, yes it is. We're here at the site of our education nation summit launching today at NBC News and MSNBC. /MC0 31 0 R Some of us have spent our lives working on behalf of children and teachers who teach children. I'm joking. By the time they finish eighth grade, they will have doubled their math and reading scores. LEGEND: I think there needs to be an understanding in our community when we fight for our kids we're fighting for our community. LEGEND: This is a civil rights issue. 1h 51m. Theres a lot of schools that I want to take you to Davis, great public schools where we are breaking the sound barrier, too. << endobj Joe and I saw the movie a few days ago and we literally walked up Broadway, I think it was, in complete silence, both feeling very twisted and angry about what we had seen. I love teachers. And she thought I was crying because it's like Santa Claus is not real and I was crying because there was no one coming with enough power to save us. RHEE: Were not going to be able to solve the problem going one city at a time. Take a moment. These are our communities. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Next year, Anthonys class will move up to junior high. WebFILM SUMMARY With passion and urgency, WAITING FOR SUPERMAN advocates for the educational welfare of Americas children in a public school system that is severely >> /GS0 18 0 R >> I actually don't -- I think we could continue one city at a time. /TrimBox [ 0 0 595.27600 841.89000 ] /CropBox [ 0 0 595.27600 841.89000 ] >> /Properties << WebThe documentary Waiting for Superman, directed by Davis Guggenheim, is a film that shows how school systems are today. The contract says she has to go. SCARBOROUGH: Okay. WEINGARTEN: Look, what the unions actually talked about was as part of lifting the cap, as part of lifting the cap, they didn't fight against lifting the cap -- LEGEND: Yes, they did. GUGGENHEIM: The dream of making a movie like this is conversations just like this, the fact that you and NBC and Viacom and Paramount and Get School bring a movie to the table and let people in this room have a real conversation about to fix our schools is essential. >> Like around here, I mean, I want my kids to have better than what I had. RHEE: You know what, heres the thing. Only 3 out of 100 students at Roosevelt will graduate with the necessary classes for admission to a four year university. Statistical comparisons are made between the different types of primary or secondary educational institutions available: state school, private school, and charter school. "[18] Kyle Smith, for the New York Post, gave the film 4.5 stars, calling it an "invaluable learning experience. I have a good feeling about this. ", "Film's anguished lesson on why schools are failing", "Protesting teachers give 'Waiting for Superman' an 'F', "Catching up with WAITING FOR SUPERMAN's Davis Guggenheim", "At the Critics' Choice Awards: Winners Are Social Network, Inception, Firth, Portman, Leo, Bale | Thompson on Hollywood", An Inconvenient Superman: Davis Guggenheim's New Film Hijacks School Reform, "Michelle Rhee's Cheating Scandal: Diane Ravitch Blasts Education Reform Star", "Waiting for Superman" star on cheating scandals, Eager for Spotlight, but Not if It Is on a Testing Scandal, FRONTLINE: The Education of Michelle Rhee, "NYC teachers counter 'Waiting for Superman' with film of their own", "Waiting For "Superman": How We Can Save America's Failing Public Schools", Critics Say Documentary Unfairly Targets Teachers Unions and Promotes Charter Schools, Black Reel Award for Outstanding Documentary, Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest, Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Documentary Feature, George Harrison: Living in the Material World, DallasFort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Documentary Film, Summer of Soul (Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), National Board of Review Award for Best Documentary Feature, Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse, Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, Producers Guild of America Award for Best Documentary Motion Picture, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Waiting_for_%22Superman%22&oldid=1118430069, Documentary films about American politics, Documentary films about education in the United States, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 27 October 2022, at 00:08. /Resources << SCARBOROUGH: Were back with our panel, Michelle, one of the stunning parts of many stunning parts in this documentary, in this film, was when Davis showed the proficiency numbers state by state. When you have kids from Harlem going there with first grade reading proficiency and science proficiency and they leave three years later with 100 percent proficiency, it just -- at some point it becomes a moral issue. GUGGENHEIM: Those parents don't care. Mika and I want to welcome you to this special hour. WebShop for waiting for superman documentary transcript filetype:lua at Best Buy. stream LEGEND: Well, it's been quite a learning experience because I get to meet great educators. [30] In Ayers' view, the "corporate powerhouses and the ideological opponents of all things public" have employed the film to "break the teacher's unions and to privatize education," while driving teachers' wages even lower and running "schools like little corporations. So people keep talking about accountability just in terms of firing teachers but what I think people need to understand is how accountability allows you to unleash teacher passion by setting on fire all the teachers in the school because you're allowed to give them the freedom to teach the way they see fit. I support public schools. Weve seen some innovation spread more than one place. I was really tired. WEINGARTEN: Let me get to both of these issues, let me see if I can conflate them. /ExtGState << "[12] The Hollywood Reporter focused on Geoffrey Canada's performance as "both the most inspiring and a consistently entertaining speaker," while also noting it "isn't exhaustive in its critique. /ProcSet [ /PDF /Text ] 4 0 obj DAISYS FATHER: Come on, Daisy, cross your fingers. Though money doubled, reading and math scores have flat-lined. So the question is, what's New York City doing right? [31] (The film says, however, that it is focusing on the one in five superior charter schools, or close to 17%, that do outperform public schools.) Waiting for Superman (song), a 2013 song by the American rock band Daughtry. But it's not just Harlem -- if my movie, I call it, they're breaking a sound barrier. SCARBOROUGH: If you're going to lock kids in Harlem out of that process and let a few see the light and see the -- that seems to me to be immoral. It is must-see TV, from 9:00 to 11:00 Eastern Time right here on MSNBC. Why not? The film is extremely eye-opening, showing just how bad a state most of our education systems are in. Obviously at the end most people watching this movie teared up. She was assigned in January. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you think that most of the kids in D.C. are getting a crappy education right now? One of them is Nakia. /MediaBox [ 0 0 595.27600 841.89000 ] WEINGARTEN: Yes. GUGGENHEIM: Absolutely. DAISY: I want to go to a medical college or a veterinarian college because I really want to become a surgeon. CANADA: There are two things. /Resources << 6 0 obj << Walk in and I still want every kid to win. Web2010. /TT0 48 0 R The reason is because we're allowed to give our teachers freedom and then hold them accountable for results. But I think it's quite frankly a little disingenuous for the union president to stand up and say we liked what Michelle was doing, we wanted it to continue to happen, when the national AFT poured $1 million into the campaign in Washington, D.C. a million dollars in a local mayoral race you know clearly sends a message that they didn't want things to continue as they were. So we're going to differentiate and we're going to recognize and reward the highest performing teachers and we're going to look at the lowest performing teachers and we're going to remove them from the system. Davis Guggenheims Documentary, Waiting for Superman explores the corrupt American School system. The filmmakers made sure to film how Nakia becomes increasingly more anxious and concerned as time passes during the lottery, but fewer spots become available and her daughters name has not been called (Guggenheim 1:32:49). There are a couple of things leaders, in which we all are, could do. DAISY: I want to be a nurse. And at the same time, have some due process so that we guard against our arbitrariness. There are people who have figured out systems of improving education and the mayor was very aggressive in bringing those folk into New York City and saying to them, we're going to remove the obstacles for you all to do your work. You said, you still cry every time you see it. [1], The film has earned both praise and negative criticism from commentators, reformers, and educators. This scene is an important one because it highlights how the acceptance of students into charter schools is determined by the luck of the draw and how some students are not able to enter into the public school of their choice solely because luck was not on their side. ANTHONY: Its bittersweet to me. Many of them. It's must-see TV. That youre not going to look American with our 15,000 school system and say we're going to charter them, that's just not going to happen in my lifetime. NAKIA: The public schools in my neighborhood don't add up to what I want from her. And I think seeing what's possible in this film is very inspiring. /ArtBox [ 0 0 595.27600 841.89000 ] SCARBOROUGH: Thank you so much. 7 0 obj BRZEZINSKI: All right. 1. Yet instead of examining this critical issue objectively, the movie Waiting for "Superman" cites false statistics in their effort to scapegoat teachers, unfairly blaming them for all the failures of our urban schools. BRZEZINSKI: Im sorry, we have news for our audience as well. It's about those kids. I think if we actually got to what constitutes a good teacher and had that kind of standard we'd all be in the same place on that and there are about 50 or 60 districts right now, I made a proposal in January about how to overhaul evaluation. What were your thoughts when the number did not come up? An examination of the current state of education in America today. That's not the case with all charter schools across America. I just heard a story, I met a teacher the other day. Waiting for Superman, a documentary about the mediocre public school system in the U.S., uses both techniques to great effect. CANADA: This is why I think this is such an important movie. The issue is about how we create the best environment for kids. /BleedBox [ 0 0 595.27600 841.89000 ] Seventy-eight percent of them, this is not our survey, this was their survey, said a union was absolutely essential to them to try and stop school politics or principal abuses. I want to be a doctor and I want to be a veterinarian. Feb 22, 2013. (soundbite of film, "big george foreman: the miraculous story of the once and future heavyweight champion of the world") KHRIS DAVIS: (As George Foreman) Last time they saw me, I looked like Superman. She said Washington, D.C. even on its best day, wasn't like New York City on its worst day. RHEE: We wanted to give the teachers the tools. SCARBOROUGH: Right. And I don't want to make this about the presumptive mayor. Sept. 23, 2010. BRZEZINSKI: Okay. /MC0 28 0 R /Type /Page That's so important to help level the playing field for kids who may be disadvantaged.