To his credit, Davis Guggenheim's new documentary Waiting for "Superman" has generated real buzz far outside the usual sphere of policy wonks, professional educators, and concerned parents. Unfortunately, to his fault, his film is also a biased, revisionist, and propagandist take on what really ails public education in America, rife with self-serving anecdotes, cherry picking of data, pulling emotional heart strings, and outright distortion of the facts. For example, Mr. Guggenheim makes charter schools the answer to our public education woes despite the fact that only about 17 percent outperform traditional public schools and only accommodate 3 percent of the student population. He also makes teachers' unions the bêtes noir and the fall guys (and gals) for the myriad of problems that have afflicted public education for decades.One of the most glaring misrepresentations of the facts is his (and many others') misreading of the research on the impact of teachers on student achievement. The widely held view of this relationship is that the quality of teachers largely determines academic performance. This misinterpretation of the data has caused teachers and their unions to be demonized and scapegoated. Additionally, considerable policy reform (and rancor) has been directed at neutering teachers' unions and using student performance (an unproven metric at best) as a means of weeding out bad teachers and retaining good teachers.More... (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-jim-taylor/real-public-education-ref_b_786627.html)
Real Public Education Reform Starts at Home (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-jim-taylor/real-public-education-ref_b_786627.html)