Students Waiting For Superman

Based on the Georgia Department of Education, Georgia has a new way of evaluating all of its teachers. Beginners teachers are held with the same standards as tenured teachers. The evaluation is through Teacher Keys Effectiveness System (TKES) which is consist of three components which gives to an overall Teacher Effectiveness Measure (TEM). First component is Teacher Assessment on Performance Standards (TAPS). The second component is Surveys of Instructional Practice (student perception surveys). Lastly Student Growth Percentile and Student Learning Objective. (SGP and SLO).

First of all, continual feedback allows teachers to self-reflect on best practices. For example, a teacher can target his/her areas of weakness in order to grow professionally and gain further insight of best practices. Another benefit, of teacher evaluations is higher student success rates. These, for example, are measurable through district assessments and state standardized assessments. If a teachers success rate has significantly improved through modification of practices, T-TESS has served its intended purpose. Finally, yet another benefit of teacher evaluations is the fact that the educator is an active participant in his/her evaluation process. For example, through goal setting, the educator is allowed the opportunity to decide where he/she want to grow. Through the evaluation cycle and the communication therein, the appraiser and educator both take greater responsibility in understanding and meeting established goals. Finally, at the end of the process, student growth is an indicator of a well-developed and integrated evaluation system. These are but a few of the many benefits reaped from an evaluation systems such as T-TESS (TEA,

As schools across the nation look for a uniform method to evaluate teachers’ performances, concerns about both methods are highlighted. NYC is using the Danielson Framework to evaluate teachers this year; some concerns have been brought up by administrators and the teachers union. In the piliot program it was noted by one administrator that “some of her teachers are not scoring as high on the rubric as she would expect — precisely because the rubric expects the same general characteristics in all grades” (Cromidas, 2012). This is because in the Danielson Framework the observer is looking for weather a teacher is doing the behavior or not. Check mark - there is no distinction between a new teacher and a veteran teacher. The other thing that administrators are noting that the “practicing observing teachers using Danielson had proved to be time-consuming” (Cromidas, 2012). It is recommend that they observer spends a number of informal observations lasting at least 15 minutes in the classroom before the official observation and that the report be turned around in 48 hours to the teacher.

The former DC school chancellor Michelle Rhee and the president of Harlem Children’s Zone, Geoffrey Canada are two leaders whose work stood in out in 2010 as an example of leadership that showed courage, tenacity, and dedication to the future of this country through the education of children. They were also featured in the documentary “Waiting for Superman” directed by David Guggenheim that showed a handful of diverse students undertaking an exhausting journey through public education, evaluating the drop-out rates, and academic disadvantages that they and students all across American are faced with and the contribution that leaders such as Michelle Rhee and Geoffrey Canada play a part in helping the education system prosper, and saving them from the failing statistics that continue to rise in public schools.

All kids need is a little help, a little hope, and someone who believes in them - Magic Johnson. The documentary “ Waiting for Superman” that was released on September 24, 2010 is about showing people around that don’t live in America how public schools are, starting five students showing their struggles getting a better schools. The three important understandings I gained from watching this documentary include are the lack of finding good teachers, struggles of joining a charter school, and how important schools are for a lot of kids.

Darling-Hammond, L. (2013). Getting teacher evaluation right: What really matters for effectiveness and improvement. Teachers College

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade: a cliché that seems to be used oftentimes and never fails to humor some truth in it. In the television show, The Simpsons, episode: “How the Test Was Won,” directed by Lance Kramer and the documentary, Waiting for Superman, directed by Davis Guggenheim, indicates the depleted issue in our education system. Both texts argue the decline of our nation’s literacy and school merit that comes with. Ultimately, Guggeheim builds his credibility with citing reputable resources through ethos, logos, and how teachers are destitute of rudimentary teaching skills and techniques, along with government involvement worsening educational plight.

Davis Guggenheim’s documentary Waiting for Superman follows the education of students who want to enhance their personal education. The movie was released in 2010 and its 111 minutes of shear information about public schooling, focuses on informing the audience about how the public school system needs to be changed by looking at a few of the “drop-out factories,” or failing schools, the documentary shows the audience. Also by following 5 students and educators, who all experience the public school system in different ways, the audience witnesses the need for a reform in education.

According to Earl (2013), expert teachers know about learning, know about the subjects they teach, and have a deep knowledge of pedagogy (p. 125). Highly effective teachers develop pedagogical skills to support and produce achievement. As educators develop proficient students, instructional leaders must identify and develop highly effective teachers. How might an instructional leader determine the impact of teacher effectiveness on student achievement levels? The purpose of this study is to determine the correlation between teachers Mississippi Statewide Teacher Appraisal Rubric (M-STAR) ratings and teachers’ Quality of Distribution Index

I agree and disagree with the author in these articles. I thought the changing the teacher evaluation process can be a bad thing and a good thing. I think that teachers should be graded hard on their evaluations, but not too hard that it impossible for teacher to earn tenure. Teachers goals shouldn’t be to earn tenure, but if they teaching their students well. And making an impact in the students’ lives. Tenure is a good idea because everyone should feel safe in their jobs, and feel like they’re won’t get fired. I understand why the state want to make the evaluations harder for teacher, because they want the best teachers in the schools. If there are teachers that getting bad grades on their evaluations then they might not be the best teachers to be teaching children. I think teachers shouldn’t be evaluation be based on 50 percent on students’ standardized-test scores because students could be really bad at tests and then do badly on the test. Teachers could be scored badly on different reasons to like students in low- income families, and students who have disabilities. "Legislators are trying to justify their voting for this bill on the grounds that it increased funding, but that's in many respects to distract from the fact that they voted for things they didn't understand that might end up being damaging to teachers' careers.” I thought that was interesting because it will be damaging that the people who agreeing with these bills don’t understanding what they’re voting for things. This knowledge could be useful to me when I become a teacher because I will be evaluation as a teacher. It is good to know new laws that are being passed with teachers’ evaluations and tenure. It good to know how you are being evaluation, and how you can earn tenure.

It does seem a little strange that teachers most teachers are rated effective or highly effective, and according to the state the school is not doing well. This past school year was my first year doing walkthroughs for teachers. I evaluated all of the teachers in my building in a week. Other than it being my first time completing them, the most difficult part was using the districts pre-made evaluation tool. It is so vague and sometimes you really have to look at the language of each rating deeply to choose the right one.

In Davis Guggenheim’s 2010 documentary “Waiting for Superman”, producer Lesley Chilcott paired with Paramount Vantage and Participant Media to create a film that documents America’s failing public education system. Although the United States has tried to improve the education system in the past, it is seen that the desired outcome has yet to unravel. This film has been screened at schools- such as the College of the Holy Cross- and by the Saratoga Film Forum with a discussion about the film after to inform citizens of the faults in our educational system. The central claim or position of the film is that America’s public education system is unsatisfactory, even though student spending has increased per student. However, it is seen that students’ results have flat-lined with no improvement since 1971 in reading and math. Even though this film focuses on statistics on America’s public educational system, there is an emphasis on personal anecdotes.

Public education has been the focus of this great country of ours for many decades. However, for many years, our country’s children have suffered from a public education system that has failed its students while it has slowly slipped down from its top spot as among the best in the world. The government has tried to reverse this downward trend, passing laws like the No Child Left Behind Act. Despite the government's efforts, this regression in the quality of education that our public school system offers has been proven so far to be irreversible due to multiple factors. The documentary Waiting for Superman is able to identify these factors, such as bad teachers and the quality of schools, that have stagnated American students’ proficiency ratings in Math and Reading. An issue needing to be brought attention to, the “Waiting for Superman” filmmakers’ persistent use of animations about Statistical information and the Introduction of characters to create emotional connections with the audience to bring the issue of these low proficiency levels among U.S. Students to the audience’s attention so that the audience could possibly bring the change that these filmmakers want to education.

Evaluations and observations are piece of an administrators job desription that require a large time commitment, in return provide the biggest reward. The observation process takes dedication to providing the most valuable feedback to the teachers that are being observed. The feedback provided can help shape and develop teachers in their craft. When teachers and administrators go through the observation process it truly should be a tool for both. The teacher should be provided feedback about strengths and weaknesses, while the administrator should take pieces that will led the vision or direction of the school. Administrators should not only be aware of their states observation requirements, but other states as well because of the movement of teachers and ideas to implement within the school. Administrators should also continue to research and study best practices, this provides administrators ideas of what to look for and suggestions in post-observation meetings.

Can you remember a time where you would dread going to class because of a certain teacher? Today, teachers play an important role in how well students succeed. An effective teacher is something almost all students have experienced. There are many teachers who have made school an exciting and fun place. Effective teachers possess a certain passion for the subjects that they teach and they genuinely care for the students within their school district. Those teachers have inspired us to deeply consider lessons, to take on challenging work, to dig beyond surface meaning, to pursue careers in a particular area of study, and to enjoy the learning process. In contrast, less fortunate children have received little to no guidance in their educational career. There is a distinct difference on the education students’ receive depending on family wealth. The film “Waiting for Superman” follows the lives and stories of families from different cities, different socioeconomic statuses, and different racial backgrounds. The purpose of following these families is to convey the fact that they are all suffering from the same issue, failing public school systems. Davis Guggenheim includes selective interviews and statistical animations throughout his film to express that public school systems are in need of repair.