How do we fix a broken education system? Documentary fuels talk about hot-button issues

“Waiting for ‘Superman’” will soon be on movie screens in Colorado Springs, but the controversial documentary on U.S. education is stirring intense discussion among administrators, teachers, unions and community groups on how to fix a broken education system.

Recent invitation-only previews across the state, including in Colorado Springs, were attended by about 2,000 people, many who work in education or for children’s rights.

The film places the failings of public schools, unions, administrators and parents under a microscope.

“It was powerful stuff. It’s like that in the trenches,” Julian Flores, said of the film. He founded a year-old charter, Atlas Preparatory School in Harrison School District 2 that focuses on college prep for low-income and minority students. Atlas is patterned in part after KIPP, the Knowledge Is Power Program, that was featured in the documentary.

“It showed there is no one magic bullet, that there needs to be a healthy dose of good teaching and more time for learning,” Flores noted. At Atlas, like some of the schools in the movie, long hours are a given. Students are at school nine hours, for 190 days instead of the normal 180. After only one year, it ranks near the top of all Colorado Springs schools in student improvement.

“Waiting for ‘Superman’” follows five students, four in public school and one in parochial school. Their parents, and in one case a grandparent, are dedicated to getting the youngsters into the best charter schools where they live. The kids, of different ages, come across as dedicated to learning, and the emotion in the film is strong.

Amidst the student story lines, the documentary tosses out dismal education statistics, including reading and math comprehension and student improvement. Animation details the movement of sub-par teachers from school to school.

It pushes the idea that charter schools work, although it briefly mentions that only some charter schools are as successful as those highlighted in the film.

Tenure and teacher unions are blamed for ongoing problems. The massive changes Michelle Rhee instigated as chancellor of the District of Columbia Public Schools System in Washington, D.C., earn praise. In three years, test scores rose and enrollment declines ended. The teacher’s union accepted a contract that gave the district, working with a new evaluation system, strong powers to fire low-performing teachers. Rhee resigned Wednesday, in part because the mayor who hired her lost his primary race.

Chris Watney, president of the Colorado Children’s Campaign, said the documentary “brings the issue of the education crisis to light in a personal way. We hope it makes people say, ‘I want to do something about it,’ so that every child has the opportunity to have a high quality education that leads to success in life.”

Colorado Children’s Campaign, along with Pikes Peak United Way, The Gay and Lesbian Fund of Colorado, Colorado Succeeds and the Colorado League of Charter Schools, sponsored the screening at the Cinemark theater.

Colorado has its own dismal education statistics: one in four students do not graduate, with some 15,000 dropouts every year, according to Coloradokidscantwait.org. Only half of Colorado students are proficient in writing, and only a third of high schoolers are proficient in math.

The documentary isn’t shy about placing blame for such failings. Much of the film focuses on the nationwide debate over teacher tenure, and takes unions to task for placing roadblocks to getting rid of bad teachers. It also looks at the problems minority children face in getting a good education.

In May, the Colorado lawmakers passed Teacher Effectiveness Legislation, which allows districts to lay off tenured teachers if they have two consecutive years of bad performance, and requires up to 50 percent of teachers evaluations to be based on performance of their students. The push was part of  the state’s efforts to get federal Race to the Top money.

But the state failed to get a grant because of flat achievement and unspecific plans on placing effective teachers in needy schools, among other things.

In the Pikes Peak Region, only Harrison School District 2 has a pay for performance plan that compensates based on how well students do. Started this year, it turns upside-down the traditional fixed pay system.

The school board and Superintendent Mike Miles have fired or pushed out teachers deemed ineffective to turn around the chronically under-performing district, where more than 70 percent of the approximate 10,500 students are impoverished and at risk of dropping out.

In Academy School District 20, Discovery Canyon Campus is one of a handful of schools in Colorado using the Teacher Advancement Program developed by the Milken Family Foundation. TAP: The System for Teacher and Student Advancement is getting increased national attention because of its “turnaround” stories.

The school provides meaty merit pay for teachers who help raise student achievement and improve their teaching skills.

Colorado Springs School District 11, the largest school district in the region, has talked about “pay for performance” for several years. The district recently received a grant to implement TAP at 10 schools.

Educators and community groups, hope the film instigates dialogue about the challenges in education as it did among about 35 people after the preview.

“It’s a powerful film. It provokes some strong emotions and hopefully constructive discussion about educational reform,” Miles said. He said the movie was reflective of what Harrison has been going through, and underscores the type of courage needed to tackle it. “My team and principals have exhibited that courage and leadership.”

He added, “The film asks a tough question of unions: ‘What are you going to do about ineffective teachers?’ In Colorado Springs they haven’t helped. In fact, like in the film, it is just the opposite. They defended every ineffective teacher we tried to get rid of.”

Kevin Vick, teacher at Doherty High School in District 11 and member of the Colorado Springs Education Association, said his experience in Colorado Springs public schools has been nothing like the view portrayed in the documentary.

The keys to education improvement are effective administrators and energetic and motivated parents, he said.

Dustin Flesher, Summit Middle School Program teacher in Academy School District 20 and Academy Education Association president, said improving education requires more teachers, and more teaching and planning time.

“It’s a shameful piece of propaganda,” Flesher said of the movie. “Blaming teachers over-simplifies the problem.”

Flesher said the movie didn’t even hint at the work teachers put in at traditional schools. He puts in 60 hours a week to do a good job, something he couldn’t do if he had kids of his own, he said.

Flesher said stress and overwork contribute to teacher burnout.

Tim Cross, executive director, Colorado Springs Education Association, said it is frustrating that unions take so much of the blame.

“In the end we all have to be courageous about this important conversation. Everyone has to share in the blame—parents, unions, communities, school administrators.”