Waiting for “Superman” is a documentary well written and directed by Davis Guggenheim. This documentary investigates the public school system in the United States, and uncovers the many ways in which education in American has declined. Guggenheim focus this particular film on five students that are portraying their own individual struggles and triumphs within problem plagued academic settings where are no easy solutions to the myriad issues that affect them. Moreover, the documentary talks about charter schools and the different educational issues that could possibly change the future of education. In the documentary, Cognitive Dissonance and Social Judgment Theory was shown a lot throughout the film. Cognitive Dissonance Theory by Leon Festinger …show more content…
according to The First Look at Communication Theory is, “The distressing mental state cause by inconsistency between a person’s two beliefs or a belief and an action.” Cognitive theory is very relevant and there are some beliefs and the world does not want to listen to it. However, throughout waiting for “Superman” cognitive dissonance was one of the major issues.
With the five low-income families who told their story, parents are more concern and desperate to provide their child(ren) a better life and opportunity and with that being said they are very aware that the only way for that to happen is obtain through education. According to huffingtonpost, Lisa Petrides, President of Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education states that, “It portrays failing public schools and the limited opportunities for these children to get into public charter schools that have demonstrated high levels of success.” There are some children who they consider “drop-outs” and those are the ones who are not privilege enough to have other opportunities. For example, Daisey, who lives in Los Angeles wants to better her education and become something in life. Even though both of her parents are considered drop outs of high school, they are both trying their best to support their daughter and provide the best education for her but, private school is not an option. Daisey wants to attend a charter school to get the opportunities to prepare her for college that public schools could not offer to them. Daisey only has a 14 percent chance in getting to the charter school out 135 students that have applied to the school, which is very frustrating to the student and …show more content…
parents. The documentary film introduces the “No Child Left Behind (NCLB).” In 2002 the NCLB went into effect passed by the George Bush.
The main purpose of NCLB is to provide opportunities for all students as well as supporting the school, the teachers, the principals, and to also strengthen the school educational systems. It is ashamed that the reason why this passed was because the students were so behind that this law was a must to pass and that is when the cognitive dissonance formed and made things harder for the teachers. According to the public schools review, “Understanding No Child Left Behind” mandates that all teachers must be "highly qualified" by the end of the 2005-2006 school year and that students must be proficient. The law defines “high qualified” that a teacher must meet the license and certification requirements of the state in which they teach. If that teacher does not meet qualification will not be allowed to teach until they meet those mandatory requirements. The NCLB also provides school districts with more funding as long as they are achieving their standard goals. With that being said, the NCLB keep track of results by giving academic grades to see whether or not the school is succeeding. This load is not only on just the teachers, they encourage that the parents to be involved by helping their
child(ren). While Cognitive Dissonance Theory is a main issue, Social Judgment Theory is also one as well. According to The First Look at Communication Theory, Social Judgment Involvement is defined as “Perception and evaluation of an idea by comparing it with current attitudes. We hear a message and immediately judge where it should be placed on the attitude scale in our minds.” Waiting for “Superman” tells a story on why the public of education is falling in America. One of the biggest things is the “Teachers Union” They support all the bad teachers and replace bad teachers with another bad teacher. They called those teachers “the dance of the lemon.” To my understanding why would they just fired the bad teachers and replace them with good teachers. What good does that make to replace someone who was failing to provide good education to students and replace them with someone who could probably be worse than the first one. If the teacher fail to meet the standards of quality and performance should not teach. I can agree that the union need to be improved but with good strong teachers. According to thenation.com, “the Finnish education system, much cited in the film as the best in the world, teachers are—gasp!—unionized and granted tenure, and families benefit from a cradle-to-grave social welfare system that includes universal daycare, preschool and healthcare, all of which are proven to help children achieve better results at school.” In other words, Waiting for “Superman” documentary is a great eye opening and well written. Some of our school systems are still behind and we must fix our broken educational systems. This film is very emotional especially to those who want their child(ren) to succeed and see the best in them. We should not have to wait for “Superman” he does not exist in my eyes. We should empower “Superheroes.”
Guggenheim uses those and other devices to inspire action within the masses, and highlight a topic that has been recently shrouded by other problems our nation faces today. He also places blame upon the ‘system’ itself, many reasons add to this conclusion such as refusal to make change, with tenure being the central idea that cripples education.
The parents who never went to school or did not finish high school in the video seemed to encourage their children to do the opposite of what they did as teenagers. A good example was Adrielys who was passionate about keeping her kids out of the streets and in school because she wanted something better for them. She believed that change and growth occurred through positive experiences with outside systems, and that new knowledge would bring change to her family. So, she did her best to keep her children out of rough neighborhoods. This is important because, for the survival of any family in Reading, the key is education.
To accomplish this, CDGM employed these student’s parents, which simultaneously provided economic opportunity and parental involvement. According to Sanders, employing parents fostered two results. She writes, “[first], parental involvement helped to build trust and respect between children and their families. Second, Head Start employment helped many parents to work their way out of poverty, ensuring that their children had brighter futures,” (2016, p. 37). In having a clear vision of what “good education” is and what the results of a “good education” should be, CDGM was able to expand their conception of what school can and should address.
This required each state to develop a set of standards that each child would need to know in math and reading. The NCLB also required almost all of the students to be tested annually throughout elementary and middle school grades (Webb, Metha, Jordan 2013). The act also strived that all students would test at a proficient level by 2014. The impact of this decision was that the government would be more involved than ever before in how a school taught, what the school taught, and the requirements of outcomes. The downside impact of this was that states changed the proficiency levels over the years and there has been inconsistent data given when reported. In a report with control groups it is shown that there were changes before and after implementation of the NCLB (Ladd 2010). With that information one could conclude that the act was successful and should be further pursued along with
The documentary “Dropout Nation” shows how difficult it is for students who live in poorer communities to receive a good education and graduate high school. Students and teachers are interviewed in this documentary to show that these students are intelligent but are not able to graduate due to their circumstances. These examples help explain the concepts learned in chapter 10 about social institutions and how it is affected by politics, education, and religion.
The policy “No Child Left Behind (NCLB)” is a policy where Federal legislation has mandated that children be tested, and where there is compliance with standards. Simply means, that all children must meet standards. The standards are defined by the states, and all children will be subject to testing, starting from as early as third grade. The students will be tested annually, in order to ensure that they are getting the type of education that they are entitled to, as determined by their performance on standardized tests.
The problem is that there are not enough high quality schools in all areas especially the ones that have low income families. The NCLB did get more kids in school, but it does not mean that they actually received a quality education or even graduated for that matter. Although, there are great teachers working at public schools; there are also too many bad ones. They are the kind of teachers who do not actually care if their students learn the material they are teaching, and are only really there for the paycheck. As for the NCLB act it was more of a never ending failing cycle. First off the act states that people are able to choose what school they want to go to when that clearly is not the case because each city has district lines. Then the act claims that all schools have to do is apply for grants and ask for money from the government or they can get money based off of the schools’ test scores. When these schools in bad neighborhoods have no money to implement programs to help students do better in school, and in turn they cannot get any money because they are not meeting the state’s standards. That is how this act becomes a failing cycle, and is only able to actually work for the nice public schools because they are the ones meeting the state’s standards which meaning they are more likely to receive any money or grants from the government. Yes, we are
...hould serve as a guideline not only for teachers but also for parents. I also believe parents should be held accountable for their children’s successes. As with most government funded programs, in order to be eligible parents must meet a financial criteria to participate in head start, I believe there should also be a required class or number of classes that parents must also participate in if their child is in the head start program. This serves as a reinforcement for the child, and helps the parents become active in their child’s development in and outside of the classroom. Often children struggle because they don’t have access to constant support and education. I feel as though if parents know better they can do better, and because often these cycles tend to repeat themselves, I do feel as If educating parents is also a step towards ending the cycle of poverty.
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is currently the educational policy in the United States. Prior to NCLB the educational policies in effect were “A Nation at Risk, in 1987 America 2000, and a few years later with Goals 2000” (Eisner, 2001, p.21). No Child Left Behind is a test based accountability system used in schools to measure their performance holding the districts, administrators and teachers liable and accountable for the outcomes. Supovitz (2009) States that No Child Left Behind was a major reform initiative intended to bring about widespread improvements in student performance and reduce inequities between ethnic groups and other traditionally under-served populations like economically disadvantaged students, students from major racial
At a time of wide public concern about the state of education, the legislation sets in place requirements that reach into virtually every public school in America. The law emphasizes accountability, teacher quality, parent choice, improved teaching methods, and flexibility. (Correa) Strict requirements and deadlines have been set for states to expand the scope and frequency of student testing, revamp their accountability system and guarantee that every classroom is staffed by a ?highly qualified? teacher in his or her own subject area. (I ed) The plan also mandates annual student testing in reading and math by 2005, and requires all school districts to allow students in consistently low-performing schools to transfer to higher performing schools, at the districts expense. (Hull) From year to year, states are required to improve the quality of their schools. No Child Left Behind has expanded the federal ...
What is the real meaning behind (NCLB) No Child left behind, what is the main purpose? The NCLB was put in place to give students the chance to receive a fair education no matter what the race, gender, income background, or even if they have a disability. It is made up of four major parts accountability, flexibility, research-based education, and parent options. Students are to be tested on their math and reading/language arts from the 3rd grade to the 8th grade only being tested once while attending high school within the four years.
When Putnam analyzed Bend, Oregon he found that in the nicer part of town the dropout rate was about 15 percent (Putnam 49). While, on the other side of town, in the poorer neighborhoods, the dropout rate was about 50 percent (Putnam 49). These numbers are alarming but can be figure out through family structure. I believe these children don't have a firm family structure to allow them to believe in themselves. It creates a vicious cycle of poverty.
The film shows how the DC Public School system (DCPS) is the worst school district in the U.S, with
Family issues, poverty, and homelessness cause students to drop out of high school as it impacts education by placing stressful obstacles in children’s learning path. A National study found, “Overall, 22 percent of children who have lived in poverty do not graduate from high school, compared to 6 percent of those who have never been poor” (National Study). Lack of educational success can also contribute to throwing in the towel on school. Some students may not be receiving the additional supports to give them success in school. Imagine coming home on the bus after a ten hour day and having your ninth grader ask for help on their algebra. If you possessed the skills, which you likely do not, you may be too exhausted to help. In addition there is still dinner to cook and other household chores to complete. It is a daunting request that you may not be able to comply with. “Family poverty is associated with a number of adverse conditions — high mobility and homelessness; hunger and food insecurity; parents who are in jail or absent; domestic violence; drug abuse and other problem…” (Shonkoff & Garner, 2012 as quoted by Rumberger). Poverty is an obstacle to learning even for the brightest children. As a result few can overcome these stumbling
Living in poverty exposes children to disadvantages that influence many aspects in their life that are linked to their ability to do well in school. In the United States of America there are an estimated 16.4 million children under the age of 18 living in poverty (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). “The longer a child lives in poverty, the lower the educational attainment” (Kerbo, 2012). Children who are raised in low-income households are at risk of failing out before graduating high school (Black & Engle, 2008). U.S. children living in poverty face obstacles that interfere with their educational achievement. Recognizing the problems of living in poverty can help people reduce the consequences that prevent children from reaching their educational potential.