Principal: Is “Superman” The Conversation We Need?
“Waiting for ‘Superman'” isn’t even here yet, but local educators can’t help talking about it.
The documentary has been touted as a major conversation-starter for public education, but some principals fear it may inaccurately portray public schools as “dropout factories” and charter schools as the only salvation.
Moanalua High School principal Darrel Galera e-mailed me over the weekend, excited to share some things he and other principals had discussed at the National Association of Secondary School Principals’ awards institute, held last week. Galera was there representing Hawaii as the state’s .
At the convention, “Waiting for ‘Superman'” was obviously a hot topic.
The NASSP’s director, Gerald Tirozzi, made about the movie, which Galera shared with me.
The gist of Tirozzi’s remarks was that while charter schools are valuable laboratories to test education reforms, they aren’t public education’s “Superman.” There are many excellent public schools out there. And charter school success rates, measured by student test scores, are , he says, citing Stanford University’s .
Nearly half of the charter schools surveyed show performance rates that are no different from those of regular public schools. Another 37 percent perform worse than public schools. (An earlier Civil Beat analysis seems to indicate Hawaii is no exception to the national trend.)
A beneficial discussion about public education reform demands a more accurate picture of the status quo than perhaps the “Superman” documentary provides, said Galera, who admits he hasn’t seen the film in its entirety. Galera helps lead a group of Hawaii principals committed to proactive education reform.
The highlight of Tirozzi’s speech, according to Galera:
“We need an honest, productive conversation about how schools should be organized and resourced to drive the achievement we expect. But such conversations require a more genuine set of inputs than Superman provides. And with public education having to shout over a divisive charter agenda supported by unprecedented media, money, and policy, you have to wonder if the conversation will be as balanced as we need it to be to see any real large-scale educational improvement.”
Tirozzi is right that charter schools have received a lot of attention lately. They’ve been in the news and they’re a key part of the Obama Administration’s education policy recommendations.
Even legislatures are paying more attention. For example, increasing the cap on how many charter schools could operate in the state was a major stipulation for receiving Race to the Top education reform funds.
“Waiting for ‘Superman'” comes to Hawaii theaters on Oct. 22.
