Diane ravitch waiting for superman

Discussion

1. Watch the movie "Waiting for Superman" (2010) by Davis Guggenheim (you will need to acquire the movie using your own means. Places to look are YouTube, ITunes, or free at Viemo: https://vimeo.com/69353438

Also, watch “The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman”: http://vimeo.com/41994760

Go to My Groups>Discussion Board to post your answers the following questions:

1a. Which child's story from "Waiting for Superman" movie touched you the most? why?

1b. What do you believe should be our priority when it comes to improving education in our community/state? Who is responsible for making that happen?

2. Watch: "Public Schools for Sale" -- Bill Moyers interviews education historian Diane Ravitch about the private sellout of public schools.

Part One

http://billmoyers.com/episode/public-schools-for-sale/?utm_source=sidebar&utm_medium=banner&utm_content=public-school&utm_campaign=for-sale

Part Two

http://billmoyers.com/segment/web-extra-public-schools-for-sale/

2a. Do you think that Charter Schools are the direction we need to be headed for bettering our educational system? Why or why not? (make sure to incorporate research from "Waiting for Superman" "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman", and the Moyers interview)

3. Watch the following 2 videos:

'A Tale of Two Schools': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xdfVAPvv9A=related

and

Inequality in Schools: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mTVu0-v2SQ

These 2 videos relate to chapter 4 of “Our Kids”, where Putnam, (2015) argues that schooling does not provide a level playing field for kids from different economic classes, but reflects that divide. It’s as if we now have an educational apartheid, a caste system driven by economic class.

“As the twenty-first century opened, a family’s socioeconomic status (SES) had become even more important than test scores in predicting which eighth graders would graduate from college “ (p. 189).

3a. Describe the vast differences between Isabelle’s experiences at Troy High School vs Sophia’s at Santa Ana High School from Putnam's, (2015) book.

4. School funding background: "Most states and local communities support public education by using property tax revenues. Homes in the suburbs tend to be worth more and those living in the suburbs tend to be more affluent, more tax revenues can be collected from them. This in turn means that schools in the suburbs tend to generate more income than those from the inner cities (Phillippe, 2013).

Read and listen to at least one of the 9 stories from the NPR series on “School Money: THE COST OF OPPORTUNITY http://www.npr.org/series/473636949/schoolmoney

4a. Read the 2 following articles:

Why Are American Public Schools Still So Segregated? (Green, 2018)

Also, watch the video from the article, you can view it here as well: https://www.pbs.org/video/why-are-schools-still-so-segregated-iyr3av/

School Segregation in America is as Bad Today as it Was in the 1960s (Nazaryan, 2018)

4b. Discuss how the power of one’s race is still overlooked in children’s education today?

5. What other solutions can you suggest to assure that ALL children receive equal education, no matter what school district they live in?