Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/17719
teachers being viewed as “superheroes” that can raise student achievement in a single bound. Never mind the fact that teachers are mere mortals. As superhe- roes they should be able to singlehandedly close the achievement gap. The reasoning is this, says Diane Ravitch, author of Death and Life of the Great Amer- ican School System: If students succeed, it is the teacher who did it. If students get low scores, it is the teacher’s fault. If teachers are both the cause of low performance and the cure for low performance, nobody has to focus on poverty, housing, unem- ployment, health care, immigration or other soci- etal issues. Then again, it’s easier to play the blame game than to have a real discussion about the complex issues facing today’s students. ‘Waiting for Superman’ Recently, I was invited to a media screening in San Francisco of the film Waiting for Superman, along with the opportunity to interview the direc- tor, Davis Guggenheim, who won an Oscar for an- other documentary, An Inconvenient Truth (see Q&A page 28). His newest movie hits the theaters the film’s super myths Tenn., Columbus, Ohio, Denver, and other places). The Albert Shanker Institute, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., studied the correlation between student achievement in NAEP scores and teachers covered by binding agreements or the right to bargain, and concluded, “It’s very clear that states without binding teacher contracts are not doing better, and the majority are actually among the lowest performers in the nation.” Super Myth #2: Charter schools are a magic silver-bullet solution. CTA believes charter schools have a role in California’s education system by providing students new ways to improve learning, encouraging innovative teaching methods, and creating opportunities for educators to take responsibility for student learning. NEA believes that charter schools and other nontraditional public school options have the potential to facilitate positive transformation and foster creative teaching methods that can be replicated in traditional public schools for the benefit of all students. By definition, charter schools are free from many of the restrictions placed on traditional public schools. The innovative ideas that make some charter schools successful stem from the very issues NEA members have long identified as things they want to change about public education. Charter schools are only able to serve a small percentage of the student population, and only one in five charter schools outperforms traditional public schools. A 2009 study from Stanford University found that the nation’s charter schools have not significantly raised student achievement when compared with traditional public schools. The study of 2,403 charter schools in 15 states showed that almost half of the charter schools produced results similar to those of comparable public schools, and charter schools producing worse results than traditional public schools outnumbered those with better results by more than 2 to 1. In fact, research suggests that two in five charter schools perform worse than traditional public schools. Recent films have suggested that charter schools are the only way we can improve public education, but even well- known proponents of charter schools are critical of these films. “Movies that sell charter schools as a salvation are peddling a simple-minded remedy that takes us back to the worst charter puffery of a decade ago, is at odds with the evidence, and can blind viewers to what it takes to launch and grow truly great charters,” writes Frederick M. Hess, an education commentator at the American Enterprise Institute. “These flicks accelerate the troubling trend of turning every good idea into a moral crusade, so that retooling K-12 becomes a question of moral rectitude in which we choose sides, and ‘reformers’ are supposed to smother questions about policy or practice. They also wildly romanticize charters, charter school teachers, and the kids and families, making it harder to speak honestly or bluntly.” His complete article can be found at blog.american.com/?author=25. Charter schools are one solution, but schools across the country are benefiting from a range of exciting new ideas that are the result of communities working together Continued on page 28 SPECIAL ELECTION ISSUE OCTOBER 2010 | www.cta.org 27 this month and is sure to generate lots more inter- est, along with a similar film, The Lottery. In the beginning of the film, Guggenheim tells the audience that every day he drives by three “bad” pub- lic schools on his way to taking his children to private school. We are never shown the inside of these so- called bad schools. Why are they bad? According to Guggenheim, it’s because of test scores. “I’m lucky. I have a choice,” he tells the audience. The film looks at the lives of several mostly low- income students — two of them in Cali- fornia — and their hardworking, nurtur- ing parents, who desperately want what is best for them. Salvation comes in the form of charter schools, even though the film- maker admits that studies show only one in five charter schools is doing a better job than traditional public schools. Getting in- to charters is determined by a lottery sys- tem, and students and their families wait in anguish as the bingo balls bounce. It’s as if their very lives hang in the balance. One of the students seen crying with happiness would have had to otherwise Studies show that only one in five char- ter schools is doing a better job than tradi- tional public schools.